Something else to think about when you think of throwing your Styrofoam coffee cup or other plastic debris out the car window. It may well find its way into storm drains, down waterways, and out to the sea.
While common lore tells us that plastic is fairly indestructible in nature, a new study shows that bodies of salt water are an exception. In oceans, plastics seem to decompose fairly rapidly and release toxic by-products into the water, or the sea creatures that ingest them. This is the first study to look at what happens over the years to billions of pounds of plastic waste floating in our oceans, like the two-Texas-sized “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” floating between California and Hawaii.
Study lead researcher Katsuhiko Saido, Ph.D., reported at the 238th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) this month, and was met with surprise from scientists who always believed that plastics in the oceans were mostly a hazard to marine animals that eat or become ensnared in them. Saido reported that in Japan alone, as much as 150,000 tons of plastic debris, mostly Styrofoam, wash up on their shores each year.
Saido, a chemist with the College of Pharmacy, Nihon University, Chiba, Japan, and his team found that when plastic decomposes, it releases bisphenol A (BPA) and PS oligomer into the water. BPA and PS oligomer are of concern because they can disrupt the functioning of hormones in animals and can seriously affect reproductive systems.
Saido described a new method to simulate the breakdown of plastic products at low temperatures, such as those found in the oceans. The process involves modeling plastic decomposition at room temperature, removing heat from the plastic and then using a liquid to extract the BPA and PS oligomer. The study team was able to degrade the Styrofoam in the lab, mimicking conditions in the sea, and discovered that three new compounds not found in nature formed: styrene monomer (SM), styrene dimer (SD) and styrene trimer (ST). SM is a known carcinogen and SD and ST are suspected in causing cancer.
SOURCE: American Chemical Society (ACS)
Monday, August 24, 2009
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Plastic Bags Around the World
Nothing much has happened lately in the struggle to reduce plastic bag litter. When I walk into the grocery store and pass someone coming out with a shopping basket piled high with plastic bag-wrapped groceries, I groan inwardly. What I want to do is to stop them, slap them around a little, and tell them to wake up and look at the pictures of what they are creating! But because I was not brought up like that, I don't. It helps just to think about it.
Soon, I will be leaving on a trip to 16 countries, 12 of them in Africa. I will be keeping track of all the plastic bag litter we encounter and bringing back pictures illustrating this problem. Sometimes, a picture is worth 1000 words. What I would ask is for everyone who reads this to really look at what litter is doing to this country, but even worse underdeveloped countries of the world. Perhaps it will sour our taste for convenience and disposables. I truly hope so.
Soon, I will be leaving on a trip to 16 countries, 12 of them in Africa. I will be keeping track of all the plastic bag litter we encounter and bringing back pictures illustrating this problem. Sometimes, a picture is worth 1000 words. What I would ask is for everyone who reads this to really look at what litter is doing to this country, but even worse underdeveloped countries of the world. Perhaps it will sour our taste for convenience and disposables. I truly hope so.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Plastic Bags: Popular Myths and Their Truths
Myth: Bag fees don’t change human behavior
Truth: They don’t if they are too small. A nickel a bag doesn’t change behavior but $0.20 or $0.25 a bag does. While smaller bag fees provide funds for municipalities, they don’t cause enough pain to get people to mend their ways.
Myth: Our city doesn’t have a litter problem
Truth: Wake up! You just aren’t seeing it, or your residents are dumping them in someone else’s back yard. Through storm sewers and waterways, they find their way to the coast and beyond, impacting large numbers of wildlife.
Myth: Charging for something previously free is unconstitutional.
Truth: You are paying for them in higher prices at the checkout and in the petroleum products used to make them.
Myth: We reuse our plastic bags for other things like pet litter and lining wastebaskets, so they make sense.
Truth: They have their uses, but if you buy pet litter bags, they are biodegradable and you only buy what you will use.
Myth: Recycling makes more sense than charging for bags.
Truth: Do the math. It costs $34/ton to make them, and $4,000 to recycle them. At most, only 3% of bags are recycled.
Myth: Why single out plastic bags with fees? Paper bags are resource-intensive, too.
Truth: Plastic bag tax laws also include paper bags. The behavior we’re seeking is bringing your own sturdy reusable bags.
