Pollution

We need to take care of the Earth by recycling and stopping the pollution. There are so many plants, animals, and organisms that get killed by humans because of the pollution that is generated. There should be more education on the environment and pollution. The schools do not teach enough on pollution or leave lasting impressions on the kids to make a difference for the environment. I think that there should be stricter laws on recycling and pollution. The laws are very lenient and no one gets into trouble for them because there are no checks and balances on the laws.
There are few communities and countries that have their residents recycle. Recycling is thought of as an afterthought because it is expensive to recycle. Where I live, the people that live in houses are forced to recycle but the people in apartments can throw anything they want into dumpsters without a second thought. This should not be happening. Everyone should be forced to recycle no matter where you live because this is the only way to preserve the Earth. Recycling helps to stop pollution by forcing people to think about what they buy. I do not understand why recycling is so expensive and made into such an inconvenience.
Currently schools do not teach enough about what happens to things when we throw things away. Our children are taught to recycle but they are not taught how long it takes something to break down in the landfills. Also, they need to be taught that pollution kills the environment and that will change the Earth which will affect future generations of plants, animals, and humans. The schools in my community do not recycle. They throw everything into large dumpsters that are taken to the landfill. What are we teaching our children by not recycling the things they use at school? While driving down the freeway, I saw someone throw a cigarette butt out the window. It really made me upset because one person can change the environment by doing one little thing. I thought about how many times a day one person throws a cigarette butt out the window. How many cigarette butts does one person throw out in a week, a month, or even a year? This made me really mad and disgusted at the thought. It made me think about all of the other junk that goes into our water from people polluting the ground, air, and water.
Where I live, there are signs about pollution on the freeway telling you that you can get a fine for up to $750. Is this harsh enough? I don’t think so. There should be harsher fines where the money gathered from the fine to be used to clean up the pollution in the area. I have yet to see signs in town saying anything about fines for polluting. There are so many bags, bottles, and trash on the streets and sidewalks. If there would be harsher punishments, there would not be so much garbage lying around. I think that there should be fines in town and with the fine there should also be community service to clean up pollution in the area. These few changes would help people to think about the pollution that they are making and learn to recycle. There should also be rules and regulations on lawn care chemicals that people use. Farmers have to report every chemical that they use but since I live in town, I do not have to. I could spray my lawn everyday with chemicals and no one cares. I live next to people that are always spraying their lawn and it makes me mad since my family believes strongly in organic farming and eating organically. Their chemicals run into my lawn and into the ground and water around us. People don’t think about the run off from their lawn, just how beautiful their lawn is.
There are so many people that do not think about their actions and how they affect others or the environment. We take everything that we have for granted in America because we have it available. I think that people should visit other countries and see how they live, what they have, and follow all of