You know I don’t like to get up on my high horse. Much. But I am troubled by something so vast, the problem is not likely to go away in our lifetime, or for that matter, during our great-great-great-great grandchildren’s lifetime.
Stealing a couple of lines from The Graduate, “I just have one word for you. Are you listening? One word. Plastics.”
Have you heard about this?
There is a floating mass of plastic in the Pacific Ocean that is roughly the twice the size of Texas. TEXAS!
For that matter, there are boatloads (no pun intended) of plastic bags, bottle, spoons and whatnots in all of our oceans. And the junk ain’t going anywhere, anytime soon. The plastic just keeps breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces until it is microscopic plastic dust. Marine life unwittingly ingest the stuff.
When we were in Belize in March, we witnessed the problem firsthand. Every day at dawn, the resort had a crew of Belizeans rake up the truckload of plastic that had washed up on shore overnight. Talk about job security for those guys.
We snorkeled every day in pristine waters. No plastic trash to be seen. However, on one of our trips, something was up with the tide or the vortex of waters and we were right in the thick of swimming through plastic city. It was disconcerting to see a CVS bag float by. Sickening is a better word.
What a waste.
According to renowned marine biologist and my new hero, Dr. Sylvia Earle, a whale washed ashore the California coast and the poor guy had 400 pounds of plastic in its stomach. No one wondered why it died.
I’m not saying plastic is a bad thing. What we are doing with it is a bad thing. Man is not the only culprit. Mother Nature plays a part when she unleashes tsunamis what sweep tons of debris, including plastic, into the ocean.
Those clever scientists who worked tirelessly on the development of the seedless watermelon ought to now focus their energies on how we are going to fix the problem of plastic in the ocean.
I won’t load you up with statistics and sad facts here. All you need to do it consult Mr. Google and search for “plastic in the ocean.” Reading up on the issue will keep you busy and off the streets for days. I do, however, urge you to watch this brief video on Plastic Ocean’s website.
I hope our next generation of children will not understand the question, “Paper or plastic?”
Okay. I’m off my soapbox.
Don’t let this beautiful Belizean scene fool you. Plastic lurks out there.
Great post, Robin. We are not very good inhabitants of this rock are we? I hate to see the amount of litter (particularly plastics) in the countryside, on the beach or anywhere. We’re not doing enough. I didn’t realise the volume of our oceans that are polluted. Thanks for the update. 🙂
Hello, Pete! Sorry for the late reply. Just got back in town from a visit with one of our daughters. I agree. We are not good stewards of our earth. Floating plastic mass the size of Texas! Good grief.
And yet we do nothing, we continue to add to the island. We refuse to stop, we refuse to ban the waste.
It makes me incredibly sad. Plus, if the fish are inadvertently eating the plastic, that means we are eating plastic when we eat fish!
I just saw a children’s book that talks about this issue. And I know folks are working on ways to attack the pile in the Pacific. Something akin to a floating petro-chemical recycling plant.
Well, that is an excellent idea. Something drastic needs to be done.
“The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.”
Even Shakespeare (act 3, scene ii of Julius Caesar) anticipated the problem.
Well put, Mr. Shakespeare.
I’m with you. I take bags to the grocery store. I few of them I proudly made in a post menopausal heat and they look it, but they still work. At other stores I’ve cut back as well, but not sadly, totally eliminated them. I don’t buy bottled water, but I know at times they can be very handy. Still, the world did fine with thermoses didn’t it?
I heard a comedian do a fantastic bit on our new(ish) obsession with buying bottled water. He said something like, “You do know you can get water for free out of the tap, right? What is next” Bottled air?”
Both Washington, DC, and Montgomery County, MD, have instituted 5-cent per plastic bag taxes in all stores. And many stores offer 5 cents off your bill for each reusable bag you bring in. We’ve taken to not getting any new bags whenever possible. If we can carry it to the car on our own, we will.
Plastic is forever, and we should be more careful about where it ends up. Humanity will have to pay the piper someday. As a species, we’re awfully good at assuming it’ll be in someone else’s lifetime, not ours.
Of course, what if reincarnation is really what happens?!
Good point! We may be reusing those plastic bags and bottles in our next lifetime!
