What really pisses me off is the fact that not a lot of people I know care about the environment, especially the dangers of using plastic bags and polystyrene.

Yes, I understand it’s more convenient to just use a plastic bag from the supermarket, but these people don’t realize that it’s so much easier and healthier for the world if everyone used a non-disposable bag to carry their groceries.

Supermarket chains have been charging five to 10 cents per bag since 2016 in order to encourage their customers to help reduce waste. If multi-million companies such as Walmart, Target, Trader Joe’s, Albertson’s, etc. are taking a big step to help the environment, why can’t we as consumers do our part and use reusable bags instead?

Worldwide, about two million plastic bags are used every minute. 44 percent of all seabirds have ingested or been entangled in plastic. The average time for the use of a plastic bag is 12 minutes. These are just some of the staggering facts and figures coming out of our throwaway society.

Are you aware that it takes up to 1,000 years for a plastic bag to decompose in a landfill? That means that the plastic bag you used today will decompose in the year 3018! Landfills are known to cause local pollution in the form of dust, groundwater and soil contamination, noise, and unpleasant odors, whilst outside of landfills the bags pollute drainage ditches, rivers, city streets, and the oceans.

Why is it so difficult to persuade people to care about our wonderful planet, the world that gave life to us and upon which we wholly depend? And why do I encounter a barrage of hostility and denial whenever I attempt to let people know that what they’re doing is not right?

I come from a unique point of view on this issue considering I’m a youth. This planet is going to be mine and my peers’ in some years. Every child and future child will be stuck with what adults of this generation leave them for a planet. Ask yourself, do you want the convenient option, or do you want to preserve our one and only planet Earth for future generations? The choice is yours.