The Supreme Court of India recently said that plastic bags are very bad for Earth.

But why is plastic so harmful?
Whenever we throw something like paper, food peels, leaves etc there are small tiny creatures in the nature – the bacteria – who eat these things up or turn them into useful products that nature loves.  These things are called ‘Biodegradable’.
‘Non-Biodegradable‘ things on the other hand – like glass, steel and plastic – can not be turned into useful, nature friendly products. The bacteria just can’t eat them up or break them up.

Plastic is harmful because it is ‘Non-Biodegradable’. When thrown on land it makes the soil less fertile. When thrown in water it chokes our ponds, rivers and oceans and harms the sea life. If animals eat plastic, it gets stuck in their tummy and makes them sick. Why? because the bacteria in their stomach cannot break the plastic up into smaller pieces.

Factories that make plastic have to make tons of them every day because people ask for plastic bags – in shopping malls, grocery stores, everywhere. We can help these factories by giving back the unused plastic bags in our house – this is called “Recycling”, that would help factories make fresh plastic using the old ones. Also instead of plastic bags using cloth bags for shopping is a better option. Imagine if all of us stop asking for plastic bags the factories will have no reason to make them – they can then start making beautiful cloth bags.

No wonder Supreme Court is thinking about a ban on using plastic bags.