Myth: Reusable bags are so unsanitary, they will spread disease.
Truth: Yeah, right. Obviously anything reusable (like our clothes) has to be washed periodically. Throw them in with a load of towels or whatever.
Myth: It’s uncool to bring your own bags. You look miserly.
Truth: In Ireland, as soon as the plastic bag tax passed, anyone carrying plastic bags became socially unacceptable. If carrying around old tote bags with company logos on them bothers you, make some of your own and design your statement, or flowers, or whatever. If you have your own business, put YOUR logo on your bags and get free press.
- (excerpted from Reusablebags.com)
Truth: They don’t if they are too small. A nickel a bag doesn’t change behavior but $0.20 or $0.25 a bag does. While smaller bag fees provide funds for municipalities, they don’t cause enough pain to get people to mend their ways.
Myth: Our city doesn’t have a litter problem
Truth: Wake up! You just aren’t seeing it, or your residents are dumping them in someone else’s back yard. Through storm sewers and waterways, they find their way to the coast and beyond, impacting large numbers of wildlife.
Myth: Charging for something previously free is unconstitutional.
Truth: You are paying for them in higher prices at the checkout and in the petroleum products used to make them.
Myth: We reuse our plastic bags for other things like pet litter and lining wastebaskets, so they make sense.
Truth: They have their uses, but if you buy pet litter bags, they are biodegradable and you only buy what you will use.
Myth: Recycling makes more sense than charging for bags.
Truth: Do the math. It costs $34/ton to make them, and $4,000 to recycle them. At most, only 3% of bags are recycled.
Myth: Why single out plastic bags with fees? Paper bags are resource-intensive, too.
Truth: Plastic bag tax laws also include paper bags. The behavior we’re seeking is bringing your own sturdy reusable bags.
Myth: Reusable bags are so unsanitary, they will spread disease.
Truth: Yeah, right. Obviously anything reusable (like our clothes) has to be washed periodically. Throw them in with a load of towels or whatever.
Myth: It’s uncool to bring your own bags. You look miserly.
Truth: In Ireland, as soon as the plastic bag tax passed, anyone carrying plastic bags became socially unacceptable. If carrying around old tote bags with company logos on them bothers you, make some of your own and design your statement, or flowers, or whatever. If you have your own business, put YOUR logo on your bags and get free press.
- (excerpted from Reusablebags.com)
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Filling the World with Trash
Each year, I come out to our place in the high plains in Colorado and pick up the trash dumped in this pristine environment. Next season I come back, and it’s back. Our country is pretty enlightened about trash disposal. When people toss their trash from their cars, it’s not because they don’t have anywhere else to put it. It’s because they don’t care that they are taking away from the scenic beauty and putting wildlife at risk. That’s both an educational and penalty issue.
In developing parts of the world, more often the problem is the lack of safe disposal sites for trash. In some villages in Africa we’ve visited, a hole is dug to get clay for pottery, and it becomes the new town landfill. But also in the most remote areas, there is no plastic trash to dispose of. They have no access to it.
In other areas, particularly near waterways, access to plastic bags is plentiful, but access to trash disposal is not. People are trying to subsist and are not thinking about trashing their world. They are thinking about surviving it. Where in our priorities is reduction of non-biodegradable trash and containment of vermin-attracting dumps? My friend Sue took this picture of plastic bag litter in Siem Reap, Cambodia, jumping-off place for the famed Angkor Wat. People travel from all over the world to see these fabled temples, but they don’t come to see this. More to the point, the people living there should have a better, healthier environment. How do we make that happen, and become catalysts for change—all over the world?
Become informed. Visit some of the following websites and get involved:
www.commondreams.org
www.bagsmart.com.au
http://plasticbags.planetark.org
In developing parts of the world, more often the problem is the lack of safe disposal sites for trash. In some villages in Africa we’ve visited, a hole is dug to get clay for pottery, and it becomes the new town landfill. But also in the most remote areas, there is no plastic trash to dispose of. They have no access to it.
