Banning plastic bags will help reduce plastic pollution in our beach while contributing to the well-being of our local ecosystems.

Most of the plastic is made of polypropylene, which is a material manufactured from petroleum and natural gas, non-renewable fossil fuel-based materials, and through their extraction and production, greenhouse gases are created, which further contribute to global climate change.The total amount of energy required to drive a car for 0.5 miles is the equivalent energy required to produce nine plastic bags. It is not rational that these non-renewable resources are used to make plastic bags when the typical useful life of each and every plastic bag is around 12 minutes.

Our local fauna is critically affected by the strong presence of plastic bags in Miami Beach with birds and marine life such as sea turtles and fish often mistaking the plastic bag for food and consuming them leading to Bioaccumulation and often death. Plastic bags are toxic and they never degrade.

Currently, approximately 46,000-1,000,000 plastic fragments are floating within every square mile of the globe’s oceans and this is already visible in our beach. Plastic bags are usually lightweight, and as such, they can travel very long distances by either water or wind.These litters get caught up in between trees, fences, and floats in water bodies, thus moving to the world’s oceans.

We must act locally and think globally!