• Home
  • Books
    • Sharks Unhooked: The Adventures of Cristina Zenato, Underwater Ranger
    • Giant Rays of Hope: Protecting Manta Rays to Safeguard the Sea
    • A River’s Gifts: The Mighty Elwha River Reborn
    • Planet Ocean
    • Eavesdropping on Elephants
    • Neema’s Reason To Smile
    • Zoo Scientists to the Rescue
    • Sea Otter Heroes: The Predators That Saved an Ecosystem
    • Plastic, Ahoy! Investigating the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
    • Ebola: Fears and Facts
    • Jingle the Brass
    • Nugget on the Flight Deck
    • Surviving Animal Attacks
    • Elite Operations series
    • Energy Lab series
    • QuickReads Fluency Library
    • Books for English language-learners
    • Writers write all kinds of things
  • Author Visit Programs
    • FAQs
    • Calendar
  • Blog
  • Educator Resources
    • STEM + Literacy Activities
    • Teacher Guides
    • Earth Day Every Day newsletter archive
    • LitLinks
    • KidLit creators who make kids want to read
  • Writer Resources
    • Writing Classes
    • Manuscript or Proposal Critiques
    • How I got my start
  • Who is Patricia Newman?
  • Contact
    • Stay In Touch
    • Earth Day Every Day newsletter archive
Patricia NewmanPatricia Newman
Sibert Honor Children's Book Author & Environmentalist
  • Home
  • Books
    • Sharks Unhooked: The Adventures of Cristina Zenato, Underwater Ranger
    • Giant Rays of Hope: Protecting Manta Rays to Safeguard the Sea
    • A River’s Gifts: The Mighty Elwha River Reborn
    • Planet Ocean
    • Eavesdropping on Elephants
    • Neema’s Reason To Smile
    • Zoo Scientists to the Rescue
    • Sea Otter Heroes: The Predators That Saved an Ecosystem
    • Plastic, Ahoy! Investigating the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
    • Ebola: Fears and Facts
    • Jingle the Brass
    • Nugget on the Flight Deck
    • Surviving Animal Attacks
    • Elite Operations series
    • Energy Lab series
    • QuickReads Fluency Library
    • Books for English language-learners
    • Writers write all kinds of things
  • Author Visit Programs
    • FAQs
    • Calendar
  • Blog
  • Educator Resources
    • STEM + Literacy Activities
    • Teacher Guides
    • Earth Day Every Day newsletter archive
    • LitLinks
    • KidLit creators who make kids want to read
  • Writer Resources
    • Writing Classes
    • Manuscript or Proposal Critiques
    • How I got my start
  • Who is Patricia Newman?
  • Contact
    • Stay In Touch
    • Earth Day Every Day newsletter archive
Plastic in China, a personal account #marinedebris #plasticpollution #PlasticAhoy
Trash in Can Dixia, China

Plastic in China, a personal account #marinedebris #plasticpollution #PlasticAhoy

August 11, 2015 Ocean Plastic No Comments
by Molly Vincent, Guest Student Blogger

China is the world’s leading contributor of trash in the ocean, adding nearly three billion tons more than Indonesia, the next biggest offender. The over-packed country hosts over one billion people in the planet’s ever-growing population. For five weeks in June and July, I was lucky enough to study abroad in Beijing, one of the most populated cities in the world at over twenty million residents. When I first arrived, I was overwhelmed with culture shock. I was in a large, unfamiliar city with people talking to one another in a language I did not speak.  After getting adjusted to my new room at Beijing Foreign Studies University, I started exploring the areas and backstreets around me. The first thing I noticed in Beijing is that it is not a very clean place. I could smell the stench of waste as I walked down trash-lined streets.

Cuan Dixia, China

Cuan Dixia, China

During my first weekend in Beijing, ten other University of Portland students and myself visited Cuan Dixia, an old Ming Dynasty village that had been left standing for hundreds of years. The village is filled with various huts, homes, and inns. While climbing a mountain in the village, I kept running across piles of trash: empty snack bags, plastic water bottles, and paper. While litter isn’t necessarily uncommon, it seemed to be everywhere in Cuan Dixia.

One of my favorite things to do was to eat good, authentic food.  Many street vendors simply put unprotected food in grocery bags for their customers to take on the go. More upscale restaurants wrap dishes in plastic before patrons use them. I would have to unwrap my dishes out of their plastic binding before eating. That is because a lot of restaurants send their dishes to be cleaned instead of cleaning them at the restaurant. The dishes then come back in plastic wrapping.

Much of the plastic waste comes from water bottles. Plastic bottles are ubiquitous in China. Not once did I see a person with a reusable water bottle (with the exception of people in my study abroad group). The reason why is because China does not have drinkable tap water. I knew that, but I thought locals would drink water because they’d built up an immunity that I didn’t have. However, virtually no one drinks it. I bought large plastic containers of water that would last me a few days.  I poured the water into my reusable bottle and carried it throughout the day.  I figured buying water in bulk would reduce plastic waste from getting smaller individual bottles. Avoiding plastic is impossible in China.

