by Kimnget Koy
Why should we take care of our environment?
Improving and maintaining the environment is becoming a more crucial task in our lives. Due to carelessness and ignorance, this important responsibility is quickly becoming a critical issue. For this reason, I took it upon myself to construct a strategic plan to enlighten my people about the problems of our environment. I do this in hopes that it would encourage everyone to act responsibly towards improving and maintaining the environment.
The first step I want to take is to introduce the effect of using plastic bags since they are a major fact that harms our environment nowadays. As we all know that using a plastic bag is very portable and cheap but it has very critical side effects on our health as well as our environment. Based on the research of the Cambodian Ministry of Environment, the major impact of plastic bags on the environment is that it takes about 10-20 years to decompose. Besides, toxic substances are released into the soil when plastic bags are exposed to sunlight, if plastic bags are burned, they release a toxic substance into the air causing air pollution and, if plastic bags are used to pack hot food, the toxic substance will harm our health. These are the reasons why we should stop using plastic bags.
We encourage people to say no to plastic bags, it is possible. There are many alternative ways that we can use instead of plastic. When I was young, I have never seen people use plastic bags instead, they used organic string to tie meat and fish, lotus or banana leaves to pack food and vegetables. I admire a restaurant in Phnom Penh called Eleven 1 Kitchen which uses no plastic for packaging, instead they use paper boxes, leaves, and bamboo straw for food, which is a very good example for others.
To sum up, taking care of our environment is our responsibility and it starts with each of us. Try to evaluate anyone who does not use plastic bags, including sellers and restaurants. Small steps can turn into bigger steps and they can inspire others to make small changes too (the more people making small changes the better). I am sure we could do more.