Worth the time to read. This article also has links to real, actionable items.
A few excerpts of note:
“Nearly every seabird on the planet now eats plastic. Fish are eating microplastics — tiny beads found in cosmetics, lotions and toothpaste. Toxic chemicals bind to microplastics, and fish swallow these, too. When we eat the fish, we also swallow the microplastics and the toxins.”
“Between 2006 and 2015, NOAA removed an average 37.7 metric tons a year of discarded nets from the Northwest Hawaiian Islands.”
“’When trash gets in the mangroves, which make up a lot of our shoreline, it’s virtually impossible to clean out,” says Kristie Killam, ranger for four national wildlife refuges in the Florida Keys.“
[On ONE refuge in Florida] “In 2015-16, crew members collected 474 hooks, 320 lead sinkers, 164 lures, 138 bobbers and enough fishing line to fill a five-gallon bucket — the equivalent of 1.22 miles of line.”
“Marine debris fouls shores in Alaska, too — even in the most remote areas. “It was the single most surprising thing to me when I came to the refuge,” says Steve Delehanty, manager of Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, which stretches along the state’s extensive coast and far into the Bering Sea. “The beaches are full of fishing lines, nets, buoys, plastic water bottles, and all kinds of weird stuff. Plastic water bottles are everywhere. You step in the tall beach rye grass on a remote Aleutian island, hear a plastic crunch, and it’s a water bottle hidden in the grass nine times out of ten.’“
I often hear the mantra of “recycle, and throw away your trash properly!” when I share info like this. Recycling and disposing of these items properly does help, but it’s a band-aid. Whenever possible- and I know we all come from different areas and different finances and different situations- but whenever possible, PLEASE try not to buy single-use or short-term use plastics. How you manage do this is personal, but worthwhile. Not buying these plastics in the first place is much much more effective than recycling or tossing them properly. The goal should be to have as few of these* plastics manufactured as possible, in the first place. Plastic isn’t evil, it’s an amazing invention and saves lives, but we are using it in many really stupid and irresponsible ways. Please help, if you can. A lot of the time people don’t mean to be irresponsible about plastic use, but we are a forgetful species and easily pressured by social memes.
*Again I am referring mostly to our addiction to single use, convenience plastics. Note that microplastics are not “found” during cleanup, as they are too small. Microplastics are plastics that have broken down into tiny pieces, and the pelleted form many plastics are shipped as before manufacturing, BUT also include microbeads, which are tiny plastic beads intentionally added to many items such as body wash, shampoos, hand soap, and toothpastes! Please consider discontinuing items that use microbeads, and feel free to write to manufacturers to explain why. While President Obama banned these in the US, manufacturers still have a long while to phase out their use (starting in 2017), so it’s still worth it to check and make sure your products don’t use these. Non-US folks, check our products and laws on microbeads.
