Plastic Microbeads By Annie Leonard Analysis

Annie Leonard is the author of Plastic Microbeads: Don't Use as Directed. She is the executive director of Greenpeace USA and investigates and explains environmental and social impacts of our stuff in words and film. In the article, her main arguement is that the manufactures of plastic tend to blame the consumer for not properly disposing or recycling the plastic products that they make but with microbeads they cannot lay that blame on us for the damage that microbeads are doing to the environment. Annie Leonard states that tougher laws need to be enacted to get the products with microbeads in them off of the store shelves and that consumers should call their lawmakers to let them know that we want microbeads banned from being produced and to call the manufactures and tell them that we will no longer
buy these products. She has supported her argument by reporting that an organization called "5 gyres" has trawled the Great Lakes with SUNY Fredonia scientists and the samples that were taken had "hundreds of thousands of tiny plastic beads" in them. I believe that her methods are effective because she has explained to the readers what microbeads are, what products they tend to be in, and why they are bad for the environment, for wildlife and for humans. Her writing makes the information very easy to understand.
ARTICLE 2

Gregory B. Hladky is the author of Lawmakers Target Microbeads: Tiny Plastic Pieces in Soaps, Toothpastes Can Harm Marine Life; Environmental Issues. In his article, he states that Proctor & Gamble added microbeads to their toothpaste to add color and dentists are stating that the microbeads that are in the toothpaste are getting caught between teeth and gums, trapping bacteria and causing disease. His main argument in this article is that microbeads are basically found in every water way in the world and that they are harming marine life and that humans are consuming the fish that are contaminated by microbeads. The author supports his argument by quoting many lawmakers and environmentalists who are all stating that microbeads are causing a great deal of harm to the environment and that something needs to be done to correct the problem. I do not think that this article was as compelling as the first article that I reviewed. I felt that he really didn't draw me into this article because it seemed like everyone was saying the same statement over and over. I think he could have
expanded more on what health issues the microbeads are causing to humans since this is the first article I have read that mentioned anything concerning toothpaste and that microbeads are being trapped and causing disease.