2 . Catch your reusable bag and kiss your plastic bags goodbye. Plastic waste is on its way out, thanks to these governmental bans from around the world.

From Indiana to Maine, governments at all levels in the US are forcing bans and improving recycling. People are shopping smarter and companies are doing better to ensure the protection of our environment. Slowly but surely, the world is entering a brighter future as more and more countries follow. But there’s still a lot of work to be done—or undone.

Since the 1950s, researchers say that about more than 8.3 billion tons of plastic has been produced. And 60% of that waste has ended up in the environment. That number has increased quickly over the years. For example, it was recorded that the world’s plastic production doubled from 1976 (50 million tons) to 1989 (100 million tons). It was highest at 368 million in 2019 before decreasing to 367 million in 2020.

A million tons decrease of plastic production is not enough to deal with the rising pressures plastic puts into the environment. We still do not know how long it takes for plastic to breakdown. It means that about 12 million tons of plastic waste that entered the ocean in 2010 is still breaking into micro plastics and filling up the stomachs of birds and sea animals. The plastic going into our environment is not going away. While recent studies of plastic-eating enzymes and bacteria offer some hope for the future of plastic waste management, the best way to deal with our environmental stress is through decrease.

In 2020, New York City began to ban plastic bags. But this wasn’t the first plastic bag ban in a US state. In fact, the US wasn’t even the first country to introduce this idea. Back in 2002, Bangladesh became the first country to implement a plastic bag ban. Since then, other countries have followed, introducing their own ways to fight with the continuing plastic bags.

4 . Jake Oldershaw and his daughter Mollie from Birmingham, Britain have asthma (哮喘). Mollie, 11, has required hospital treatment several times while Jake Says he always finds breathing more difficult when there is heavy traffic. Air quality has an enormous impact on their lives and both noticed a marked improvement during the spring lockdown because of the epidemic (疫情). Jake said, “During lockdown there was a noticeable difference in air quality. I didn't suffer any asthmatic attacks during that period. These days you can feel the effects.”

However, under current COVID-19 restrictions in the UK this winter, many people probably will have to work from home. The Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) says while emissions (排放) have dropped this year because we've been travelling less and doing less, the expected use of gas boilers to provide heating and hot water could rise by more than half.

Heating accounts for nearly 37% of the UK's total carbon emissions. Modelling by the ECIU suggests a 56% increase in boiler usage this winter resulting in a 12% increase in emissions of carbon. The ECIU says that's enough to offset the last two years' worth of progress on reducing traffic emissions.

Jess Ralston, author of the analysis for the ECIU, said, “Working from home and having increased gas use in the home could be really critical for air pollution and also climate change. The way we heat our homes needs to change if we are to get to net zero by 2050.”

Jess Ralston said, “The increase in pollution from gas boilers expected this winter provides a graphic illustration (图解) of their forgotten role in air pollution. And it is a role set to continue without practical policies to decarbonize home heating. ”

The government is set to publish its Heat and Buildings Decarbonisation Strategy in a few weeks which is expected to give details on plans to try to switch British homes to cleaner sources of heat.

Coca-Cola    1     (rank) the world's No.1 plastic polluter by Break Free From Plastic and     2     (it) bottles were the most frequently found on beaches, rivers, parks and other litter sites. Last year it was the most     3     (frequent) littered bottle in 37 countries out of 51 surveyed.

The annual audit(审计)，    4     (undertake) by 15,000 volunteers around the world, identifies the largest number of plastic products from global brands found in the highest number of countries. This year they collected 346,494 pieces of plastic waste, 63% of     5    was marked with a consumer brand.

“The world's top polluting corporations claim to be working hard to solve plastic pollution,     6     they are continuing to pump out     7     ( harm) single-use plastic packaging,” said Emma Priestland, Break Free From Plastic's global campaign coordinator (协调员). Priestland said the only way to quit the growing global tide of plastic litter was to stop production.

Coca-Cola came under fire from environmental campaigners earlier this year when it announced it would not abandon plastic bottles, saying they     8     (be) popular with customers. In March, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestle and Unilever were found to be responsible     9     half a million tonnes of plastic pollution in six developing     10     (country) each year in a survey.

