For Christmas, my family decided to forgo the gift giving, and instead take the money we would otherwise spend and give it to charity. The fun part comes in when we all get to make a suggestion, or a “presentation” even, about which charity we think should be picked.
I have a cause, but I’m not asking for money. I’m going to ask for a New Year Resolution.
Some of us have heard about the “floating plastic island” accumulating in the Pacific ocean (there are actually two). It appeared all over the blogosphere in late 2007. It is a place where currents carry all of our lovely buoyant garbage (plastic bags, those omnipresent water bottles, etc.) and it has collected into double the size of Texas. The beauty of it is that as it collects in a kind of “no man’s land” and so governments are slow to take responsibility. Also: out of sight, out of mind.
There is some skepticism on this. Mainly of the Why doesn’t it show up on Google Earth? variety. The plastics, however, readily break down with waves and sun, and this “plastic soup” of particulates stretches to 10 meters under the service. Rather than it being a solid mass, it is an area of high plastic-to-plankton concentration. As the plastic decomposes, it makes perfect fish food — then the big fish eat the little fish, we eat the big fish, and everybody’s stomach is full of plastic. Maybe we’ll just all live forever? (There are some videos — of noted poor resolution– of expeditions to document it.)
So maybe this big, scary “plastic continent” is being overdone? Dire or no big deal, the garbage we mindlessly throw out will affects us individually. My epiphany moment came when I was scuba diving in the Cook Islands. Crystal blue waters, 100 foot visibility, abundant marine life. What ocean garbage crisis? I wondered.
And then we turned the corner on a coral shelf. I could feel the push of current sweeping me along through a narrow channel. And there, at the sandy bottom, was a heap of trash (green 7up bottles, Joy dishsoap bottle, 6 water bottles, plastic bags, a pair of 12 sized shoes…)
It was — disgusting. I grabbed a piece and stuck it in my BCD belt, and cursed Psoidon that I didn’t have a net with me to pick up the rest.
That’s when my whole body said, “That’s IT. No more plastic.” And my New Year’s Resolution was set. Tomorrow I’ll be asking my family to join me. Maybe you’ll be inspired to do the same?
- Very simple:
-Never take a plastic bag (even if I have to run back to my car to get the reusable)
-Never buy water in a plastic bottle (will carry my own glass or metal one, find a drinking fountain, or wait for rain. Whatever it takes.)
-Avoid as much as possible all other plastic containers (you know, they do sell yogurt in ceramic jars…)
I’ll do my best. Why are you so damned good? Makes me feel bad about myself – or actually, inspires me to be a better person.
i love that comment for so many reasons.
here’s to a more flexible (but less plastic) ’09.
I love you for raising the bar. I’m all over the first two points, but avoiding other plastic containers has always seemed to daunting. This is now at the top of my resolutions list! Thanks Shannon… Miss you! RAW
Consider the third point a suggestion, not a requirement. (Just planting the seed.) Baby steps… baby steps…
i love the little things in life, and reading this struck me as particularly funny. i’m aware of (most) contemporary social/cultural/ecological issues, including refuse. (aside: plastic bags contribute less than 1% of landfill waste in NZ). about half an hour before i checked my emails, i was getting gas at a station when i bumped into a friend. we stood about for 5 minutes, talking and smoking cigerettes (yes, on the gas station forecourt). i always carry with me a nalgene bottle filled with water. it goes everywhere my campervan goes. well, in a not uncommon momemt of absent-mindedness, i left my nalgene on top of a bin at the station, and may be lost forever) The point is this: i hate the overuse of plastic. i never get bags, buy consumer products with unneccesary packaging, etc, and i love my nalgene for its simplicity. i have one plastic bottle that is sufficient for all my needs. and a half hour ago i lost it…..and it really pissed me off. and reading this website kinda encapulates why such a seemingly trivial incident like losing a water bottle can cause my blood pressure to skyrocket and set me on a course of road-rage for the remainder of my journey. it’s precisely because of ‘society’s’ indifference and apathy towards perceived irrelevant or unimportant things that we experience and behave every day of our lives, and when i find myself, unwittingly or not, guilty of acts that cause harm to the environment, i feel the guilt of the whole world….well, except France of course. F*#k them. in fact, u know what, DeJong, i’m gonna go back to that gas station and find my muthaf*#@ing nalgene even if it means rummaging through a garbage bin! Ha! in your face plastic bottle polluters. let my example be an…..er…..well, an example to u all.
good chat, DeJong.
metta
ps the irony of worrying about the global impact of a single water bottle while consuming petrolium is not lost on me. and i hope isn’t lost on u.
As any sailor who has been through the doldrums could tell you, there are similar islands of garbage in the Atlantic. It really is disgusting.
I’ve heard a few people say that just the US ‘solving’ its plastic disposal problem won’t make a significant dent, because, like greenhouse gas, the developing world is responsible for that vast majority of the world’s pollution. While this may be true, it’s no excuse for poor stewardship of the world God gave us.
Just a thought – even though these garbage islands are too remote for most fishing vessels, we clearly have the technology to skim it all up. Of course, nobody wants to own up and foot the clean-up bill. Why not put the world’s Navies to work on it, funded via the UN? I bet the US Navy could do it on their own…