Born through the mix of crude oil, natural gas, salt, coal and cellulose, I proved useful. I was able to be molded into a tool to help humans eat, a machine to help people breathe while they sleep, an automobile to aid those who need quick transportation. I was a sensation. Humans still do not understand the full extent of my use, but I must say they are doing quite a good job at coming up with new uses for me. They understand I can come in all different shapes and sizes. They understand I can come in many different colors and be either transparent or opaque.

My most popular form was through packaging. Humans love to use me as a way of storing. Whether it be through storing water, food, or even their valuable items. I have overheard conversations about how I am light which makes it not only efficient but inexpensive. They can carry more of their items with me which means they can move more at a time and spend less on transportation.

Looking back, I see how I was truly appreciated. It's so different now; the way I am looked at. I remember exactly how it happened. I was always advertised as reusable and renewable, but humans overlooked it and tossed my aside into the oceans. I never understood why. All I have ever done was make their lives easier and they decide to toss me aside without a second thought.

They call me names and blame me for making the world polluted, like I had a choice. I was made to be long lasting, but they are mad at me for not decomposing in a way that is safe for the Earth. They made me to be reused but I end up in the ocean and get called a hazard. What makes me sad is that rather than genuinely reusing me to solve the problem that they created. They are now trying to use me less. Humans now use paper straws and metal water bottles. I am slowly becoming irrelevant for something I have no control over.

As I drift away into the ocean as a plastic water bottle, I wonder what I could have done differently. I wonder what I would have been recycled as. I wonder where I would have ended up. Instead, I was forgotten when I was no longer useful to them. No matter how useful I was or the potential I have, humans still don’t reconsider. I wonder what makes them this way. Is it ignorance? Laziness? Who knows, I am simply a material. Now I will end up somewhere on a beach with more versions of myself. 

I wish I could change, but no matter how many ways I can be shaped or how many colors I can be. I will never be able to save the Earth. I will only do damage when treated like this. I wish humans would understand that and use me properly. Most of all, I wish they knew how I feel.