Sunday, May 17, 2015

The Perils of Plastic

Pathetic Plastic & Evil Styrofoam.  Ask my 3rd grader what I hate, and he'll come up with one or the other.

It's amazing too, regarding plastic, as it is everywhere.  A trip to the grocery story will confirm it. I've gone off before on plastic wrapped apples & bananas.

The following video (of the same name) from It's A Plastic World does an interesting and thorough job of showcasing just how prevalent plastic is

 

Additionally, here's a startling article from One Green Planet I just ran across further indicating the perils of plastic.  It's headline says it all:
700 Marine Species Might Go Extinct Because of Plastic Pollution. Here Are 5 Ways You Can Help!
Some of the highlights:
  • The EPA has indicated 32 tons of plastic waste are created a year.          (32 tons?!  Plastic is light, so the vast bulk of that is hard to wrap your mind around!)
  • Only 9% of that is recovered.
  • All known specials of sea turtles and half the sea bird species have had run-ins with plastic (either entanglement or ingestion).
The upshot...a continued course could lead to extinction of multiple species AND toxicity on our dinner table.  But, I like that this article adds some ideas to help turn that around.  Small things each one of us can do to take action from moving to reusable, non-plastic alternatives, taking our own bags to ward off using items like plastic backs which were created to be discarded, and moving away from both synthetic fibers and microbeaded products.  By using our spending dollar as the decision maker, we can make a difference.  


For some more good ideas, check out this "Plastic Detox" poster:



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