In other areas, particularly near waterways, access to plastic bags is plentiful, but access to trash disposal is not. People are trying to subsist and are not thinking about trashing their world. They are thinking about surviving it. Where in our priorities is reduction of non-biodegradable trash and containment of vermin-attracting dumps? My friend Sue took this picture of plastic bag litter in Siem Reap, Cambodia, jumping-off place for the famed Angkor Wat. People travel from all over the world to see these fabled temples, but they don’t come to see this. More to the point, the people living there should have a better, healthier environment. How do we make that happen, and become catalysts for change—all over the world?
Become informed. Visit some of the following websites and get involved:
www.commondreams.org
www.bagsmart.com.au
http://plasticbags.planetark.org
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Why I Bother
Last week was Operation Brightside in our area of the city. A day for armies of volunteers to clean up, spruce up, and flower up our urban landscape. Because it also coincided with the University of Michigan Alumni Association's Community Day of Service, we "volunteered" the St. Louis Chapter to be our clean-up crew. With 16 hardy souls, we picked up trash from blocks and blocks of our neighborhood. The next day, when we walked to the park along one of our routes, it was all back. Trash sprouts like grass in our corner of the world.
The St. Louis County Executive says he spends $5 million a year on crews and equipment to pick up roadside trash. What's wrong with this picture? Why are so many people so oblivious of the environmental and emotional harm they cause by trashing our neighborhoods? It's hard to feel at home or in love with a place when you are skirting plastic bags, MacDonald's wrappers, and dirty diapers.
And so we clean, day in and day out, to do something for the home we have adopted in the city. It matters to me. It should matter to every individual who calls this city home. We should all fiercely defend it and take care of it. So far, it's the only planet we have.
The St. Louis County Executive says he spends $5 million a year on crews and equipment to pick up roadside trash. What's wrong with this picture? Why are so many people so oblivious of the environmental and emotional harm they cause by trashing our neighborhoods? It's hard to feel at home or in love with a place when you are skirting plastic bags, MacDonald's wrappers, and dirty diapers.
And so we clean, day in and day out, to do something for the home we have adopted in the city. It matters to me. It should matter to every individual who calls this city home. We should all fiercely defend it and take care of it. So far, it's the only planet we have.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
World Water Day
Just in from ReusableBags.com:
This Sunday, March 22, is World Water Day - Established by the UN in 1993, it's an international day of observance and action to make safe, clean water available to all. In the developed world, our addiction to single-serving water bottles undermines responsible use of water and diverts our attention from investing in public tap water systems and home filtration.
If we each committed to making a difference today, by purchasing a high-quality, safe reusable water bottle for each member of our families, we can save both money and natural resources. I bought two 16-oz nalgene bottles that are made from safe plastics and can be used over and over. They fit into a car cup holder and have a cap on a tether that can be looped around a backpack or belt.
1.5 million barrels of oil is used annually to produce plastic water bottles for America alone - enough to fuel some 100,000 U.S. cars for a year.
Americans will buy an estimated 25 billion single-serving, plastic water bottles this year. Eight out of 10 (22 billion) will end up in a landfill, according to the Container Recycling Institute
Bottled water is a rip off – American consumers spend an estimated $7 billion on bottled water each year. And the bottles may leach DEHA, a known carcinogen, if used more than once.
Like plastic bags, these bottles will be with us forever since plastic does not biodegrade; rather, it breaks down into smaller and smaller toxic bits that contaminate our soil and waterways.
This Sunday, March 22, is World Water Day - Established by the UN in 1993, it's an international day of observance and action to make safe, clean water available to all. In the developed world, our addiction to single-serving water bottles undermines responsible use of water and diverts our attention from investing in public tap water systems and home filtration.
If we each committed to making a difference today, by purchasing a high-quality, safe reusable water bottle for each member of our families, we can save both money and natural resources. I bought two 16-oz nalgene bottles that are made from safe plastics and can be used over and over. They fit into a car cup holder and have a cap on a tether that can be looped around a backpack or belt.
1.5 million barrels of oil is used annually to produce plastic water bottles for America alone - enough to fuel some 100,000 U.S. cars for a year.
Americans will buy an estimated 25 billion single-serving, plastic water bottles this year. Eight out of 10 (22 billion) will end up in a landfill, according to the Container Recycling Institute
Bottled water is a rip off – American consumers spend an estimated $7 billion on bottled water each year. And the bottles may leach DEHA, a known carcinogen, if used more than once.
