In March 2019, a Cuvier's beaked whale was found vomiting blood in Philippine waters, dying shortly after. It was discovered that 30 plastic grocery bags had lodged in its stomach, causing a buildup of acid in the abdomen that melted the walls of the whale's abdomen causing it to die internally. This is just one of the most common results caused by consuming plastic bags. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In July 2017, the two largest supermarket chains Woolworths and Coles announced that in July 2018 they will no longer provide free lightweight plastic bags. Well, you can clearly understand why, but this implementation, however, has received some negative complaints from customers, but I don't see how anything can really be worse than animals suffocating, starving while our environment is polluted by plastic. Let me elaborate further on the horrendous results. Over a million sea creatures, birds and animals die every year due to plastic waste. Around 700 species eat plastic, especially plastic bags, as they greatly attract marine wildlife as they appear just like jellyfish, the favorite food of seabirds, turtles, sharks and fish. But instead of providing nutrition, the garbage will puncture the stomach lining or may block the internal organ tract of the animal consuming it, causing the animal to starve to death. And smaller animals get entangled or stuck in plastic bags and drown because they can't free themselves. Allow me to enlighten you with a scenario. A small pilot whale was found struggling to swim, unable to breathe, in a Thai canal near the border with Malaysia. The whale vomited five plastic bags during the rescue attempt, only to die five days later. An autopsy revealed that more than seven kilograms of plastic had clogged the whale's abdomen, making it no longer possible to ingest adequate food. Experts suggest that the whale mistook the plastic for food and the accumulation of rubbish tricked the animal into thinking it was full, thus becoming malnourished. To those who justify the recall of lightweight plastic bags by claiming that the ban has caused significant inconvenience to customers and increased costs for consumers. I just don't understand how this little annoyance will have such a big impact on our daily lives to the point of being equivalent to the horrible torture animals suffer caused by these plastic bags. Not only do we use these plastic bags for a paltry "12 minutes," but only 14% of plastic bags are actually recycled. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay If these horrifying images of marine animals choking to death, starving to death, bleeding to death aren't enough to convince you, perhaps the shocking statistics about plastic pollution in our environment will. Australian consumers use approximately 3.92 billion plastic bags each year, that's over 160 plastic bags per person in a single year. “We are drowning in plastic.” This number is crazy considering that plastic bags can stay in landfills for up to 1000 years. Single-use plastic bags and cups have been found to be major pollutants, so Coles and Woolworths banning lightweight plastic bags for free will encourage other stores to follow. This will reduce.