In Year 5, we have just completed an English sequence on persuasive writing. For our hot tasks, we wrote letters which aimed to persuade the reader to reduce their use of plastic. Here are Toby & Emily's letters:

Dear parents/carers of Exminster school,

Should we reduce our daily use of single use plastic? Do you want to put yourself in danger? Most people would answer ‘no’. Here, in this letter, you will find out why you and others may be choking the world with plastic.

Plastic bags. They are useful for carrying your shopping, but they are also lethally dangerous! In my opinion, people should stop using them because they are so lightweight, which means they are incredibly light, that they could be carried by the wind anywhere, polluting the seas and making the environment look ugly.

I am certain that a lot of people find plastic packaging convenient for keeping their food fresh, but did you know that plastic could be in your delicious fish? Plastic breaks down into microplastics, which a fish could eat and send into its bloodstream. Aren’t you afraid of having plastic inside you?

Finally, everyone recognises plastic as the well known, superbly durable, super strong material that can last for so long. But some might say that it lasts for too long. It can take a devastating 5000 years to biodegrade, leaving it intact for centuries.

Therefore, plastic isn’t always amazing. A quote from David Attenborough, who is a naturalist, says ‘’It is one world. And it is in our care.’’ Plastic is the most efficient way to destroy our planet. I beg you to stop using single use plastic. It can hurt the animals. It can hurt the environment. That means it can hurt us.

Yours sincerely,
Toby

To Jeremy Corbyn,

Have you ever seen plastic bags tangled in trees, along roads or even floating in water? Of course you have. Because they are so lightweight, they are easily picked up in the wind. Can you be responsible enough to end this plastic pollution and save our world?

Firstly, humans are being baffled by the amount of microplastic in their food. Forget seafood, in a single chicken gizzard there could be 10 microplastics in it. You may think that is not much but when you buy a litre of bottled water in the shop, you could be thirstily consuming 241 microplastics.

Coca cola, a Kenyan water bottling company, acknowledged the presence of microplastics in their water, “Even in highly treated products, there may be a minute levels of plastic in.”

Scientists have also found microplastics in honey and beer.

Even producing plastic is harmful to the environment. For every kilogram of plastic produced, 6kg of carbon gets let out into the atmosphere. This makes one of the most toxic gases out to our Ozone layer.  You have to act now to stop climate change because of plastic production.

Lastly, do you want to be remembered as the worst world destroying generation of all time?

Or even plastic eating zombies. The problem is plastics qualities that make plastic a good, usable material, is that they make a big impact. Plastic breaks down over thousands of years. The plastic bag that you used as a kid, would not even be halfway through its life.

In conclusion, STOP using single use plastic and do something about it or you will be sorry! We have to help these helpless animals.

Yours sincerely
Emily