The Plastic Continent (And What You Can Do About It)

by K. N. SINGER

Sometimes called the "Plastic Continent" and sometimes called the "Pacific Garbage Patch", it amounts to the same thing – an island of floating garbage, most of which is plastic, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. But there's a reason that some environmentalists are referring to it as a "Continent" -- this island is twice the size of Texas. How big does that make the garbage patch? More than half a million square miles.

A few facts about the Plastic Continent: - The size of the Plastic Continent has doubled in the past five years - Fish, birds, and other marine life are found to have plastic in their stomachs - In the waters surrounding the Plastic Continent, plastic bits outnumber plankton six to one

What Can Be Done About the Plastic Continent?

As Good Morning America put it when they reported on this topic, "there's no one silver bullet". Recycling alone will not stop the Plastic Continent's growth, because only 5% of plastics are recycled globally. Furthermore, plastic is not easy to recycle because of its melting point, which is much lower than other recyclables such as aluminum and glass. The low melting point interferes with the recycling process, leading much of the plastic tagged for recycling to be discarded.

And anyway, what happens to recycled plastics? What is it recycled into? Why, once again, it is recycled into items such as drink bottles, straws, plastic cups, and so forth – items that will inevitably be thrown away at a rate of 95% to every 5% recycled.

A clean-up of the continent presents its own problem: what to do with all the recovered plastic? Some of it can be recycled; some of it cannot be. That means it will end up elsewhere, such as in a landfill. Scientists have yet to agree upon the best way to eliminate the Plastic Continent.

Please Use Less Plastic

We were trained by eager 1950s and 1960s advocates of "progress" to lead a throwaway life. In 1955, Life Magazine announced that this new "Throwaway Living" would liberate housewives and lead to a better world. We were so well trained in those decades that today we find the habit of using plastic hard to break. But we can each do our part to reduce the amount of plastic being used. Here are a few suggestion:

- Stop buying drinks in plastic bottles. There is mounting evidence that plastic bottles may be unsafe anyway, and the environmental toll is horrendous. Kick the plastic bottle habit, and drink your water the old fashioned way – from the tap or the Brita. - Get reusable grocery bags, and remember to bring them when you shop. - Don't use plastic food containers. You can turn old spaghetti sauce glass jars into excellent food storage containers which are both safer and better for the environment. - Don't use plastic sandwich bags, but if you do, wash them out and reuse them.

It won't be easy to kick the plastic habit, but we have to do it, or soon we will have no ocean left. And as plastic works its way into our food supply, we will be eating our own garbage.

The Poop on Plastic

We're not talking a little poo, we're talking mountains of waste here, folks!

According to various sources around the web:

• There are an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags consumed worldwide each year.
• That comes out to over one million per minute.
• Billions end up as litter each year.
• According to the EPA, over 380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps are consumed in the U.S. each year and,
• According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. uses 100 billion plastic shopping bags a year.

• Hundreds of thousands of marine mammals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags that they mistake for food.
• Plastic bags don't biodegrade, they photodegrade. This means when in the sun, they break down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways as well as entering the food web when animals accidentally ingest the bits.
• It also means that when the bags end up in the Land Fills, buried with other garbage and hidden from the sunlight, they don't degrade.
• According to the nonprofit Center for Marine Conservation, plastic bags are among the top 12 garbage items most often found in coastal cleanups.

So, we eco freaks have been trying to tell everybody about the problems with plastic for awhile now. In Thorne's World we recycle a lot of it and reuse and reuse and reuse. San Francisco, (smarties that they are) has actually outlawed the use of plastic shopping bags in supermarkets and pharmacies.

In Ireland an extremely successful plastic bag consumption tax, or PlasTax, introduced in 2002 reduced consumption by 90%. Approximately 18,000,000 liters of oil have been saved due to this reduced production. Governments around the world are considering implementing similar measures.

Move over Ireland! Thanks to Congressman Jim Moran, a Northern Virginia Democrat, the "Plastic Bag Reduction Act of 2009", an earth friendly piece of legislation if ever there were one, was introduced on Earth Day this year. Since voluntary eco awareness and responsibility are not the strong suit of a consumer driven society, this legislation would hit folks where they will actually feel it. Their wallets! The bill proposes a 5 Cent per bag charge to hopefully encourage reusable bag use. The legislation would allocate the funding generated to land and water conservation programs, to lower the national debt, and to cover the costs businesses to implement the program.

So what can we do to reduce our dependance on those pesky toxic plastic single use shopping bags now, so we won't get caught short and have to pay real cash money when this legislation goes through in 2010??

PRECYCLE

Precycling is considering the garbage you're going to make before you do it. Think about the packaging on the products you're about to purchase. Is there a more eco friendly choice? Try it! For a serious lesson in plastic precycling, head on over to Fake Plastic Fish! This is one dedicated gal, and there is a lot of valuable information on her site. Feeling frisky? Take the Tess' Trash Challenge.

Remember to take your own reusable bags with you when you go shopping. canvas, string, recycled fabric, hemp; anything but single use plastic!!

RECYCLE

Take the bags you already have back to the supermarket's recycling bins.

REUSE

Okay, I'm not talking one reuse then toss them. I mean, that would help a little, but why not consider creative ways to reuse those bags until you can't reuse them any more?? Every time some non eco friendly dork of a company sends me a shipment packed with those awful styro peanuts, I put them in plastic bags. When I send something that needs packing protection myself, I leave the peanuts in the plastic bags, loosely, with a note asking the receiver to please recycle them again! I have a couple of repeat customers, whom I also purchase from and we have sent the same plastic bags full of styro peanuts back and forth 10 times! We live in the desert and spiders and sand gets into everything!! When I put my shoes in the boxes in the bins that I use for storage, I wrap them in plastic bags first. It keeps the sand and the creepy- crawlies out! I do the same with my winter clothes storage (and sprinkle some dried herbs in so they unpack smelling yummy!)

UPCYCLE

Upcycling is making something new and cool; even artistic, out of refuse. Check out my links and How-to's on making cool stuff that will last practically forever out of those single use plastic shopping bags.

What do you do to reduce the amount of plastic you consume? How do you recycle or reuse it? Have you ever made any of the upcycled crafts at the link, or have projects of your own to share? Tell me about it, or leave the link to your own plastic post or tip in comments and I'll visit and comment at your blog.

© Terese Hartjoy, 2009