Hum, I’m one of those people who still ask for plastic at the register… But hey, I then reuse them as garbage bags. I don’t buy plastic trash bags and either way, both plastic bags get into the landfill. I just can’t put my trash in paper bags because it stinks after a few days when my trash can is getting baked in the San Diego sun. And for those that have holes and can’t be used, I bring them back to the store for recycling.
I also bring my own bags, especially my cooler bag, and several stores give you a credit for that. I think I do my share of being good to the planet overall. We’re big water savers and we reuse some of the water we waster (e.g. I use a bucket in the shower to collect the cold water at the beginning of my shower, then use it to rinse the bathtub after my kids’ bath). We’re also big energy savers (except for the A/C when it bakes here) and we pick up trash almost everywhere we go. Littering is my biggest pet peeve, way more than plastic bags.
What is it with people who think it is okay to throw their fast food bags out of car windows? I just don’t understand!
And soda cans. Oh, and my biggest pet peeve, throwing cigarette butts out of their car on the freeway, to land right on the super dry on the side! Hello? No wonder we get so many wildfires that start right by the freeway.
I first learned about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch six years ago when I still taught third grade. We wrote a letter to the president and our governor asking them to ban plastic bags. I love shopping at Target because they reward you for bringing in your reusable bags . . . a nickel off for each one 🙂 It’s not a lot, but it’s a start!! So sad people don’t care more about this beautiful Earth God gave us.
I didn’t know that about Target. I will need to remember that next time I go. Plastic (and paper) bags must be a huge expense for stores. In the San Francisco bay area, stores charge 10 cents for a bag. That adds up too!
As you so eloquently stated plastic is forever! Paper is a renewable resource. I have never understood why people think plastic is a greener than paper. Apparently, too many preservatives in our food have pickled our brains.Like Kate I reuse Zip-lock bags two or three times. Good post.
It sickens me that marine life unwittingly eats the plastic. That means, went we eat seafood, we are eating plastic too! Oh dear.
This weekend, my brother and his two kids visited me. My nephew, 22 years old, thought I was so weird for recycling Ziploc baggies. He couldn’t understand why I’d go to the hassle of washing them out and drying them on the counter, when I can just buy a box of 200 baggies for a couple of bucks.
Your post explains why.
Dumb kid. (Of course, I say that with all the affection an Auntie can muster.)
I’m afraid the kids in their 20s these day are a throw-away generation. Throw it away and then buy more. However, I also think they are much more aware and conscientious about recycling what they do throw away. At least I hope.
My mom used to wash and reuse tinfoil! But she was a child of the Depression. Frugal by necessity, and those habits become engrained.
We reuse those Ziplocs, too. 🙂
Do not get off the soap box. People do not see it – and they do not realize how bad it is.
I hate plastic disposable bags – and bottles. Convenience we can live without if no one will be careful about how it’s discarded.
Yes, some is from cruise ships – much from cities and inland as street trash, stuff that just blows out of reach and no one picks it up – or dumps it in stream/rivers/along banks during hikes/storm drains/sewers – it all eventually ends up being washed downstream to bays, gulfs, and oceans.
There are huge islands of the junk floating around that are actually tracked
We see plastic flotillas every week after the tourists leave without their left-overs…all floating out to sea if not collected.
We see it on beaches – on bird’s necks – and fish, birds, animals die when it gets in their stomachs. Brutal torture. Being cruel without meaning too? Terrible harm from plastic discards.
Although much of plastic now comes from old plastic – recycling pays so little, people don’t want to bother now.
Everyone can help: purchase products made from recycled materials if you must buy plastic – if demand goes up, then maybe more people will collect the nasty stuff and get it out of the environment.
Avoid buying items that aren’t built to last….(all those old cell phones go where?)
Sorry – this is a huge issue and with a little care, it could be reduced.If people wanted to bother.
Of course, other countries will have to act responsibly, too – like air pollution. But every little step helps.
Sitting down now…..
I couldn’t have said it better myself! Well done. I love it when you are fired up! Another thing I didn’t mention in this post is that in front of the resort where we stayed, they cleaned up all the plastic (and other garbage). But cross over the property line where no one cleans it up and it is disgusting! Mountains of debris! I wanted to organize all the resort’s guests and have a clean-up party. I’d buy the drinks! I mentioned it to the manager of the resort and he said even if we cleaned it up, we would have to do it every day. An endless problem. I’m putting my sadness into action and avoiding plastics whenever I can and donating money to the Plastic Oceans Foundation.
