That word above. Yeah, that one right there. Who has heard of photodegradation? Basically, photo means light. Degrade means to break down. The “ation” part basically means to do. So photodegradation means The process of breaking down with light. Plastic bags don’t biodegrade. Instead, they crumble into smaller and smaller bits that are still harmful.

You have heard many stories of Sea Turtles choking to death on plastic bags but once they photodegrade, they are small enough that they aren’t interesting to Sea Turtles. Instead, they are interesting to everything else. I have a feeling that I don’t need to explain what happens then. Eventually, if it isn’t swallowed by animals, it will find its way into a current and find itself into a GARBAGE PATCH! (da da da duhn)

No, a garbage patch isn’t a big floating island of trash. That would be too easy to clean up. A garbage patch is a mass of photodegraded trash that absorbs nutrients and warmth. It also looks an awful lot like plankton which is the base of the food chain. The second link in the chain will starve which results in the chain after in it starving. I have already explained ecosystems and food webs/chains. The worst part is when the poison from the plastic is digested. Eventually, the poison makes its way to us and that is, I’m not going to say the end of the Earth, but it is far from good. Do your part. Don’t flip your grocery sacks out the window. Make a difference.

More facts.

Plastic is made from petroleum; petroleum is made from crude oil. The same crude oil that runs our cars.

Manufacturing of the bags can produce chemicals which settle in the ocean causing ocean acidification which destroys coral reefs and other environments

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, (a massive garbage patch in the pacific if you hadn’t guessed) is now three times the size of France and mostly made of plastic

There is 46 times the amount of actual food in plastic in some locations of the ocean