Brain Food: Plastic Ocean
People ask EnviroWoman “What have you got against plastic?”
Well, it bugs me that almost every piece of plastic ever made still exists and will for who knows how long. We assume it just ends up in landfills… ‘so hey, no big deal’. But it doesn’t. Often it ends up in our wild areas….and in our oceans where it can have disastrous effects.
That’s why EnviroWoman recommends you take 20 minutes out of your life and read a pretty fabulous (and scary) article…Plastic Ocean. It’s a great read with sad, sad pictures too.
It starts by introducing you to the North Pacific subtropical gyre, a 10-million-square-mile area 800 miles north of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. It’s very calm water, so garbage that makes it’s way there accumulates. Scientists call it the “Eastern Garbage Patch” and the trail of plastic trash goes on for hundreds of miles covering an area twice the size of Texas.
Minuscule pieces of plastic, some barely visible to the eye, are everywhere and the water contains six times as much plastic (by weight) as it does plankton. Isn’t that super super scary?
The plastic makes its way into the food chain and is consumed by whales to zooplankton where it disrupts gene activity, digestion, and causes cancer. Seabirds wash ashore in startling numbers, their bodies packed with plastic, things like bottle caps, cigarette lighters, tampon applicators. (One animal dissected contained 1,603 pieces of plastic.).
More than a million seabirds, 100,000 marine mammals, and countless fish die in the North Pacific each year, either from mistakenly eating plastic garbage or from being ensnared in it and drowning.
And it gets worse…
The North Pacific gyre is only one of five such zones in the oceans. Together, they cover 40% of the sea, one-quarter of the earth’s surface…that means 25 percent of our planet is ‘a toilet that never flushes.'
The article then introduces you to the scary world of plastic after-effects from phthaltes, bisphenol A and BPAs and how they affect not just wildlife, and lab rats…but you.
Ya gotta read it sweets…Plastic Ocean.
EnviroWoman recommends you watch this great video too, by Cryptic Moth…on the same subject.
12 comments. Read or write:
I've been kinda wondering about this for a few days...
and now it's related
The bio-based plastics of which you speak often, you know, the ones that don't have a recycling symbol yet.
I wonder if they have any nutritive value, can they be rendered suitable for animal feed, and/or can they be burned safely/simply.
i just wanted to tell you that i read your blog as often as you post...i love it!
keep up the good work!
Anonymous
Here's what I've heard about compostable plastics and ingestion: If an animal were to ingest a whole bag (just like a plastic bag), it would interfere with their digestion and could possibly cause death (the last part is EnviroWoman's assumption).
However, if they ingest smaller particles (like those floating in the ocean) the bioplastic would be assimilated as normal food and cause no harm.
That being said...maybe after bioplastics have been on the market for 40 years and the scientists have had a chance to do extensive studies we might find otherwise.
Excellent question on the incinceration issue (Anonymous, you really are just too, too smart). I'm going to have have to hunt down an answer on that one.
EnviroWoman
Emily
Thanks for the kudos. I am truly honoured that you love what I write.
EnviroWoman really does wish she could post more often. But alas, her no-new-plastic way requires alot of shopping/hunting, and then research too. I really do feel like a bit of an idiot with my notebook in hand, scribbling down notes in the salad dressing aisle, squeezing every bottle...
And some of my posts (like the Plastics 101: Bad Witch, Good Witch) take days and days and days to write.
That's enough to turn anybody hard core anti-plastic. : ( Thank you for sharing that article. I hope you don't mind if I cross post it.
Dear Envirowoman,
I've been thinking (squeemishly and sheepisly)about that article all day. Thank you so much for linking to it.
I've definately been examining my plastic consumption since reading your blog. There are food items that I regularly purchase that seem to be unavoidably accompanied by plastic:(peanut butter with the little plastic protection around the lid, ice cream with same said plastic protection, tofu all wrapped in plastic, yogurt bins all wrapped in plastic...)
If it is not too nosy for me to be asking, would you be willing in one of your future posts to clue us in on what it is that you eat that allows you to avoid this kind of packaging? Only fresh fruits and veggies and bulk bin items?
Nicole.
Cross link all ya want woman.
Yeah, an article like that really makes you think 'I must do better. And the next time I see someone litter, I have to get in their face. I have to stick up for Mother Nature.'
It also makes you think that if you really investigated any of the things we as humans develop, you'd feel like throwing up your hands in despair.
Here's a positive...I went nurdle hunting at the beach this morning and couldn't find any. I'm sure I've seen them before, though.
EnviroWoman
madame p.
Not nosy at all.
Indeed, plastic is prolific in the grocery store. Annoyingly so.
My diet is pretty much fresh fruit and veggies, fresh baked goods, rice, pasta, bulk nuts and tofu.
But I can't disclose all the good stuff in one little comment...because that's what this blog is for....
I'll admit, I've been so busy hunting for and researching plastic-free makeup alternatives I haven't been able to write about my food related discoveries of plastic free mayo, ketchup, rice, peanut butter...etc.
So Madame P...you're just gonna have to 'stay tuned' for the good stuff.
I read that article and I felt sick to my stomach. I was at work, and I had just finished eating my fast-food salad that came in a big plastic salad bowl with a big clear plastic lid, with a plastic fork and dressing wrapped in plastic, and I almost threw up. Only half an hour earlier, I was congratulating myself on choosing a salad instead of a burger and fries. At least the burger and fries come in cardboard!
I am totally, totally shocked. I really had no idea. My city has a VERY successful recycling program (I think it's supposed to be best in North America), so I just toss all my recyclables in there, and don't worry about it at all. But, now I'm looking at everything in my house with new eyes: my barbecue brush, the venetian blinds on my windows, the children's toys, my toothbrush, and on and on and on. The statement about every bit of plastic that was ever made is still with us really chilled me, plus the part about 100 billion pounds of the stuff being created every single year. Ugh.
Please keep blogging, and researching, and sharing with us. I need this information.
Correne.
You said it woman! It's all about seeing through new eyes!
Today, as I was giving my desk a no-new-plastic XtremeMakeover I was looking at my plastic-coated paper clips and thinking...'This is so un-necessary, but at one point in my life I thought...oooo...I must have these multi-colored paperclips, they are so wonderful.'
But really...do I need plastic covered colored paper clips? No. I may have wanted them at one point, but I don't need them. Plain old 100% metal ones will do.
Giving up plastic is all about seeing my world, and my purchases with new eyes. And making better, more earth-friendly choices.
I'm so glad my little blog has had the same effect on you.
Yipee!
EnviroWoman
um, what's a "nurdle" and how do you hunt one????
Great info. Happy to link from my blog - Addicted to Plastic
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