OPINION
BY MIA MCCORMICK
“Mom, I found another one!”
I grimace. I wish we were hunting for missing socks, caterpillars, or even Easter eggs, but instead we’re pulling plastic bags out of the mangrove roots along a nearby shoreline. My 11-year-old son and a friend from school use trash grabbers to shove it in with the other plastic bags, bottles, foam take-out containers, and even shoes that we’ve picked up during this community cleanup. All of this makes my blood boil, but none more than the ubiquitous and unnecessary single-use plastic bags. Nothing that we use for just a few minutes should be allowed to pollute our waterways, woodlands, and parks for hundreds of years.
Plastic decomposes but never really disappears. Instead it becomes microplastics that scientists have found in the food we eat and even in our blood . Why is that so gross? Plastic is made from chemicals produced by gas, oil, and even coal. So in addition to making up the majority of the litter collected during state cleanups, it’s polluting our bodies too.