Just like the States, China does have trash bins and recycling bins, but the recycling bins are far less common and not as easy to find. More upscale establishments have them (hotels, train stations, some restaurants, airports), but they aren’t as readily available as they are here.

By the end of my trip, I came to a conclusion about what I learned during my time abroad: plastic waste isn’t really an issue on anyone’s radar. If it was, people would be more conscious of how much plastic they use. A lot of trash ends up in the streets and washes away during rainstorms. The problem China faces with plastic waste is they have such a large population.  Approximately one-sixth of the world’s population resides in China, and Beijing is the home to millions of those people. Humans produce waste.

One way to reduce plastic waste is through finding alternatives. If water was filtered and safer to drink, plastic bottle production and waste would be greatly reduced. Until China learns to change its habits, ocean plastic will remain an issue. But with increasing modernization, there is hope yet.

Tags: actionEarth DayoceanOcean plasticplasticrecycle
No Comments
Share
1

You also might be interested in

Saving sea otters: Continued threats
Photo credit: Lilian Carswell/USFWS

Saving sea otters: Continued threats

Sep 13, 2017

Are you ready for Post Three in my month-long celebration[...]

The Ocean Cleanup
The Ocean Cleanup by Boyan Slat

Clean up the Pacific Garbage Patch? Not as easy as it sounds! #STEM #eco #ocean #plastic

May 8, 2014

When I first read about the Pacific Garbage Patch, my[...]

New energy books for The Next Big Thing #nextbigthing #literacy #nature #eco #lrnchat

New energy books for The Next Big Thing #nextbigthing #literacy #nature #eco #lrnchat

Jan 23, 2013

Thank you to picture book author Danna Smith for inviting[...]

Leave a Reply

Your email is safe with me.
Cancel Reply

Click the logo to have LitLinks delivered to your inbox

LitLinks Logo-2022

Author Visits

https://youtu.be/zj6n-RFOcPA?si=8WCTnyXbTiwYumYo
https://youtu.be/ziN0UrqaDYI

Earth Day Every Day Newsletter Archive

Earth-Day-Every-Day-newsletter-banner

Post Categories:

Blog Archive

Top Posts

LitLinks: How to share our ocean connections with kids and teens

LitLinks: Let’s learn to decode photos in STEM nonfiction

LitLinks: How Elephants Can Make Your Sound Unit ROAR!

LitLinks: Easy ways to build students’ science communication skills

Proof that science connects kids to the larger world

Recent Comments

  • Danna Smith on LitLinks: Did you know goats can teach children about homonyms? I love this series of books!
  • Raven Howell on LitLinks: Did you know goats can teach children about homonyms? Absolutely love this piece you wrote! Thanks for sharing your…
  • Annie Lynn on LitLinks: 3 easy ways to use animals to introduce onomatopoeia Wonderful idea to link sounds and musical instruments to nature…
Empowering young readers to act

Latest Blog Posts

  • LitLinks: How to use conservation to invigorate student writing
    LitLinks: How to use conservation to invigorate student writing
  • LitLinks: How playing with existing ideas might lead to new ones
    LitLinks: How playing with existing ideas might lead to new ones
  • LitLinks: How to create a sniffing map to explore our sense of smell
    LitLinks: How to create a sniffing map to explore our sense of smell

Connect with me on social media

Action Shots

Check out the STEM Tuesday Blog

© 2025 — Patricia Newman

  • Home
  • Books
    • Sharks Unhooked: The Adventures of Cristina Zenato, Underwater Ranger
    • Giant Rays of Hope: Protecting Manta Rays to Safeguard the Sea
    • A River’s Gifts: The Mighty Elwha River Reborn
    • Planet Ocean
    • Eavesdropping on Elephants
    • Neema’s Reason To Smile
    • Zoo Scientists to the Rescue
    • Sea Otter Heroes: The Predators That Saved an Ecosystem
    • Plastic, Ahoy! Investigating the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
    • Ebola: Fears and Facts
    • Jingle the Brass
    • Nugget on the Flight Deck
    • Surviving Animal Attacks
    • Elite Operations series
    • Energy Lab series
    • QuickReads Fluency Library
    • Books for English language-learners
    • Writers write all kinds of things
  • Author Visit Programs
    • FAQs
    • Calendar
  • Blog
  • Educator Resources
    • STEM + Literacy Activities
    • Teacher Guides
    • Earth Day Every Day newsletter archive
    • LitLinks
    • KidLit creators who make kids want to read
  • Writer Resources
    • Writing Classes
    • Manuscript or Proposal Critiques
    • How I got my start
  • Who is Patricia Newman?
  • Contact
    • Stay In Touch
    • Earth Day Every Day newsletter archive
Prev Next