Model Yulia shows off the reusable string bag she takes to the store and urges everyone to use plastic bags as rarely as possible. ⠀ And I’d ban plastic bottles too. Every time I say this, PET packaging manufacturers come after me, but I stand my ground. ⠀ No matter how remote a place is, if you go to the bank of a river or lake, what will you find there? Plastic bottles, turned gray with age. They’re everywhere, and they’ve taken over everything. ⠀ A few years ago in Thailand, we were taken to an uninhabited island where turtles lay their eggs. The islet was tiny; from a distance it looked like a postcard picture of a tropical paradise. You weren’t allowed to go ashore so as not to disturb the turtles. We could only swim a few meters off the coast along the shoreline. ⠀ I don’t know how many turtles there were there—I didn’t see a single one. But there were thousands of empty plastic bottles lying there. The sea washes them in.