Tess MacDonald - Age 8 - "More Plastic, More Problems!"

Did you know that more than 8 million tonnes of plastic is dumped into our ocean every year?! Did you know there is going to be more plastic in our oceans than fish by the year 2030? Hello, my name is Tess and today, I am talking about PLASTIC! You might think this a boring topic but I am here to tell you that plastic is killing our planet.

Recently, I watch a documentary called Plastic Oceans. The documentary showed me how plastic is hurting the earth’s animals, plants and people. Plastic is being dumped into the oceans and dumped onto land causing massive devastation. This made me feel very sad. A lot of animals are dying, and a lot of people are living in garbage dumps. There must be something we can do!

Many of you might think that plastic decomposes, but this is simply not true! What’s really happening, is the plastic is breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces, making it disappear to your eyes, and allowing us to think there is nothing there. The plastic has to go somewhere but where is it going? I’ll tell you. Into animals’ bellies, water ways and land fills, that’s where.

Plastics are being found in turtles, birds, fish and even smaller animals like krill. Krill is food for Blue whales. They eat by swallowing huge amounts of krill. They filter 220 tones of ocean water through their baleen plates in one mouthful! This process separates water from krill and krill is digested as food. But, a blue whale can’t stop plastic floating in a krill patch from entering its mouth while feeding. The whale has no ability to get rid of the plastic it consumes before swallowing. Where do you think the plastic ends up?...If you are thinking in their bellies, you’re right! The documentary showed me the open bellies of dead whales. The reason they died was because their bellies were so full of plastic they could no longer digest food.

So, what can I do?

Well, I signed up to become an Earth Ranger. Earth Rangers make a promise to help our planet by making better choices for our environment. When you are an Earth Ranger you promise to take on a Mission. My Mission is called “More Plastic, More Problems”. In this mission, I agree to “Cut the SUP”. Which means to stop using single use plastics.

I want to talk to the mayor about changing how we use plastic bags. Right now, when we go grocery shopping, not everyone brings reusable bags. I see a lot of people asking for up 15 bags in one grocery order!!! And what’s worse they don’t even fill those plastic bags to the top. According to the Retail Council of Canada, communities in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Quebec and New Brunswick have banned single use plastic bags at grocery and retail stores. Ontario is not on this list!!! We can change this!

I hope to ask the Mayor of Arnprior, Walter Stack, to consider banning these types of plastic bags in our retail community. I would like to invite you to sign my petition. Mum says if I get enough names on my petition, I can go to the Mayor and present this petition to him.

Thank you for considering this petition. I hope you can help me make a change about how we use plastic here in Arnprior. Please sign my petition.