Plastic

[Zven]

Originally Posted by daletournier

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Here in the Seychelles they are very plastic conscious, and it's really refreshing to see so little. Yet I've watched Europeans chartering cats throw their cigarettes in the water, and I don't get it, just dumb!

I was about to say, don't worry about cigarettes, as they are just plant matter.
But then I decided to look it up ... and I found..:

NO, CIGARETTE BUTTS ARE NOT BIODEGRADABLE
The butt of a cigarette is primarily the filter, made of a type of plasticized cellulose acetate. It does not readily biodegrade. That does not mean it will persist whole in the environment forever though, as sunlight will degrade it and break it into very small particles.
These small pieces do not disappear, but wind up in the soil or swept in water, contributing to water pollution.

So there.

[hellosailor]

Simply put, the vast majority of people are uncaring inconsiderate slobs. While a liberal might think they can be educated, if you want a guaranteed way to end litter you have to look the the Swiss (who will stare at you until you pick up your gum wrapper) or to Singapore (where you'll get caned and then have to go pick up your gum wrapper) or to traditional Islamic justice, where they'll cut off the hand that threw down the gum wrapper. There are few three-time offenders under that cruel scheme.

Around 1990 I noticed plastic shopping bags making their way across the Atlantic from New England. Someone wanted to fetch it onboard and clean it out of the water, until I pointed out that some poor beachcomer in Brittany probably would be deprived of their free shopping bags.

I use all my "used" ones as trash bags, or give them to a local organization that needs bags so they don't have to buy new ones, so they at least get used more than once.

[gjordan]

Just wait until all of the newer cars start ending up in wrecking yards. They have so much plastic on them and it is not as easy (at this point in time) to recycle as aluminum or steel. The movie PLASTIC OCEAN should be seen by every human on earth. I have sailed through the Pacific High several times and not seen as much as is shown in the movie, but I dont doubt that there is so much more than the casual sailor can see. Another movie that should be seen by all is on utube MERCHANTS OF DOUBT. It is more political than Plastic Ocean, but effects us all. ____Grant.

[Cherod]

I read the governments have banned smoking on many popular beaches around Phuket etc because the dirty bas****s have been dropping their end everywhere , ( not before time a total ban in all open / public places )

[Don C L]

In the film it points out that it is not just trash floating in from large landmasses, but island communities get food items shipped in, in plastic, and then have no place to throw it, and no way to ship it out or recycle it.

[tv195]

It seems a few decades ago you could still sail away from it all, leave civilization and all its problems behind. These days are gone, there is no escape:

This Tiny Remote Island Has Been Named The Most Plastic-Polluted Place on Earth



"Based on our sampling at five sites we estimated that more than 17 tonnes of plastic debris has been deposited on the island, with more than 3,570 new pieces of litter washing up each day on one beach alone."
Henderson is the largest of the four Pitcairn Islands – territory that's under the jurisdiction of the UK.

[alansmith]

In California at the beginning of 2017 they started charging, edict, for each plastic grocery bag used. So many people now bring their cloth bags to buy and store their groceries in till they get them home. A good move.


I used to use plastic sandwich bags for food to eat at work. I made a promise to myself to use Tupperware and forsake the baggies. For the most part I have changed my behavior. I think for the most part sailors are conscious of their behavior. Credit card sailors could improve when chartering. I know there is a good green movement to have all boats have water makers on board to eliminate the tremendous plastic waste with drinking bottles.


I lived for almost a year in Russia...primarily Moscba and St Petersburg. You want to see a culture that needs some serious education about waste behavior....When they go to picnic along the parks and rivers during good weather...it looks like Woodstock when they leave. They do not pick up anything. I was in shock....

[a64pilot]

I was thinking the other day that any plastic container ought to have at least a 10c deposit on it. Remember as a kid saving soda pop bottles so that we could get something at the store?
The only real way to change peoples behavior is to make them pay for their behavior. You will continue to see full size pickups and SUVs as long as gas is relatively cheap, if gas were $6 a gl, then you would see behavioral changes.
We won’t get rid of excess plastic waste until it cost the average consumer, if paper were cheaper, you would see paper used. I’d love to see plastic bags at the stores cost $1 ea., then you would see reusable cloth bags or other reusable solutions.
We now use cloth bags we got off of Amazon, we used to shop at the Military Commissary and got old fashioned paper bags, but now often go to Walmart, and all those little plastic bags are excessively wasteful. I just couldn’t do it anymore.