6 . More than a million tons a year of America's plastic rubbish are not ending up where they should. As many as 1, 300 plastic grocery bags per person is landing in places such as oceans and roadways, according to a new study of U. S.

In 2016, the United States generated 46.3 million tons of plastic waste, by far the most in the world. Between2.7% and 5. 3% of that was mismanaged, according to a study in Friday's journal Science Advances. “If you took nearly 2. 5 million tons of mismanaged plastic waste and dumped it on the White House lawn, it would pile as high as the Empire State Building,” said Jenna Jambeck, an environmental engineering professor.

Previous studies hadn't put the United States among the 10 worst offending nations for plastic waste in oceans. That's because the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency only tracks what goes into official parts of the waste stream such as landfills (废物填埋场) and recycling centers.

“The new study provides a more realistic view of our mismanaged waste,” said University of Toronto ecology professor Chelsea Rochman, who wasn't part of the study. “We consume a lot of plastic which then becomes plastic waste. We recycle very little of this material, which is a waste of resources.”

“A large but hard to quantify part of the problem involves the 51% of U. S. plastic waste shipped abroad for recycling to countries that routinely mismanage waste," Law said. The situation has been converting since many countries have become more limiting about taking U. S. rubbish imports. American exports of plastic waste have declined dramatically since their peak in 2016.

The government is spending billions of dollars trying to fix the problem, with modernized recycling technology and new business models to reduce waste while urging compulsory recycled content standards for new products and packaging.

“The best thing you can do environmentally is to produce no waste at all,” Jambeck said.

7 . While visiting Lake Louise last summer, one of the most famous sights in the Canadian Rockies, I saw a plastic spoon float by in the green water. Whether someone had thrown the spoon into the water, or if it was blown in by the wind, the sight surprised me. It was a sad reminder (提醒物) of the reach that plastic pollution has. Try as I might, I could not reach that spoon, and had to watch it float away.

Grist wrote about the problem of plastic cutlery (餐具) in an article called “It’s time to take America’s plastic fork problem seriously”: “It’s hard to say how many forks, spoons, and knives Americans throw away, but in 2015 we placed nearly 2 billion delivery (递送) orders. If at least half those meals included single-use cutlery, that would mean we’re throwing away billions of cutlery each year. They don’t just disappear. A recent study of the San Francisco Bay Area found that food and drink packaging made up 67 percent of all litter on the streets.”

Fiona Nicholls, ocean plastics campaigner for Greenpeace UK, said: “We can’t carry on using up land or cutting down forests to make cutlery, cups or packaging that get used for a matter of moments, and could pollute our planet for hundreds of years to come. It’s grotesque.”

As members of the community, we should do our part to stop single-use cutlery. One way is to throw a travel set of reusable cutlery into your bag. Even if you don’t have your own set or forget to bring it with you, there are other ways. When eating out, choose places that offer reusable cutlery. Finger foods like pizza, tacos or sandwiches are also nice choices. If you’re ordering food for delivery, you can also say “no thanks” to plastic forks, knives and spoons.

9 . The convenience plastic offers has led to a throw-away culture that reveals the material’s dark side. Many of its products, such as plastic bags and food wrappers, have a service life of mere minutes to hours.     1    

Plastic has been the biggest threat to ocean life for decades. Sunlight, wind and wave action break down plastic waste to a certain extent, but it only succeeds in reducing it to smaller pieces.

    2    They spread throughout the water and have been found in every corner of the globe, affecting nearly 700 species, including endangered ones.

    3    They range from birds to fish and to other marine animals. Most of the deaths to them are caused by starvation. Small pieces of plastic have been found in more than 100 marine species, including fish, shrimp, and some seashells. In many cases, these tiny bits pass through their stomachs.     4    Stomachs so packed with plastic reduce the urge to eat, making them die eventually.

Tests have also confirmed cell damage and trouble with animals’ reproductive systems caused by plastic-eating. Some species, such as oysters, produce fewer eggs if they wrongly take too much plastic.

Fortunately, solutions are being found. Many scientists agree the top priority is to prevent plastic waste from entering rivers and seas.     5    Better product design also should be taken into account, as well as the reduction in producing unnecessary single-use plastic products.