A 5p plastic bag : A short story, highlighting the horrendous plastic pollution in our world seas’, and its effect on animals and humans.

A 5p plastic bag
A tall elderly man with a beard, and dirty clothes scanned his goods across the supermarket automatic cashier.
“Do you need a carrier bag?” asked the computer voice. Of course, thought the scruffy man. He did not reply, that would be silly to talk back to a machine, and typed in the required number of bags. One.
Nonetheless, the man had to ask the female shop assistant to hand him the required bag, the machine was not that intelligent. The untidy man took the bag and paid for the eggs and butter, placing them in his newly acquired 5p plastic bag.
He slowly walked home along the pavement. A teenage boy riding his bicycle swerved to avoid the old man.
“You imbecile,” the old man raged as he watched the boy speed away on his bicycle, oblivious to all around him.
The sky was filled with scattered clouds but calm, the sun hidden from view. It was just after 6pm as the wind speed started to pick up. The old man was happy to be in the comfort of his home. He went straight to the fridge, and placed the eggs and butter amongst the other goods. The back door to his ground floor home was open, and since the old man was in a hurry to watch his daily dose of the 6 ‘o’ clock news, he threw the plastic bag on the floor next to the old rotting sofa in the conservatory.
“We have just received a breaking news story, that whales in what appears to be collective suicide off the Norwegian coastline, were found with a vast quantity of plastic bags in their stomachs’.” Came the announcement from his flat screen TV mounted high on the wall.
The conservatory side door unexpectedly swung open, and the plastic bag was swept out and up into the sky. Passers-by watched as the plastic bag was swept further away from the old man’s home. A few pedestrians in the street looked up and laughed at the plastic bird fluttering in the sky, and thought how odd that one bag was floating in the sky, blown by the ever-increasing wind speed. It wasn’t long before the 5p plastic bag had reached the coastline. Seagulls flew beside the plastic bag in convoy. What started as a gust of wind now became a storm. The sea birds needed to search for protection against the severe ensuing weather storm, but the plastic bag soldiered on.
A grey thunderstorm across the ocean formed. Dark clouds, aggressive, menacing with streaks of lightning appearing every few minutes. The 5p plastic bag flew on relentlessly, being carried by the strong wind storm ever faster across the raging waters, far out above the light grey blue coloured ocean.
The plastic bag was at the mercy of the weather. The storm lasted five days getting stronger pushing the 5p plastic bag higher above the centre of the ocean. Down below, a few enormous ships were battling against the storm with their lights on, heaving from side to side as the gigantic waves created by the storm lashed against the sides of the ships. The plastic bag continued its journey, moving further towards an unknown destination.
On the sixth day, the wind speed suddenly stopped, and the dark grey clouds turned to white fluffy balls. The plastic bag started sinking further towards the ocean. It floated down slowly in a pendulum motion on its way to the sea. There it met with lots of other plastic bags collected together and littered across the ocean. There were white ones, blue ones, designer bags, shopping bags, postal bags, and red ones all collected together in one place. Plastic refuse had collected together forming an enormous island of debris. From far off distant exotic countries, where the people live in shacks and cardboard boxes, as well as from countries where the inhabitants are wealthy and live in safe and secure houses. The world’s plastic bags accumulated together to form a massive floating island of non-degradable plastic garbage. The island has only taken a short time to form, and exists in the centre of the ocean. The seagulls don’t fly there, and the ships can’t sail through the expanse of waste. There isn’t anyone there in the middle of the ocean, just millions of tons of plastic, floating together in unison, crushing and pounding each piece, a gargantuan plastic mixer.

Just after the 5p plastic bag arrived at the plastic island, a massive factory trawler ship sailed looming up on a school of blue tuna fish. They fled underneath the floating island of plastic waste. The fish were free of the dreaded monstrous factory ship. They swam quickly, deeper and deeper under the collected mass of toxic plastic waste. The blue tuna searched for food to eat, but all they could find were tiny particles of plastic falling to the seabed. The sinking curtain of minute plastic resembled a sheet of snow. The miniscule particles of toxic waste appeared like plankton or small edible bits. Some of the fish decided to eat the tiny plastic particles, they had become hungry and needed to eat. However, the fish were safe from the horrendous factory trawler ship chasing them, and they not so happily ate the abundance of available food.
A tall elderly man with a beard, and dirty clothes walked into his favourite shopping centre to buy some food for his evening meal. I could do with eating some fresh fish tonight! He thought. Ah there’s some, looks like a nice piece of tuna to me. That’ll do! He pointed to the desired piece, displayed below the glass cabinet. The shop assistant placed the fresh fish in a thin plastic bag, and stuck a computer-generated label on top of the transparent bag indicating the price. He carried the contents of the transparent bag to the supermarket exit, and scanned his goods across the supermarket automatic cashier.
“Do you need a carrier bag?” asked the computer voice. Of course, thought the scruffy man. He did not reply, that would be silly to talk back to a machine, and typed in the required number of bags. One.
The elderly man carefully placed the plastic covered fresh fish parcel within the 5p plastic bag, which the shop assistant had just given him. He exited the supermarket and started to walk home.
As he was on his way home, a teenage boy riding a small bicycle who at the same time was talking into a mobile phone, crashed into the tall elderly man. The tall elderly man dropped the bag immediately, and fell to the ground.
“Sorry mister, Sorry mister, are you alright? I’ll call an ambulance for you”
The tall elderly man was in pain and angry. His 5p plastic bag had fallen to the ground its contents spilling out. A sudden gust of wind, pulled the 5p plastic bag high up into the air and blew it across the street, quickly into the sky. The teenage boy sped away quickly when his help was not needed. I need to get home, thought the elderly man. He stood up and limped slowly carrying the transparent bag of fish. He was angry at the boy, but managed to find the energy to get back to his home.
When he arrived home, he went straight to his kitchen and placed the fish covered plastic bag on the kitchen counter. He opened the transparent bag, and carefully took out the fish. He was surprised when he saw nestling between the degutted stomach of the fish a shiny, new 5p coin. The tall elderly man chuckled to himself and thought. That’s funny. I lost my 5p plastic bag and now I got my money back! He continued to fry the fish.

Pedestrians in the street looked up to see a flying plastic bird in the sky, and thought how odd that a plastic bag was floating in the sky, blown by the ever-increasing wind speed. The 5p plastic bag was heading to the island in the centre of the ocean.
