Earth Is Drowning ... In Plastic

The Earth is drowning in a sea of plastic.

There is an 'island' of plastic in the Pacific Ocean that measures some 617,800 square miles (1.6 million square kilometers). Known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, it contains at least 79,000 tons of discarded plastic and is three times the size of France and more than twice the size of the state of Texas. 

This is merely the plastic debris in one part of one ocean. Plastic is everywhere, and very little of it gets recycled. I do what I can to reduce the amount of plastic in my life. I have used reusable grocery bags for decades. I cringe every time I see someone leaving a grocery store with a shopping cart containing eight or 10 plastic, single use grocery bags. Only 1 percent (one bag in 100) gets recycled. 

I refuse to accept drinking straws in restaurants. Don't even put one on the table! Anybody who needs a straw can ask for one, or buy and carry a stainless steel straw. This week, after my semi-annual visit to the dentist for a check-up and cleaning, the hygienist started to hand me a plastic bag with a small tube of toothpaste, a toothbrush and a small container of floss. I declined and explained that I have stopped using plastic toothbrushes, opting for bamboo brushes instead. She asked where I bought them (Amazon), so maybe she will check them out as a compostable, non-plastic option.

How many plastic toothbrushes do we add to the landfill each year? Assuming you change toothbrushes every three months as recommended, that is four pieces of plastic/person added to the landfill every year. Over the course of 60 years, that is 240 plastic toothbrushes from just one person. Multiply that number by the number of people on the planet, and the total is astounding. I switched to compostable bamboo toothbrushes a couple of years ago. Bamboo is biodegradable. Bamboo plants grow very quickly. And each toothbrush comes in a small cardboard container that can be recycled, unlike the plastic-encased plastic toothbrushes.

Plastic/balloons that are released to "send a message to heaven" or to honor someone who has died do nothing but pollute the planet. They do not send a message to heaven. They do cause terrible pollution on Earth. Turtles and other marine animals can swallow balloons, thinking the balloons are jellyfish. Plastic six-pack rings should, at the very least, be cut so no bird or mammal gets caught in them.

I recycle everything I can (cardboard, paper, plastic, aluminum and bi-metal cans). But plastic is inescapable. The 'plug' in my carton of almond milk is plastic and not recyclable. Too many food items are packaged in plastic of various kinds, only some of which can be recycled. Sadly, I am unable to recycle glass containers where I live.

I have switched from using shampoo and hair conditioner that comes in plastic bottles to items that are in bar form, so there is no plastic waste. Laundry detergent is now available in forms that don't require storage in large plastic bottles. I keep a refillable aluminum water bottle in my car rather than using plastic bottles of water. For a while, national parks stopped selling individual plastic bottles of water, providing fountains for refilling reusable water bottles. But as with so many other efforts to save our environment, the current administration has rescinded this effort.

The things I am doing are small steps, but tiny steps can add up to big changes. I have not used single-use plastic bags and plastic straws for decades. That's a lot of plastic not consumed. As I searched online for more ways to eliminate plastic from my life, I saw a suggestion to stop buying frozen fruits and vegetables, which are packaged in plastic bags. I prefer frozen produce to canned, so that suggestion may be difficult for me to implement. What alternatives to frozen foods in plastic are available? I am not aware of any. I am all in favor of reducing/eliminating plastic from our lives, but I also believe we must use common sense. Asking people to give up frozen fruits and vegetables doesn't appear to be a realistic choice. Let's start by eliminating the use of plastic shopping bags and plastic straws. Albuquerque, NM, banned the use of plastic bags on January 1 of this year. Albertson's Markets, which has stores throughout the state, also banned plastic bags at its stores in Rio Rancho, Taos and Los Lunas.

Don't think plastic bags are a big deal? Consider this: According to the Center for Biological Diversity, "Americans use 100 billion plastic bags a year, which require 12 million barrels of oil to manufacture. It only takes about 14 plastic bags for the equivalent of the gas required to drive one mile. The average American family takes home almost 1,500 plastic shopping bags a year." Several countries, including the United Kingdom,Italy, Kenya, Ethiopia and others in Africa, have banned plastic bags, as have cities such as San Francisco, Seattle and now, Albuquerque. Yet WalMart, a huge corporation, refuses to ban these unnecessary pollutants. Some estimates are that WalMart hands out 20 billion plastic bags every year.

I was pleased to receive an order recently that, instead of being packed with Styrofoam 'peanuts', was packed with chopped up bits of cardboard. If I receive a box that holds any kind of packing material, I hold on to it and use it the next time I mail a package. At least then the bubble wrap or packing 'peanuts' are used more than once. I also reuse empty bread wrappers and produce bags to pick up poop from my dogs. Again, each plastic item has more than one use, and I have to buy fewer poop bags.

Plastic is everywhere, and I doubt we will ever be able to completely get rid of it or recycle it all. But if each of us takes steps to limit plastic from our lives. we certainly can make a dent in this major source of pollution.

What will you pledge to do to reduce or eliminate plastic from your life?

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