Plastic is one of the most important innovations of the modern age. The discovery of plastic has brought a huge amount of positive change to our world. It has enabled us to create a variety of things that were previously thought impossible. It allows us to store medicines and other substances that glass is incapable of doing. Plastic lasts for extremely long amounts of time, and can be used to form virtually any shape. It is truly a tragedy that, because of our overuse of this marvellous material, the amount of pollution in our world has increased.

Huge amounts of plastic sit in our world's landfills, slowly breaking down. It takes around 1000 years for plastic to completely disintegrate, and this is by far too long. It is because of this disintegration time that plastic pollution is such a danger. By improperly throwing out that plastic bottle today, you can ensure that for over 10 generations your waste will still be around.

Plastic in its current form is non-biodegradable, and when it slowly degrades, it breaks into smaller, more toxic, pieces. Many different animals mistake these toxic bits for food. One such animal is the majestic camel and a startling statistic has recently been revealed about this. In the Middle East, up to 50% of all camel deaths can be traced back to the consumption of plastic. The camel is not the only animal that suffers because of plastic though; it has been a well-known fact for years that dolphins and seals have gotten trapped in our plastic debris. Many birds die because of consuming small amounts of plastic, as their systems are in no way developed to properly dispose of the plastic from their bodies.

Our plastic consumption is also endangering our environment. Within the Pacific Ocean, there is a huge mass of floating rubbish. It is most commonly referred to as "The Great Pacific Garbage Patch". About two times the size of the state of Texas, it is sadly the largest landfill in the world. Created completely out of rubbish that was washed to sea, this floating group of close to 200,000,000,000 pounds of trash is one of the biggest threats to marine animals currently known. Close to 90% of this floating mass of waste is made up of plastic. Countless marine creatures get trapped in this floating mass and die. It's sad that we are leaving such a legacy of destruction on our planet.

There is something that we can do though. If we can make the commitment to properly dispose of our waste materials, especially of our plastic, we can make amends for our mistakes. The world doesn't have to suffer, just because we have become lazy. Like any technological advancement, plastic can either be used for the good or the detriment of our planet. So really it boils down to one fundamental question: are we going to be responsible with our waste, or are we willing to allow our planet to suffer?