1) There is a floating garbage patch twice the size of Texas in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. By weight it contains 6 times more plastic than plankton.
2) Sea animals injest plastic, it blocks their intestines and they die. As their body decomposes the plastic is released ready to be eaten again.
3) Plastic doesn't biodegrade- it photodegrades, meaning it breaks into smaller and smaller pieces but it is still plastic.
4) That means plastic is being eaten on lower levels of the foodchain. And its not just plastic the animals are eating; pesticides and toxins in the water cling to these small plastic pieces.
5) It is often cheaper to make things with new virgin plastic than with recycled plastic.
6) Plastic is in everything: hair care products, lotions, exfoliants, food packaging, stuff packaging, it lines many of our cans and cartons of food, it is used in baby bottles, water bottles, etc., etc., ad nauseum.
7) Scientists are finding that plastics leach into our food and mimic hormones, damaging developing reproductive systems.
Bottom line...we are filling our world with plastic and it ain't goin' away folks!
Recycling is possible but it is not as economical for plastic so let's try to REDUCE and REUSE first!
Here are just a few ideas to get started:
* Try taking your own jars or bags and buy from the bulk food bins at the grocery store.
* Try to not use plastic baggies and wrap for everything. Foil can be reused if it doesn't get too dirty, a plate can be placed over a bowl as a lid in the fridge. People did survive before ziploc bags were invented....I promise!
* Take your own bags when shopping.
* Don't heat up food in plastic (especially in the microwave)
* Refuse to buy things that are excessively packaged
5 comments:
Ya, I've heard about that patch of plastic trash in the Pacific Ocean before. I'm disturbed by how neglegent people can be in just littering everywhere and then it makes it's way out to the ocean. Or even dumping right in the ocean, yuck! There is no excuse for the disrespect of littering. I do believe we have plenty of land for landfills. And amazingly many people even live on old covered landfills in beautiful neighborhoods.
It does also make more sense to use less or reuse. If there is a recycle bin blatently apparent, I will use it. Except for Danny's at work, but that's another story :) But at home and in general I dont' recycle my trash, 1- because for many items it is cheaper to just make new material & 2- the guy driving around to collect it has to use a lot of gas in his truck, it's just not economically feasible, I think. Here's an article to read too: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3508263.ece
Hope that works, the last line of the article made me laugh.
Shoot, you can't see the whole address. Just cut and paste each line in if you want to read...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news
/environment/article3508263.ece
Interesting article. (I still think it would be very easy for a sea turtle to mistake a floating bag for a jellyfish) I agree that it is silly to buy plastic trash bags while trying to ban plastic shopping bags. That is why we need to reduce the amount of trash we make. It just seems unwise to make so much of something like plastic that will never go away. Even if we can keep burying it all it is still there. Where we used to live our landfill was near capacity. Trucking garbage to distant fills is expensive too, thus it made sense for the city to recycle as much as possible. I guess I have just been feeling disgusted with our disposable society lately.
Yes, I do think that we do make an awful lot of trash too. I've actually been thinking this weekend about how I reuse/reduce things in our household. My favorite thing that came to mind is all our old water bottles turn into Pepper toys. We don't have to buy him as many chew toys! And I save glass jars for hopefully canning some day or storing Cliff's sauces that he makes. And we also use plastic grocery bags for trash bags. I try to use our tupperware for leftovers instead of plastic wrap. I guess it's good to at least be aware and start thinking about it :)
I ran into your blog through Emily's I love the tips on platic-thanks. I think if everyone tried just a little we could make such a big difference. We are so indifferent and oil dependent, and I could go on and on, so I will stop and say I liked your blog.
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