The first time I realized how much trash and especially how much plastic is floating around in the ocean(s) was when I was reading my dear friend Daisy Gilardini's blog a few years ago:
March 23rd, 2009
The other face of the
Archipelago is a very sad story. Fifty tons of plastic arrive at Midway
each year brought by circular currents, known as the North Pacific Gyre.
Tons of fishing nets, buttons, cigarette lighters, toys, dishwashing gloves, bottles, computers, crates and baskets.
About 80% of this marine trash comes from land,
usually washed away by rain off highways, open air landfills and city
streets, down streams and rivers, then out to sea. The rest comes from
ships and containers lost at sea during storms.
© Daisy Gilardini
And more bad news posted by the Center for Biological Diversity:
The plastic you see and use every day is killing endangered birds, sea turtles and seals by the hundreds of thousands. Every year animals get tangled up in plastic, or eat it, with fatal consequences.
Plastic makes up 60 percent to 80 percent of ocean debris; there are 3 million tons of it in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. In parts of the ocean this means there is six times more plastic than plankton, the base of the marine food web. The same durability we value in plastic makes it a persistent pollutant.
Plastic doesn't belong in our oceans; it doesn't belong in the diet of baby sea birds; and it doesn't belong wrapped around endangered seals. That's why we're asking the federal government to establish water-quality criteria for plastic pollution.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/201/127/926/
By the way, as many of you know by now, some of the plastic harms us, too. More info about that here: November Conservation Tip
So what can we do? Well, we are not going to get rid of plastic completely, at least not any time soon. But there are a lot of things everybody can do to minimize the use of plastic in our everyday life.
Here are seven easy tips:
1. Bring your own bag or basket when you go shopping! Try one of
these beautiful baskets: Baskets of Africa they also make
great gifts!
2. Drinking water is important but it doesn't have to be out of a plastic bottle. Instead of buying water bottles try using stainless steel or glass bottles filled with tap water. If your tap water is heavily chlorinated try filtering it.
My favorite to-go water bottle, glass but well protected: Life Factory They even have baby glass bottles.
3. There is really no reason to use plastic plates or cutlery at home other than your laziness...;-) . If you picnic a lot, try bamboo or the good old enamel dishes and maybe even cloth napkins...
4. Try buying food either fresh or in glass jars rather than in a plastic package, then you
5. can reuse the glass jars to store other food or left overs.
6. Bring your own travel mug to your favorite coffee shop, it really makes a difference and many coffee shops even give you a discount when you bring your own. More info about the impact of one-way cups : April Conservation Tip
7. Compost! You won't believe how much less trash you will have = less trash bags and you get free fertilizer, here some tips how to: June Conservation Tip
2. Drinking water is important but it doesn't have to be out of a plastic bottle. Instead of buying water bottles try using stainless steel or glass bottles filled with tap water. If your tap water is heavily chlorinated try filtering it.
My favorite to-go water bottle, glass but well protected: Life Factory They even have baby glass bottles.
3. There is really no reason to use plastic plates or cutlery at home other than your laziness...;-) . If you picnic a lot, try bamboo or the good old enamel dishes and maybe even cloth napkins...
4. Try buying food either fresh or in glass jars rather than in a plastic package, then you
5. can reuse the glass jars to store other food or left overs.
6. Bring your own travel mug to your favorite coffee shop, it really makes a difference and many coffee shops even give you a discount when you bring your own. More info about the impact of one-way cups : April Conservation Tip
7. Compost! You won't believe how much less trash you will have = less trash bags and you get free fertilizer, here some tips how to: June Conservation Tip
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