For those of us who love pristine corners of the world, and to appreciate our planet up close, this is NOT what we would have chosen. This has been there since the 1950s, but how many of us knew about it? Read on:
"A little-known island continent of floating toxic plastic garbage, TWICE the size of Texas, is growing in the pacific between California and Hawaii. Officially known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, until it can be taxed, U.S. officials will continue to ignore it. I heard of it once many years ago, but it apparently has been growing tenfold each decade since the 1950's, and now consists of 80% plastic. It has also been called Gilligan's Island, from the trashy TV sitcom that won't go away."
The enormous stew of trash - which consists of 80 percent plastics and weighs some 3.5 million tons, say oceanographers - floats where few people ever travel, in a no-man's land between San Francisco and Hawaii. The patch has been growing, along with ocean debris worldwide, tenfold every decade since the 1950s, said Chris Parry, public education program manager with the California Coastal Commission in San Francisco.
Source: http://www.boingboing.net/2007/10/22/floating-toxic-plast.html
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Monday, January 14, 2008
How to Wean Ourselves from Plastic Bags
Tips for Weaning Ourselves from Plastic (or paper) Bags
Pull out all your old canvas tote bags you’ve gotten from conferences, fairs, and other events; you know, the ones with the sturdy handles. Put them all in the biggest one and throw them in your trunk. If you trade off cars, put some in each. Then each time you go into a store for something, take enough bags you think will hold what you’ve come to purchase. That includes grocery stores, Wal-Mart, drug stores, the shopping mall, etc.
Refuse to accept a plastic bag for your purchase. If you have to juggle several items loose, you’ll soon remember to bring in your bags!
Order reusable bags from www.reusablebags.com. They have everything from the large canvas totes to string bags for produce, zipped mesh bags for small produce, and thermal bags for frozen items. You can put your veggies and fruit right into the mesh bags at check out and from there into the refrigerator. That way, you don’t use those flimsy produce plastic bags either. They aren’t exactly eco-friendly.
Send your supermarket a letter asking them to give credits for bringing your own bags. Our Colorado boonies grocery store gives me a nickel for each bag I bring in. So can the chains.
Paper bags are also detrimental to the environment and use resources to produce, so reusable bags are the best way to go. If you can’t find a recycling site for your used plastic bags, reuse them for pet waste, as garbage can liners, or to put things in that you might use a new ziplock plastic bag for each time. Just don’t acquire any more of them.
Be informed. Read the environmental impact bullets with this article. You’ll be more likely to use your reusable bags.
The Impact of Plastic Bags
· Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to over one million per minute. Billions end up as litter each year.
· According to the EPA, over 380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps are consumed in the U.S. each year.
· According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually. (Estimated cost to retailers is $4 billion)
· Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales and other marine mammals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food.
· Plastic bags don’t biodegrade; instead they break down into smaller toxic byproducts, contaminating soil and waterways and getting into our food supply via animals.
· Plastic bags are among the 12 items of debris most often found in coastal cleanups, according to the nonprofit Center for Marine Conservation.
Success Stories:
· In 2001, Ireland consumed 1.2 billion plastic bags, or 316 per person. An extremely successful plastic bag consumption tax, or PlasTax, introduced in 2002 reduced consumption by 90%. Approximately 18,000,000 liters of oil have been saved due to this reduced production. Governments around the world are considering implementing similar measures.
· Each high quality reusable shopping bag you use has the potential to eliminate hundreds, if not thousands, of plastic bags over its lifetime.
Source: www.reusablebags.com
Pull out all your old canvas tote bags you’ve gotten from conferences, fairs, and other events; you know, the ones with the sturdy handles. Put them all in the biggest one and throw them in your trunk. If you trade off cars, put some in each. Then each time you go into a store for something, take enough bags you think will hold what you’ve come to purchase. That includes grocery stores, Wal-Mart, drug stores, the shopping mall, etc.
Refuse to accept a plastic bag for your purchase. If you have to juggle several items loose, you’ll soon remember to bring in your bags!
