A while back, I was given an assignment to write about the dangers of plastic for my English examination. I was completely clueless. I knew that plastic is non biodegradable and it litters the environment, but what else? My research revealed that plastic bags harm almost every level of the ecosystem.

During the production of plastic, many toxic substances are released into the air. Some components of plastic can even cause cancer, and these components can also affect the immune system, the nervous system and the kidneys.

After the bags are used and disposed of, they often end up in the ocean where marine animals mistake these bags to be moving food and ingest them. Turtles commonly mistake plastic bags for jellyfish. Obviously, eating plastic bags is detrimental to the health of these animals.

Many land animals have also died after ingesting plastic bags. One terrible example is the camels of the UAE – plastic bags that are discarded onto the streets of the cities in the UAE often get carried by the wind into the desert where camels will eat them.

The camels’ stomachs can’t digest the bags, which just sit in their bellies calcifying. The camels think they’re full, so they stop eating and die the slow, painful death of starvation.

Some people think that it’s OK to use plastic bags because they can be recycled, but the recycling of plastic also causes many skin and respiratory problems for people working in the factory. These workers are exposed to and inhale toxic fumes that are released during the recycling process, which causes the same sort of problems as producing plastic in the first place.

What to do? The next time you plan on going shopping, take a few paper bags along with you because plastic takes 400 years to degrade while paper only takes about a month.

Even better, invest in some of the reusable shopping bags most stores in Abu Dhabi sell very cheaply these days.

I may not get an A for my English paper but I sure have learnt a lot about the dangers of plastic.

Esthera Fairisa Fernandes, age 15