A sea of plastic - we should be ashamed

Reported in the Sunday Times:

A sea of trash five times the size of Britain sits just below the surface between California and Hawaii in a becalmed area of ocean known as the north Pacific gyre. There, plastic waste is deposited in a slowly twisting, soupy mass by the circular pattern of the world’s sea currents.

Because most plastic is not biodegradable, almost every piece ever made is still somewhere on Earth. Researchers estimate that, out of about 100m tons of plastic produced each year, 10% ends up in the oceans.

That's so disgusting. This now goes beyond plastic bags. This is things that we probably used once and then threw away. Plastic tops of bottles, things that were completely unnecessary but were "cute and fun" little plastic trinkets made in China, or old mobile phone chargers because Nokia changed the size and we didn't know what to do with the old one.

Imagine how many of those little soy sauce containers shaped like fish there are in the ocean? Imagine turtles going "hmmm, lunch!"

So, what can we do about it?

1. Stop using plastic packaging in one area of your life. For example, buying beauty products from Lush, go no-poo, or shop somewhere like Unpackaged where you can take your own containers
2. Sign up to a local veg box delivery service, like Abel and Cole. Good for your health too!
3. Use a Sigg Water Bottle instead of plastic bottles. Just stop drinking soda and other things that come in containers. It's not worth it and bad for your health anyway!
4. Just don't buy any novelty item made of plastic. Pleasure for one minute, a lifetime in garbage 
5. Write letters to everyone you can think of. Here's one to get you started. Write to a major supermarket chain here. Keep a look on the Green Campaigns tab for responses.

Other resources

earthresource.org - a wealth of information

news.bbc.co.uk - about litter on UK beaches

http://thenag.net/ - to do one thing a month to make the world a better place

www.fakeplasticfish.com - from someone who tried to quit plastic for a year

An inspiring video about Interface, a sustainable flooring company

Comments

[Sigg bottles]

this blog gives knowledge of greenary, thats understand to the people for the helth, it is nice post.
Sigg bottles