Plastic is used to make a large number of products we use every day， such as drink and food containers，trash bags and grocery bags，cups and children's toys，and bottles for everything from mouthwash and shampoo to glass cleaner and dishwashing liquid. And that's not even counting all the plastic that goes into furniture， appliances， computers， and automobiles.

As the use of plastic has increased over the years，it's become a large part of America's solid waste﹣growing from less than 1 percent in 1960 to more than 13 percent in 2017. As an example of how and why plastic waste is increasing， the International Bottled Water Association reports that the US consumed 9. 67 billion gallons of bottled water in 2017， compared to 9.1 billion gallons the year before. The United States is the world's leading consumer of bottled water. A good first step in reducing plastic waste is switching to a reusable water bottle.

Recycling plastic reduces the amount of energy and resources （资源） needed to create plastic. Research shows that a bottle of water requires about 2，000 times as much energy to produce as the same amount of tap water. Recycling plastic products also keeps them out of landfills（垃圾填埋）and allows the plastic to be reused in making new products. Recycling 1 ton of plastic saves 7. 4 cubic yards of landfill space. And let's face it，a lot of plastic ends up directly in the environment，breaking down into tiny pieces ， polluting our soil and water.

Today，80 percent of Americans have easy access to a plastic recycling program. A universal numbering system for plastic types makes it even easier. According to the American Plastics Council， more than 1，800 US businesses handle plastic waste. In addition， over 200，000 grocery stores now serve as recycling collection sites for plastic waste.

How do you deal with plastic bags from the supermarket? Throw them away or reuse them? How about eating them?

Indian company EnviGreen has made a bag with natural ingredients (成分). It looks and feels just like plastic, but can be broken down easily. The bags bring no harm to the environment. Both humans and animals can safely eat them.

EnviGreen founder Ashwath Hedge spent four years doing experiments with a combination of 12 natural ingredients. They include potato, corn, vegetable oil and banana. He made the ingredients into liquid and used the liquid to make the bag. Although the EnviGreen bag is about 35 percent more expensive than a common plastic bag, it has many advantages. According to the Wall Street Journal, it takes 1,000 years for common plastic bags to break down. But an EnviGreen bag can naturally break down in less than 180 days. It also breaks down in less than a day in water, and in about 15 seconds in boiling water. Hedge was happy to show it in his interview with The Better India. In the interview, he put an EnviGreen bag in water and ate it with a smile.

According to India’s Minister of State for Atmosphere, Forest and Weather Change, the country produces more than 15,000 tons of plastic waste every day. But only 9,000 tons are processed. In China, 3 billion plastic bags are used every day. Maybe the EnviGreen bag could be a solution to the world problem of plastic pollution.

Hong Kong is among the cities which have the largest populations in the world, but with night skies around 1,000 times brighter than globally accepted levels, it gains a bad reputation(名声) for its light pollution.

A study by Hong Kong University found that brightness levels in the southern Chinese city's popular shopping district of Tsim Sha Tsui were 1,200 times greater than the international dark sky standard.

The crowded city of 7 million people, full of residential(住宅的) high-rises, towering office blocks and neon(霓虹灯) advertisements has no laws to control outdoor lightning.

The result is that light pollution is thought to be much worse than in other large cities, including London, Sydney, Tokyo and Shanghai.

“In Hong Kong, you can't go anywhere outdoor in the evening without your eyes being blinded by this really upsetting outdoor lightning,” the light pollution survey's head Jason Pum told AFP.

“The fact that we have all this light in the sky means energy is wasted,” he said, adding that too much artificial lightning also affects nightly wildlife.

Research has suggested that light pollution can cause a number of harmful health problems in humans, including sleeplessness and headaches and can also affect body clocks and hormones(荷尔蒙).

The university's survey, the result of five million measurements taken from points across the city, was released just days before the start of the yearly Earth Hour event, organized by the World Wildlife Fund.

People around the world will be encouraged to turn off the lights for an hour on Saturday night to advertise climate change. Last year, a number of Hong Kong's major buildings along Victoria Harbour went dark to mark Earth Hour.

“Anyway, we should do our best to reduce the amount of lightning and suit it to the benefit of the environment.”