Death By Plastic

There is an old adage that says if you take a frog and put him in cold water, you can gradually turn up the heat until you boil him alive. It is appropriate to this article because in this case, we are the frog, the heat is plastic and the water equates to our great oceans.

Did you know that there is a place in the Pacific Ocean twice the size of Texas that is so full of plastic that no matter how deep they go, all of the water samples have plastic in them? Yes, I know many ships dump their garbage overboard but scientists estimate that 80% of this mess came from on-land sources. This means that the plastic cup that got dropped in the street or that plastic bag you saw blowing in the wind, washed into the storm sewer and eventually made its way to the ocean trash pile.

That area of the ocean is the North Pacific Subtropical gyre. It's a place where the currents and ocean winds seem to come together in a slow circling doldrums. Scientists now refer to it as the Eastern Garbage Patch. It has come to the public's attention through the efforts of Captain Charles Moore who couldn't believe the extent of what he had found. As bad as that is, the Pacific is only the largest. The rest of our oceans have similar deposits. One report I read said they estimate that 1/4 of our oceans are polluted. That's a lot of water.

Other scientists have been monitoring the mess for over 10 years. They say it has been growing 10 fold a year since the '50s and is so large that it is no longer feasible to clean it up. It would take too much money and too many countries would have to commit to it. Our only option is to stop adding to it.

That is why it is so important to get the word out. Our governments have known about this and either because of corporate pressure or lack of funds are not going to do anything about it. This is one of those times where we have to vote with our wallets. We have to determine to refuse plastic bags ( use canvas at the store) and refuse to buy anything that comes encased in excess plastic. It's not a matter of getting rid of everything you have that is plastic because that would only add to the problem. Instead, make better choices when you have to replace what you already have.

Plastic is photo degradable which means it will break down into smaller and smaller pieces but it won't rot or break down totally. Even when it is as small as dust, it is still plastic. One of the reports that I read said that the smallest pieces of plastic bind with chemical pollutants in our environment and become toxic themselves. When fish eat them, they are being introduced into our food chain and scientists can only speculate what that will mean.

Before they reach that point, many birds think the small pellets look like fish roe and eat them. Turtles think floating bags look like jelly fish and eat them. The plastic fills their stomachs and they end up starving to death. The bird or animal will rot but the plastic will return to the ocean to continue causing problems.

What about recycling? Only two kinds of plastic can currently be recycled. (Those with the number 1 or 2 in the triangle.) Most plastics can't and even tho you are putting them in the recycle bin, they are going to landfill. You can't melt the stuff without releasing toxic fumes and it is much cheaper to make new plastic than to try to reuse it. That is why there is no corporate solution to this problem It is going to take a grass roots effort.

Is this the kind of world we want our children and grandchildren to inherit?

There are things we can do. Using cloth diapers instead of plastic, cloth grocery bags instead of plastic, use a glass or stainless steel drinking cup instead of a plastic water bottle. (You can refill your own) and even storing your leftovers in glass dishes instead of plastic will make a difference. I found a site that tells you how to turn plastic grocery bags into reusable shopping bags and other things. Avoiding plastic is best but the longer we keep the plastic in use and out of the landfills, the better.