Is Our Legacy One Of Plastic?

An editorial from the New York Times:

August 27, 2009
Editorial

Our Plastic Legacy Afloat

Until recently, the earth had seven continents. To that number, humans have added an eighth ­ an amorphous, floating mass of waste plastic trapped in a gyre of currents in the north Pacific, between Hawaii and Japan. Researchers have estimated that this garbage patch may contain as much as 100 million tons of plastic debris and is perhaps twice the size of Texas, if not larger.

Across the world’s oceans there are still many more millions of tons of floating plastic, most of it originating from land, not ships. All of this solid waste is bad news. It traps as many as a million seabirds every year, as well as some 100,000 marine mammals.

Now comes what could be more bad news. A new study, announced at a recent meeting of the American Chemical Society, suggests that plastics in seawater break down faster than expected. As they do, they apparently release contaminants, including potentially harmful styrene compounds not normally found in nature. This was not merely a laboratory finding. The author of the study, Katsuhiko Saido, a scientist at Nihon University in Japan, found the same chemical compounds in seawater samples collected near Malaysia, the Pacific Northwest, and in the northern Pacific.

The effects of these broken-down plastics on marine organisms is as yet unknown, and they will be harder to measure than the damage that plastic refuse does to sea-life. But adding to the contaminant load of the oceans cannot be a good thing.

What we are seeing here is yet another of the large-scale, potentially tragic, uncontrolled experiments that humans have conducted on their environment without intending to. And though we cannot do much about the millions of tons that have already been sent to sea, we can at least begin to ask ourselves, when we get ready to pitch a plastic container, where is this likely to end up?

Check out my articles on this issue:

The Great Pacific or Eastern Garbage Patch

Environmental Dangers of Plastic Bags

Bottled Water Versus Tap Water, Which is Better

The Dangers of Plastic Bags

More and more people are becoming increasingly aware of the problems associated with plastic bag use. This is evident by the number of retailers (Wal-Mart, Target, Harps, Publix) that now sell their own versions of reusable shopping bags. This is wonderful! What a terrible thing, to manufacture (with petroleum, a valuable non-renewable resource) a plastic bag that is meant to be used ONE TIME, then thrown away! We are indeed a Throw-Away Society, which is contributing to many of our environmental problems. I've outlined many of the problems with plastic bags in this article, and I encourage everyone to take a look at this powerpoint- it is pretty powerful!

Here I'm going to go on a rant... Republican or Democrat, I CANNOT understand how the environment, the place in which we all live and that we depend upon for survival, has become a political issue!!! Simply put, we degrade environmental quality. Period. Whether it's littering the countryside with plastic bags, emitting CO2 into the air when we drive our cars, or applying pesticides and fertilizers to our crops and lawns which then run-off into the water supply, lowering water quality, we definitely do things that make the environment a little dirtier each day. And, then, we must live on the land, breathe the air, and drink the water... and somehow this fact is political in nature? In researching the effects plastic bag use is having on our world, I ran across this FOXNews article, and was dumbfounded... the title says it all: Plastic Bags Evil? Think Again, Some Scientists Say. Okay, really? I mean, seriously??? Now we've gone SO FAR OFF THE DEEP END that we're going to take this indesputable environmental problem, politicize it, and actually try to suggest that plastic bags are GOOD. By all means, keep on using them! As a matter of fact, double- no, triple-bag those groceries! Use up those fossil fuels - I mean, they're not running out either! We'll just pump it out of ANWR and build more off-shore oil rigs, problem solved! Keep filling our oceans and landfills with trash, who cares! I LOVE to look at all that litter, don't you? I WANT a landfill in my backyard, don't you? I mean... are you KIDDING me? Get a grip Fox- some things just aren't worth reporting on. Did you REALLY mean to go there?

About a year and a half ago, for Christmas, my friend Ambre got me a set of Envirosax reusable shopping bags, and I LOVE THEM. I love that each time I use them I'm not accumulating more plastic bags in my garage! Plus, they're strong, durable, compact (a set of 5 rolls up into a handy sack and fits into my purse), and hold a lot more groceries than the plastic sacks (I can fit about 3 sacks worth into each one), making carrying in groceries a two-trip event! I love them, although there are many companies now making reusable shopping bags! Or, of course, you can just pick them up at your local supermarket! Some stores are so progressive, like Ozark Natural Foods here in Fayetteville, that I actually get a nickel back for each of my own bags that I use!