Newspaper articles: those should be cited, as they were written by someone else.
If you quote text from them directly, the text must be enclosed in “…” Also, be sure to add a formal citation in the references.
Academic articles are the same: please cite in the same (formal) way.
The main interest for the essay is the strength of your (economic) argument, how well your argument is structured, and the quality of your writing. For this assignment, external research is not required.
There is a recent article very relevant to the issue of whether the production of plastics creates negative externalities.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/16/plastics-plant-louisianas-cancer-alley
