Plastic pollution in our seas

[AJ_n_Audrey]

Agree on liquid soap, or whatever they call it. I use a bar of soap. All the liquid stuff does is generate plastic containers and increase profits for the manufacturers. I give my sons a hard time about their predilection for the liquid stuff.

[bletso]

I tend to get my money's worth for things I buy/procure. Though I don't darn my socks, when the holes become too large I use them as rags. Heck, I have a bread toaster that must date from the 60's. (Put the bread in, push down the lever and then engage the timer mechanism). My wife will say something every now and again, but I just respond that it works. The only maintenance other than cleaning is I had to change the plug a while back.

The problem with carrying your own re-usable bags is only my remembering to bring them in. I dislike them immensely and absolutely hate styrofoam and will stay away from establishments that use them.

[seashine]

Reduce - I try my hardest not to bring stupid plastic packaging onto my boat in the first place... and have been known to insist on the store removing with it if the must-have item is plastic packed
Re-use - 2L plastic yoghurt buckets are great storage for shackles etc (and these days I make my own yoghurt as I don't often need more)
Recycle - often not an option in the places I travel, however here's a link to a Social Plastic site that sounds amazing: https://www.plasticbank.org/

[PLANET EXPRESS]

Just saw the video of the pilot whale dying with 17 lbs of plastic bags in its stomach...
And the Golden Arches voted to continue using plastic straws...
Least Europe made the move to stop single use plastic.
Wonder if the Golden Arches will be able to use straws over there.

[dzhiurgis]

Be aware that at the moment the more pressing issue is CO2 and global warming and manufacturing plastic over bunch of other containers (paper, glass) is orders of magnitudes more energy intense than plastic.

Yes, once we move to sustainable energy sources we can tackle plastics more seriously. For now we need to suffer.

Also it's the plastic disposal that's an issue. If you are in civilised world it's really non issue (personally haven't seen pretty much any plastic in NZ or around Baltic Sea). It's the several rivers around Asia that produce 90% of plastic waste in oceans. Your Facebook activism won't help much here.

[P3sailor]

To say that 90% of the plastic in the ocean is from a few rivers in Asia is absurd. Plastic waste is a problem everywhere!

[dzhiurgis]

Originally Posted by P3sailor

To say that 90% of the plastic in the ocean is from a few rivers in Asia is absurd. Plastic waste is a problem everywhere!

Well then World Economic Forum posts absurd stuff then https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/...ust-10-rivers/

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by dzhiurgis

Well then World Economic Forum posts absurd stuff then https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/...ust-10-rivers/

An interesting read. Thanks for the link!

[GordMay]

Ships are illegally dumping plastic trash at sea, study suggests.
Sources on land are usually blamed for most ocean plastic, but ships may be a bigger problem than thought, according to a new international study.
Ships have been strictly banned from throwing trash overboard for more than 30 years.
Nevertheless, ships are responsible for most of the bottles floating in the central South Atlantic Ocean, in contravention of International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships regulations.
“Rapid increase in Asian bottles in the South Atlantic Ocean indicates major debris inputs from ships” ~ by Peter G. Ryan, Ben J. Dilley, Robert A. Ronconi, and Maëlle Connan
➥ https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2.../24/1909816116

Many oceanic islands suffer high levels of stranded debris, particularly those near subtropical gyres where floating debris accumulates. During the last 3 decades, plastic drink bottles have shown the fastest growth rate of all debris types on remote Inaccessible Island. During the 1980s, most bottles drifted to the island from South America, carried 3,000 km by the west wind drift. Currently, 75% of bottles are from Asia, with most from China. The recent manufacture dates indicate that few bottles could have drifted from Asia, and presumably are dumped from ships, in contravention of International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships regulations. Our results question the widely held assumption that most plastic debris at sea comes from land-based sources ...

[Mike OReilly]

Thanks Gord.

Interesting paper, not only by identifying the actual source, but also that the report notes: "During the last 3 decades, plastic drink bottles have shown the fastest growth rate of all debris types…”

Instead of focusing on plastic straws, we’d do a lot more if we got rid of all these single-use drink bottles. Most especially water bottles.

[Fransw]

Sadly its almost impossible to police this. Maybe its time to really look at an environmental friendly alternative for plastic containers/bottles/bags..