[hellosailor]

A caveat about reusing and cloth shopping bags. Even when I'm putting the groceries in a backpack, I want then bagged in PLASTIC bags. Simple reason, really. Even before the word spread around, I was concerned about keeping my backpack clean and particularly making sure that any meat or poultry that might be a source of good things (salmonella) be confined to the plastic bag.

My pack stays clean. Any bags from poultry, fish, and meat get trashed. The other ones, still clean and dry, get passed on or re-used until they're shot.

And since most people don't give a damn, but we've foolishly allowed everyone to vote (only 20% of US citizens were given the vote in 1776, and that was on purpose) there's no way the elected officials are going to pass laws that get them kicked out of office.

Sorry, that's the way it is. "Resistance is futile."

[toddster8]

Years ago, I bought a stack of a dozen plastic shopping baskets. The stack lives in the garage, but there is usually one in each vehicle and a couple on the boat. It seems obvious: you use them in the store, why not use them all the way home? The only drawback is that sometimes you have to wrestle with checkout clerks for them. "Hey, that's mine!" This morning I filled up one at the grocery store and one at the hardware store.

Also excellent for toting things to and from the boat. I've got one here in the office that's "stuff to go to the boat."
I still bag meats and sometimes veggies, but I think that could be solved by also taking along a small washable cooler and possibly a mesh bag or two.

[Pete7]

That's kind of a neat idea, some of the UK small had shopping trolleys now have wheels and an extending handle like a suitcase which would be good.

Like Cal, the UK now charges 5p per carrier bag and the effect has been dramatic with usage cut by millions over the last couple of years. Its a move in the right direction.

Next how about going back to milk in a glass bottle delivered by the milkman.

Pete

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Pete7

Next how about going back to milk in a glass bottle delivered by the milkman.



Pete

I was thinking that this morning.
In Germany it was the Beer man. Just like the milk man of old he would come by every week and pick up your empty rack of beer and leave a full one. Now that is progress

I specifically wanted heavy cotton bags as those can easily be washed, and take almost no room on the boat, we have storage issue now, and can’t go with shopping baskets

[toddster8]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I was thinking that this morning.
In Germany it was the Beer man. Just like the milk man of old he would come by every week and pick up your empty rack of beer and leave a full one. Now that is progress

Yes, in the 60's even in Hicksville USA, the distributor used to drop by every week and exchange wooden crates of beer and soda bottles for full ones.

On the other hand, I seem to recall Belize in the 70's - the bottling plant wasn't so great with washing the empties. Serious beer drinkers carried a kitchen strainer to filter out the drowned cockroaches.

[hellosailor]

The Brits apparently have something called "trolley baskets". This isn't something you carry on the trolley car going down the street, no. Apparently they still haven't learning to speak Colonial, and they call a "shopping cart" a trolley. The trolley baskets are a set of four cloth "baskets" that fit into a shopping cart the same way we drop hanging file folders into filing cabinets. And those are attached to each other at the top with velcro, so they can come apart into four baskets, each with carry handle, or be stuck & rolled up together when empty. LOOKS like a nice way to take the groceries home without repacking them at all. But then you've still got to stow the trolley baskets someplace. And launder them. "MORE STUFF"

[250224]

Originally Posted by Don C L

But plastic is so prevalent now, it is from all of us.

This is just not true. It is _NOT_ from all of us. See https://www.theguardian.com/science/...-to-the-oceans :

"Christian Schmidt, of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Germany, and his colleagues have shown that large river systems act as super-highways in transporting plastic to the sea. Their research, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, shows that 10 river systems, located in heavily populated regions where littering is common, carry more than 90% of the plastic that ends up in the oceans. Two are in Africa (the Nile and the Niger) while the other eight are in Asia (the Ganges, Indus, Yellow, Yangtze, Haihe, Pearl, Mekong and Amur)."

One should put the blame where it belongs!

It's not good when e.g. a sailor throws plastic (or cigarettes) over board but it is totally insignificent (nevertheless I'd expect every sailor not to throw such things over board - and I'm sure almost noone does in general)