Many seals die after becoming entangled is plastic garbage.(www.occupyforanimals.org)
Sea turtle mistakes a plastic bag for a jellyfish.(occupyforanimals.org)
I read in the paper the other day a very worrying article about our oceans.
They are very vast, but not vast enough for the massive amounts of plastics that are drifting around with the currents.
They concentrate where the currents meet up, this can cover millions of miles. The central gyre moves inside the Gulf Stream and dominates the western North Atlantic, going in a clockwise direction.
So the darn plastics continue on in this endless circular motion, unless they can sink or make landfall, where humans might clean them up.
Loggerhead sea turtles often mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, whales can think they are squid, and many sea mammals and birds such as the albatross have become strangled by the plastic rings that are used to hold six-packs together.
Over 100,000 marine animals, including highly intelligent, adorable sea turtles, whales and dolphins, die every year because of plastic bags.
Now many of these plastics just do not break down, for example a plastic soda ring from your drink can take 400 years to break down.
But, you say, there are plenty of biodegradable products floating around, they are supposed to break down aren’t they? Well yes, they photodegrade, they are made with cornstarch, so bacteria and other organisms eat away at them, breaking them up into smaller pieces.
Bird caught in plastic bag unable to free itself.(occupyforanimals.org)
Holy cow! This is even more dangerous, as birds and marine animals mistake these smaller pieces for food. What a mess. It’s a disaster. So c’mon guys, lets all help save the planet.
Just do your bit.
So come on folks, put your thinking caps on, we can’t act like trained monkeys about this. What can we do? Here are some suggestions, you may have some great ones to add.
When we go shopping, take shopping bags and refuse the plastic ones supermarkets want to give us.
Buy products in cardboard instead of plastic, or at least with less packaging, cardboard cartons for milk and juice.
Think seriously about cloth diapers, my niece runs a cloth diaper library here in Australia for people to try them, I’m sure the States must have a similar program. Plus it can save you around $3,000 per year. That’s enough for a holiday Down Under.
Talk to friends and neighbours about the problem, create an awareness.
Next time you are down at the beach, make an effort to pick up any plastics you see, this can go a long way to helping keep the plastics out of the systems of our sea friends.
Above all, don’t just do nothing, the problem won’t go away if we try to stick our heads in the sand.
Let me know your thoughts and ideas, would be great to get a momentum going on this issue. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle!
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