[wolfgal]

hi everyone,

my feeling is that, although we haven't much of a chance at this point for returning to a pre-plastic era, i have noted that more and more people i've met in the western world are making that effort to limit their use of plastics and, especially, to leave a clean wake.

although i can get super down about it all (especially when i imagine all the STUFF that the sea drinks during a hurricane/cycle/tsunami/etc, especially when i see the birds and the sea life full of this stuff, dying off --- eco-anxiety is not a joke), we can also imagine that, these days, "leaving a clean wake" doesn't just mean not littering along one's way but actually collecting plastic and debris along one's path.

and yes, things are changing:

i've been picking up garbage, especially on beaches, for decades (it's quite addictive actually). in the 80's, folks with their plastic bags collecting gorgeous shells simply had no clue what i was doing... they saw me as a young thing in a bikini who hadn't a boyfriend... i could see them ask themselves if i was perhaps "a bit nutty..."

but now, now, i find that i can create huge piles of the stuff, and others will join in; and then, when good things happen (and they sometimes do), someone else will actually find a way to get rid of the piles! in one case, a guy with a jeep and trailer came around on more than a few occasions during the week i was making piles and hauled them off. (during that week, my belief in the idea of humanity was restored to some degree.)

so this is my hope: that individual efforts can be paired up somehow, combined somehow, linked in different ways so to make a difference.

i think it starts on the individual level, with realising that, if the plastic bit is there in front of ME, it is (loosely) MY problem. from here, it is down to choice... making piles does not SOLVE the problem by any means but, if they do not blow away or get slung out with the next tide, they stand witness to the fact that someone out there did what they could. someone cared.

on another note: as far as eco-anxiety goes, it really does feel good to leave a clean wake. it is therapeutic and could be a healthy thing for kids to do (especially in today's world. stress levels in young folk are sky-rocketing!). back in the early 70's, my school would have a day in which all the kids would pick up garbage after the snow melted. i remember Green-up Day more than Christmas. i loved it!

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by wolfgal

... so this is my hope: that individual efforts can be paired up somehow, combined somehow, linked in different ways so to make a difference.
i think it starts on the individual level, with realising that, if the plastic bit is there in front of ME, it is (loosely) MY problem. from here, it is down to choice... making piles does not SOLVE the problem by any means but, if they do not blow away or get slung out with the next tide, they stand witness to the fact that someone out there did what they could. someone cared ...

Kudos!
VERY well said.

[TrentePieds]

Let me add my kudos for wolfgal to GordMay's. I think there are a great many of us who do what we can to minimize the use of plastics of all kinds - perhaps with the exception of FRP boats!

But that won't solve our problem. To do that, we need to make a pile, not of plastics, but of politicians, "law-makers" and their enforcers, and, since they are all bio-degradable, consign them to the Pacific Gyre, there to contemplate the magnitude of OUR problem, while we replace THEM with others possessed of a more useful and eco-friendly ethos.

That it is so, is shown by a recent decision by the BC Court of Appeals - the highest court in the province: The court struck down a City of Victoria Bylaw banning retailers from giving away or selling single use plastic shopping bags, and compelling a modest charge for bio-degradable bags bought at the store check-out, in order to "incentivize" people to bring their own reusable bags.

The Court's reason is that because the City Bylaw in question addressed an ENVIRONMENTAL concern, and was only secondarily concerned with the operation of retail establishments, it was ultra vires Victoria City Council!!!

To empower the City to regulate the use of plastics, sez the BCCA, requires Provincial consent. The Province would not IMO give consent without Federal consent. The Province is not, not for legal reasons, but for purely political ones, in a position to challenge the Federal Government on so "trivial" a matter. You can all run this infinite regression out to its ultimate consequence without any help from me.

So who was it that forced this matter "up the line" to the BCCA? You guessed it: The Canadian Plastic Bag Association!!

As has always been the case, and evermore shall be, we have the best government money can buy.

TrentePieds

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by jimbunyard

My favorite pet peeve are the soft soap dispensers. I have no backup, but I bet water is still cheaper than fat and lye (if that's still what they make soap out of...); taking a shower at a friends house the other day, there were 11 different plastic pump or squeeze bottles around the tub alone.

Your friend have a large family? Everybody wants something different for their hair, guys don't want a floral-scent body-wash, etc. At least the soap bottles are large enough that recycling (or proper disposal) is more likely.

We have durable hand-soap dispensers (glass, stainless steel, etc) by our sinks at home which we refill from large soap bottles. Fewer bottles to dispose of, and again their size makes it more likely they'll be processed correctly.

I have not done the math to say whether bar or liquid soap is more economical, and certainly a paper wrapper around a bar is less waste than a plastic bottle. Bars have a certain wastage from getting wet in a soap dish, whereas liquid soap is less mess and less wastage.

Certainly one area to think about.