According to Pew Research Center, there are about 8 billion people in the world. Imagine if every person in the world threw one piece of garbage on the ground. The world would be covered in trash. Think about it for a minute. Imagine walking outside of your house or school and stepping on a plastic water bottle, paper towel roll, sticky candy wrapper, plastic shopping bag, or a broken glass bottle. That one piece of litter that someone threw on the ground matters. Litter matters to me, others, animals and the environment.

Now imagine you are driving in your car and an empty plastic shopping bag flies up in the air and lands on your windshield. Suddenly, you can’t see where you are going! What could happen?

One time my mom and I were driving to the store. Someone in front of us threw an empty, gray plastic shopping bag out their car window. The bag flew up in the air like a balloon. The bag landed on the driver’s side mirror of our car. It got stuck there for a while flapping in the wind and making loud noises. We got scared and thought it was going to cause an accident. It somehow got loose in the wind and flew up in the air and landed on a tree branch. You may not think a plastic bag could do much harm and throwing it out is no big deal. It could do harm to people, animals and the environment. This is an example of why every bit of litter matters.

Although I don’t know where that bag is now, I hope it’s not causing anyone or anything harm. Every little bit of litter does matter to me, animals, and the environment. Everyone should pick up their trash. Do not litter. This will help take care of the earth and keep the world beautiful.

Amber Drozdis, 12, of Archbald, is a student at Valley View Middle School. She was 11 at the time of writing this essay.