【推荐1】The world has a plastics problem. And not just with bottles. Straws (吸管), toothbrushes, toys—all kinds of plastics are placed in landfills. There are 5 billion tons of plastic waste in the world. Landfills have a large part of it. By 2050, they could have 13 billion tons.

Much of plastic rubbish finds its way into the ocean. Scientists say 165 million tons of plastic pieces are floating (漂浮) around out there. And most plastics won’t disappear itself. It will remain in the ocean forever. Whales get caught in plastic fishing nets. Birds die because of eating plastic straws and bottle caps. It makes ocean life in danger. Plastic rubbish even ends up in the food we eat.

Governments are realizing that recycling may not be enough. They are taking more actions. Though it is hard work, it is still a solvable problem. In Britain, people are not allowed to use plastic bags except in hospitals. Scotland and several coastal cities in the US stop people from using plastic straws as well. The US alone throws away some 500 million plastic straws a day. That’s enough to circle the Earth twice. “Saying no to a plastic straw is an easy way to make a big difference,” Dana Lofflin who started www.strawfree.org said. “Do we really want to pass on to our children a world harmed by plastic?”

People have found some tasty ways to reduce waste. A company in India made the first-ever spoon that people can eat. You don’t have to eat the spoon. You can throw it away. It breaks down and decomposes in just a few days. In this way, it doesn’t cause any pollution. David Edwards, a scientist at Harvard University, designed an eatable (可吃的) bag which can protect the food or drink inside. It is a delicious replacement for plastic ones.

【推荐2】When Sally was a child, she went to the city park with her mom on a sunny morning. But soon she felt very unhappy while seeing too much rubbish on the ground.

Her mom looked around. There were pieces of paper, boxes, glass bottles and some other rubbish. “What can we do?”asked Sally sadly. “I’m sure you will think of something.” said her mom.

As soon as Sally got home, she painted a picture of the park and wrote a sign in large black letter at the top of the picture. It said, “PLEASE KEEP OUR PARK CLEAN”. Later, she took plenty of bags and went back to the park with her mom. Sally put up her picture on a big rubbish box.

The children at the park ran over to see what was going on. Sally handed each of them a bag. “Let’s clean up this place,” said Sally. Then they began to pick up the rubbish, talking and laughing.

Soon, all the bags were full.

Then Sally’s mom led them to put the rubbish into different kinds of rubbish boxes. When they looked at the clean park, they all had a strong feeling of satisfaction.

From then on, Sally has been keeping doing the cleaning and sorting(分类) rubbish. More and more people joined her to play a part in environmental protection.

【推荐3】When he was nine years old, an American boy called Milo Cress had a question: How many plastic(塑料) straws do Americans use every day?

He soon learned there wasn’t a simple answer. The boy tried to find it out himself. Through lots of facts, Cress found out that Americans used about 500,000,000 straws every day. He couldn’t believe it. In hopes of cutting down plastic waste(浪费), he set up the Be Straw Free Project in 2011.

Cress started the project in his hometown—Burlington, Vermont. He asked a restaurant to stop offering a straw with every drink. It was easy. But it would save much money. And by doing that, the restaurant would cut down.on its straw use by 50%.

For the next few years, Cress tried to share his project across the United States. More and more restaurants agreed to join. They stopped giving the customer(顾客) a straw unless he or she asked for one. In July, 2018, Seattle became the first American city to stop using plastic straws in restaurants.

After his project became popular, he spoke to tens of thousands of students around the world. He hopes more people will say no to plastic straws. “Caring about straws is one small step to make our life better,” Cress says, “and it makes me feel that I, as a teenager, could make a difference, too.”

【推荐2】One day, on the way home from school, my mum told me she was going to make some new rules for me and my brothers and sisters. Before this, we knew she wanted us to be good, but we really didn’t have any rules. On the next day, she started giving us the “house rules”.

Clean your rooms every other day. Be ready for dinner at 7:00 p.m. (that means sitting at the table, with clean hands). If mum is having a meeting in the house, be very quiet (that means turning down the music and the TV). Be ready for bed at 9:30 p.m. (that means lying in bed, with a clean face). Get up at 7:30 a.m. To get ready for school (that means your feet are on the floor, not just hanging off the bed). Take the rubbish to the trash can in the street on Monday morning before school. Clean the bathroom on Thursday.

Following these rules isn’t too hard, and sometimes it’s even fun. At other times, it can be difficult. For example, if your room is really dirty, and you can't finish cleaning it on that day, you have to finish it on the next day, along with anything else you have to do. That can be hard.

Mum made these rules because she loves us a lot. She wants us to learn how to be on time, be clean and neat, and be polite. Every day, we try to follow her rules.