Like plastic bags, these bottles will be with us forever since plastic does not biodegrade; rather, it breaks down into smaller and smaller toxic bits that contaminate our soil and waterways.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Saving Money--What's the Downside?
Let’s face it. We’re strapped. Every penny counts. Wise saving extends our efforts from the home front to the globe. Here are some practical statistics from Reusablebags.com about cost savings.
Thermal coffee mugs:
By buying and using a reusable coffee/beverage mg, we can really make a difference. Americans discard 130 billion paper cups every year. By using my own cup, I can take coffee to go on my walks to clients and save. One estimate for those who need their lattes, is a savings of $400/year. At $4 a latte, if I were to stop every day, that would be a savings of $20 a week. For the four months a year, I’m close to a Starbucks, that’s a savings of $320. So for the hardcore coffee drinker who lives in one place, that’s almost $1,000 a year! For those times I want to treat myself to a grande latte, Starbucks gives me $0.10 off my order for bringing your own cup. I just bought two thermal mugs made out of recycled material. They are dishwasher and microwave safe, with no harmful chemicals to leach. I can brew my coffee at home, heat it up in the microwave, and dump the cup into the dishwasher when I get home.
Reusable water bottles:
Whether it’s aluminum or BPA-free polymer, a reusable water bottle, washing and reusing make so much more sense for the environment and for us. Again, I think Reusbablebags.com is low in its savings estimate of $200/year. Ever seen those yuppies wheeling big shrink-wrapped cubes of bottled water out of Costco or Sam’s?
Reusable Sandwich Bags:
Those little plastic sandwich bags add up, both in cost ($85/yr by some estimates) and in landfills. Here, I use a dual approach. I have hard plastic sandwich boxes for carrying sandwiches in a backpack, but I still use plastic sandwich bags for some things. When I do, I use them multiple times, unless they get really messy. When I sit down to make brightly colored cloth gift bags for Christmas presents this next holiday season, I’ll also make some cloth sandwich bags. By buying fabric remnants, I can make them very cheaply, compared to the $6.00 each they want on eco websites.
The trick is to play to your strengths. If you are a seamstress, go for it. If you have access to inexpensive reusables, that would be good, too. Stay aware of areas of your life in which you could economize and help the planet at the same time.
Thermal coffee mugs:
By buying and using a reusable coffee/beverage mg, we can really make a difference. Americans discard 130 billion paper cups every year. By using my own cup, I can take coffee to go on my walks to clients and save. One estimate for those who need their lattes, is a savings of $400/year. At $4 a latte, if I were to stop every day, that would be a savings of $20 a week. For the four months a year, I’m close to a Starbucks, that’s a savings of $320. So for the hardcore coffee drinker who lives in one place, that’s almost $1,000 a year! For those times I want to treat myself to a grande latte, Starbucks gives me $0.10 off my order for bringing your own cup. I just bought two thermal mugs made out of recycled material. They are dishwasher and microwave safe, with no harmful chemicals to leach. I can brew my coffee at home, heat it up in the microwave, and dump the cup into the dishwasher when I get home.
Reusable water bottles:
Whether it’s aluminum or BPA-free polymer, a reusable water bottle, washing and reusing make so much more sense for the environment and for us. Again, I think Reusbablebags.com is low in its savings estimate of $200/year. Ever seen those yuppies wheeling big shrink-wrapped cubes of bottled water out of Costco or Sam’s?
Reusable Sandwich Bags:
Those little plastic sandwich bags add up, both in cost ($85/yr by some estimates) and in landfills. Here, I use a dual approach. I have hard plastic sandwich boxes for carrying sandwiches in a backpack, but I still use plastic sandwich bags for some things. When I do, I use them multiple times, unless they get really messy. When I sit down to make brightly colored cloth gift bags for Christmas presents this next holiday season, I’ll also make some cloth sandwich bags. By buying fabric remnants, I can make them very cheaply, compared to the $6.00 each they want on eco websites.
The trick is to play to your strengths. If you are a seamstress, go for it. If you have access to inexpensive reusables, that would be good, too. Stay aware of areas of your life in which you could economize and help the planet at the same time.
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