Stop Plastic Pollution Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It is my great honor to give a speech here. Today, my topic is about plastics which are closely related to our daily life. To start with, there is a question for you. Have you ever eaten plastics? I think most of you would say “No”. Of course, no one would eat plastics directly, but it does not mean that there are no plastics in our bodies.
In a study presented at a prestigious global gastroenterology conference, there was a surprising revelation – small plastic pieces, also known as microplastics, were found in stool samples of participants, thereby suggesting there may be a significant amount of microplastic present in the human food chain. Based on this study, the authors estimated that “more than 50% of the world population might have microplastics in their stools”.
You may ask. Where are these microplastics from? Microplastics are generated in two ways. One type of microplastic is deliberately made to add it into personal care products, such as facial cleanser and toothpaste, for the purpose of polishing. This type of microplastic ends up in the rivers and oceans in the process of people’s washing and brushing. Another type of microplastic is the decomposed product of plastics. The carelessly littered plastic rubbish will be decomposed into microplastics by the power of nature such as sunlight and water. The countless plastic rubbish means that the earth is wrapped by microplastics.
Next, let’s see how microplastics enter our bodies. A research suggests that there are lots of microplastics in fresh water all over the world, which means that the tap water also contains microplastics. Taking the United States as an example, the tap water of 94% region in America has been polluted by microplastics. There is no doubt that nobody can live without water. That is to say, as long as you drink water, you can never escape from microplastics.
Now, you have known the truth. But you may think it’s hard to change the situation. Nowadays we can hardly live without plastics because of its convenience and low price. If there were no plastics, we had to carry around cloth bags when going shopping; we had to spend more time on washing the dishes; we could never eat take-out food anymore. But if we did not give up using plastics, more and more microplastics would enter our bodies and do harm to our health. So, I think it’s wise for us to give up using plastics. Because it can not only benefits our health, but also make a better environment for our future generations.