Order reusable bags from www.reusablebags.com. They have everything from the large canvas totes to string bags for produce, zipped mesh bags for small produce, and thermal bags for frozen items. You can put your veggies and fruit right into the mesh bags at check out and from there into the refrigerator. That way, you don’t use those flimsy produce plastic bags either. They aren’t exactly eco-friendly.
Send your supermarket a letter asking them to give credits for bringing your own bags. Our Colorado boonies grocery store gives me a nickel for each bag I bring in. So can the chains.
Paper bags are also detrimental to the environment and use resources to produce, so reusable bags are the best way to go. If you can’t find a recycling site for your used plastic bags, reuse them for pet waste, as garbage can liners, or to put things in that you might use a new ziplock plastic bag for each time. Just don’t acquire any more of them.
Be informed. Read the environmental impact bullets with this article. You’ll be more likely to use your reusable bags.
The Impact of Plastic Bags
· Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to over one million per minute. Billions end up as litter each year.
· According to the EPA, over 380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps are consumed in the U.S. each year.
· According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually. (Estimated cost to retailers is $4 billion)
· Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales and other marine mammals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food.
· Plastic bags don’t biodegrade; instead they break down into smaller toxic byproducts, contaminating soil and waterways and getting into our food supply via animals.
· Plastic bags are among the 12 items of debris most often found in coastal cleanups, according to the nonprofit Center for Marine Conservation.
Success Stories:
· In 2001, Ireland consumed 1.2 billion plastic bags, or 316 per person. An extremely successful plastic bag consumption tax, or PlasTax, introduced in 2002 reduced consumption by 90%. Approximately 18,000,000 liters of oil have been saved due to this reduced production. Governments around the world are considering implementing similar measures.
· Each high quality reusable shopping bag you use has the potential to eliminate hundreds, if not thousands, of plastic bags over its lifetime.
Source: www.reusablebags.com
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Plastic Bag Litter Kills
For some time now, I’ve been teaching a class called Aging with Pizzazz, one that helps people maximize their aging quality of life by using their experience and education to make a difference. I encourage people to become activists for a better world. While I spend no small amount of time volunteering for the Red Cross, I could do more. The question for me, has been, as it is for all of us, which of all the issues about which I feel strongly, should I devote myself to? Is it better to do a little for several issues, or really make an effort to become informed and make more of a difference for one cause?
I already know that answer. Years ago when my son was in Jr. High, I was volunteering with so many agencies in addition to my job that he came to me and said, “Mom, you are going to have to give up something. (And he hoped it wasn’t him!) So I said no to everyone except the Red Cross, reasoning that an in-depth knowledge of one organization would increase both my commitment to volunteering and my value to the Red Cross. That proved to be one of my best decisions.
I’m again at that crossroads: What to do: health care reform, global warming issues, homelessness, world ecology. It had to be something large enough to be a significant problem, and small enough to be able to take on. The answer turns out to be: plastic bag litter. Maybe that doesn’t seem like much in the whole scheme of things, but we really aren’t doing much about it in this country. Australia has some major plastic bag issues going, and we should, too. What makes it personal for me is our world travels. Everywhere we go to beautiful unspoiled places, the beauty is marred by plastic bag litter: Thailand, Costa Rica, Mexico. And it’s not only an eyesore. Plastic bags kill.
According to PlanetArk (www.planetark.com/plasticbags):
- In the marine environment, plastic bag litter kills at least 100,000 birds, whales, seals, and turtles each year. After an animal is killed by plastic bags, its body decomposes and the plastic is released back into the environment where it can kill again. Plastic bags can take 1000 years to decompose.
- Planet Ark has worked with a number of communities in Australia to become Plastic Bag Free Towns.
Since March 2002, Ireland has reduced its plastic check-out bag usage by 90%.
I’ll have more information on the problem, as well as resources for reusable bags, and other groups doing things. Not only has Ireland reduced its usage, there are major initiatives to either heavily tax their use or ban them all together going on in Taiwan, South Africa, and Bangladesh. Several other regions, including England and some U.S. cities are considering similar approaches.
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