Article: In today's NYT op-ed, a U.S. marine captain and researcher wrote about the devastating impact of plastic on ocean life and the environment. Kids: name 5 things in your house made from plastic. Now think of what you do with those plastic things when you don't want them anymore (answer: throw them away or recycle them). Plastic is very hard to recycle--it melts quickly but is hard to clean and sanitize. And it makes its way into ocean trash very easily. Once in the ocean, it breaks down slowly over centuries and in the meantime, entangles and slowly kills millions of sea animals: fish think plastic is food when it is actually toxic for them and chokes them to death. Or they eat the plastic particles and then when we eat those fish, we carry those toxins. Fishermen use plastics in their floats, nets, lines and tubes. When this equipment is accidentally lost or lost in storms, it also contribute to harmful ocean waste. Kids: what can we do to stop this problem? If we use less plastic, what are replacements? (Use glass containers instead of plastic ones; use cloth shopping bags instead of plastic, etc.) What did people use before plastic?
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