Plastic pollution is a rising problem in the world and the environment. Most plastics can be made from the hydrocarbons that are found in fossil fuels. Plastics are long chains of molecules connected to each other and this is why it so hard to break apart. These chains are called polymers. Plastic is not biodegradable, which means it cannot break down and will cause pollution. Only 9 percent of plastic that is thrown away around the world is actually recycled and this is a problem. 10 percent of plastic that is thrown away is dumped into oceans, the rest is either scrapped into landfills or burned. This is becoming a big problem, as plastic is made of toxic chemicals. If it is burned this releases lots of toxic chemicals into the air, if it is scrapped into a landfill, it will damage the soil underneath as the plastic will break down into small pieces and release toxic chemicals. The biggest issue is if it is dumped into the ocean, as it can affect the whole food chain. As the plankton can break down into very small pieces, it could go into anything, for example, if it goes inside of plankton (small organisms that live in water) and gets eaten by a small fish, the microplastic would be transferred into the small fish, and so on until it reaches us. If microplastic goes inside of our blood it can kill lots of our cells and potentially kill us as microplastics can carry bacteria with them, which we can then ingest and suffer from. To help stop this we need to start reducing the amount of plastic that we are making and throwing away. 300 million tons of plastic is produced each year and half of which is single use, for example, straws. Straws are not a necessity for our life, it’s just a object that can help us enjoy our drink. It would make a big difference if people start to be more aware of what packaging is used in the products they buy and start to use less plastic objects, such as, plastic cups or straws. If this does not change now, this can become a problem in the future.