I had never heard of crews being on daily garbage patrol before…how sad is that. Anyone who sees a cruise ship dump garbage needs to take a photo ad turn them in…I just hate it when profits are more important than integrity and survival. They know better. If I have the option, I do paper at the grocery store and we recycle at home.
So, I still cut up the plastic six pack rings so they won’t hurt sea creatures and other animals…but now hearing about the breakdown of plastic…can’t win for trying.
It’s disgusting. I wish they would ban the damn bags. You know how much less petroleum we would use as well in the manufacturing of plastic? It’s an awful mess in a very wasteful, disposable society. Cheap shit…
Good post.
The idea that marine life is eating the bits of plastic because they think it is food makes me so sad. Something must be done! Get busy seedless watermelon seed scientists!
Do we know why this is happening? From cruise ships?
The cruise ships are prohibited from dumping garbage, but when they are in the middle of the ocean and no one is looking, they dump away. Saves a ton of money on sewage fees.
The ocean currents swirl the plastics and garbage into these concentrated islands of waste. I read it is so thick, you can walk on it. It makes me sick.
Wow, this is eye opening indeed! I’m glad you got up on the soapbox – someone has to! Now I’ll need to seriously think about how to do my part! Thanks for sharing.
400 pounds of plastic in a whale’s stomach is something else. It all makes me so sad. Life couldn’t exist without our oceans. And look what we are doing to them. I never want to buy anything wrapped, packaged, or bottled in plastic ever again!
I try to limit my plastic use and recycle when I can, but I could be so much better about it. Thanks for the eye-opening reminder. It’s so sad.
One thing I forgot to mention in my post is that many cruise ships dump their garbage in the ocean. There are law prohibiting the action, but . . .
Imagine how much waste is created on those floating cities. Indeed, so sad.
I know, and I’m a big time cruiser. My bad.
Being the introvert that you are, you don’t strike me as a cruiser!
Well, I didn’t say we mingled!
I should have known. Huddled in the corner of the bar. All alone with your martini.
Make it a beer, sitting on my balcony and you’re right on target.
Right. Beer drinker. I forgot that.
Twice in the past 20 years stores offered the choice of plastic or paper. Twice the effort failed and we’re back to plastic bags again. Ouch.
Ouch, indeed. What is the deal?
Whatever the ‘trials’ were, they failed! It all comes down to the customer, darn it. 😮
Every story I shop at charges you for plastic bags. Most? A lot of us bring our durable shopping bags. Walmart puts every little thing in a plastic bag. That’s one place we might start. The city of Toronto was going to boycott plastic bags. They have 2.8 million people (overtaking Chicago)–the boycott was overturned. Grrr.
It’s up to the consumer. We must be more diligent.
I don’t understand the logic of wanting to keep plastic bags around. I guess paper bags are hard on the environment too, but at least they are biodegradable. Those reusable bags are fantastic. So much sturdier!
I went to my old hometown about seven years ago. They don’t have a garbage pickup like we’re used to. A household member must drive to the “dump’ to get rid of their garbage.
A friend gave me a tour. Bears everywhere. FAT ravens waiting. Plastic bags: grocery, garbage, everywhere. I was overwhelmed. Everyday more. A monument to the plastic empire.
Many cities in California are banning plastic bags in our stores. Most folks are on board. In my local county, the ban takes into affect this September, but stores are already not stocking plastic bags. They are only using paper and most shoppers bring their own bags. *It’s not hard to change our habits once we put our minds to it.*
I live in California too! I love those durable reusable bags. I’ve also stopped buying bottled water. I think there is talk about banning bottled water too. People drinking more water is great, but those bottles! That was what mostly washed up on the beach in Belize. And plastic soda bottles.
True, the bottles are just as bad. Let’s hope they’re next!
I think San Francisco has banned plastic water bottle on city property. It is a start!
Yeah, I heard about that. I suppose in a few month’s time, once folks see how it goes there, it will spread – I hope.