Recycling and Its Influence on the Animal Protection

As we all know, recycling is something we should do to protect our environment. The amount of litter that is in our environment is very large. Not recycling is harmful to both our air and water. One time Suzie was telling me a story about what she saw on vacation. She was on a fishing trip and noticed how polluted the waters were. She explained all of the plastic she saw in the ocean. She specifically explained how she saw a plastic grocery bag. Even though it may only be one bag, the bag can break into many small pieces and be eaten by many different animals, causing them all to die. This made me aware of how simple it is to prevent the deaths of the animals. The solution of recycling is so easy and something everyone should do more. Imagine a world where everyone recycled and reduced the amount of pollution. Recycling is a simple step to two major issues, saving animals and preventing pollution.

Protection of animals is a topic that often gets brought up when discussing the importance of recycling. When talking about the lives of animals, the main issue is ocean life. It is an issue that is caused by careless humans not wanting to recycle. Throwing away plastic bottles or cans can be life threatening to animals. “Some plastics take decades to break down” (Barbalance). If a simple bottle takes decades to break down, think about all the creatures getting injured or killed in the meantime. According to “Protecting Wildlife from Trash”, “Lizards often crawl inside bottles or cans to bask warm interior, to seek protection or search for food; but they may find it difficult to squeeze out again and can die of overheating.”(Barbalance). The life of this lizard, or any other animal, can so easily be prevented if people just take time to put their bottles in the recycling bin instead of the trash bin. Another way to prevent this specific issue with bottles and cans would be to take off the lids of these cans so that the animal is prevented from crawling into the can and possibly dying (Barbalance).

Cans and bottles are not the only hazards of ocean life. The tools you need for fishing can accidentally end up in the water and become life threatening. “A fishhook may get stuck in a bird's throat. Water birds suffer lead poisoning when they accidentally swallow small lead fishing weights” (Barbalance). This is one example of how we may be affecting ocean life without even realizing it. If someone is going fishing, they should try to be careful about the resources they are using. Make sure the weight is tightly secured so that it does not fall off into the ocean. A piece of fishing twine may fall of the fishing boat you are casting from and you may not even realize it. So, try to prevent these things by being more cautious because the amount of danger a tiny weight can do is greater than one may think.

Besides the issue of ocean life, pollution is an issue also caused by people not recycling. “Most plastics are made from fossil fuels like oil and natural gas, which release toxic emissions when extracted from our earth”(Fortuna). The amount of oil from all the plastic people are not recycling is damaging the air we breathe everyday.“Of these 9 million deaths, two-thirds were directly linked to air pollution, which has been identified as the most pervasive environmental threat on human health”(Fortuna). The fact that people are dying from how horribly humans take care of the environment is awful. People should not let a careless action like not recycling be the reason why someone’s loved one died. Recycling is a simple step to two major issues, saving animals and preventing pollution. So, next time you drink a bottle of water, think about how your next step will affect the environment and the people living in it. Overall, recycling is such a simple step that deserves to be taken more seriously. Start thinking about how simple actions are affecting the world that we live in.