We are all children of the plastic age #PlanetOrPlastic

We are all children of the plastic age

(entry to the #PlanetOrPlastic writing contest from NationalGeographic )

          

From the beginning of the plastic production in 1950 to now, 2018, we produced enough plastic to wrap it around our earth six times. Do you remember of your first toothbrush? Definitely it was made of plastic. This toothbrush might exist somewhere on this planet. Because nothing lasts forever-except of plastic, this shit.  25 million years ago, the stone age began. Then the time of bronze and the time of iron followed...and now? Now we are living in the plastic age.                                                         
I am fourteen years old, and as long as I can think back, I ever lived on a plastic planet. I am a child of the plastic age. You are, too. A life without plastic is impossible today, isn't it? I, as an insignificant girl, try to ban plastic of my life. This is my true story about what works and what is hard, what highs and deeps you have to expect on the way to deplastify your life.

It started in a lesson of geography almost one year ago. Watching a movie about the plastic pollution in our oceans, I am not sure, what I thought until this moment. I think I knew that plastic is not good for the environment.  But I did not know how horrible consequences plastic already had and also will have in our beautiful, but challenging world. Now I know. In this year I learnt so many facts, but let me just say, the more I learnt, there is nothing good about plastic. Possible that it's practical. It's facilitating our everyday lifes a lot. But when I have to decide between a hard plastic packaged shampoo and a non packaged shampoo bar, I am not able to pick the plastic shampoo. Although it would be easier. Maybe this is called conscience. But I know all the consequences, all the deaths plastic is responsible for, so I can't. This is the reason why I want to do something. It's the love to our home that makes me writing down my way of deplastification in this moment. This love is why we have to protect our home and why we have to stop plastic. It's a reason why we have to act.                                                              

My family deosn't life plasticfree until now. But we reduced our garbage from five rubbish bags to one and a half rubbish bags a month. I think, this is a start. On a way of deplastification everyone has to work together. It will bring a lot of confusing moments and loud discussions with it. But it will be worth it. On our next step to ban plastic, five friends and I started a project to ban plastic bags in our home city. Working one month now, we already get nearly 600 signatures and support from Greenpeace and the local international café. We act, because we are all children of the plastic age. And this is something, I m not proud of. This is something, I will fight against.

(496 words)