In the article “Plastic: Too Good to Throw Away” by Freinkel Susan, the advantages and disadvantages of plastics are described and expanded briefly. We use plastics as electrical insulators, and plastic syringes “have been great allies in preventing the spread of infectious diseases like H.I.V., even plastic water bottles, which after disasters like the Japanese tsunami, are critical to saving lives.” We use plastic bags to carry our groceries from the store to our homes; plastics also make possible green technology like solar panels, lighter cars and plane that burn less fuel, thus saving energy. Although we can use them for great causes, we tend to make and use them in wrong ways. When we dispose plastics in places they are not meant to be disposed “they clog storm drains, tangle up recycling equipment and threaten wild life on land and at sea.” “Eliminating plastic is one of the greatest things you can do to lower your ecological footprint.” Recycle your plastics and use them only when necessary. Freinkel assures people that plastics aren’t necessarily bad for the environment; “it’s the way we tend to make and use them that’s the problem.”

One of Freinkel’s salient strategies is the production of safer plastics from renewable sources rather than finite fuels and harmful chemicals to the earth and our health. We can improve our ways of life by being eco-friendly to the environment. Every plastic that has ever been made still exists somewhere in some form because Plastic doesn’t biodegrade unless it is incinerated, which produces very harmful chemicals and toxics in addition to air pollution. Freinkel also invites everyone to rethink plastic and strongly advises us to “stop wasting plastic and take better advantage of what it can do for us.” Facts about today’s life, “we are not going to feed, clothe and house ourselves solely from wood, ore and stone. We need plastics. And in an era when we’re concerned about our carbon footprint, we can appreciate that lightweight plastics take less energy to produce and transport than many other materials.”

In my opinion, the article was a great call on people and encouragement for us to take care of the environment. We all need to live more sustainably. We need to support plastic recycling programs for a safer environment and we need to change or advance our ways of treating plastic because it can be deadly to us and other species. If we use it well we can attain more value from it.