Boating amongst the plastic trash

[ITMaster]

When they go to package my groceries

I purchase at the store, I am usually asked if I wish my stuff packaged in paper or plastic and my reply is always paper. I think it is about time to consider that we should encourge the discontinuance of the manufacture of plastic packaging, since A: we will not recycle the crap, and B: it is made of hydrocarbons, a derrivative of petroleum. So oil is over a hundred bucks a barrel and we through plastic away? That makes real good sense.

 

[John]

Why this topic hasn't taken off

Ctskip writes that he's surprised that this topic hasn't taken off. I assume he's referring to why there's not more comments on this thread. I can only say why I haven't even opened the thread until now. I'm very conscious of what is happening to the environment. (One book I HIGHLY recommend is "Our Stolen Future" by Theo Colborn.) But sometimes I get so depressed thinking about the issue, especially because I feel so powerless to do anything about it and it just seems the problems are getting worse. I think that lots of people feel the same way - like people who say that they never read the news because "it just depresses me."

I've noticed that lots of sailors are very much against "big government." I can understand that, but I have to say that we need some power to put "big business" in check. After all, who decided to change from glass to plastic? True, the consumers bought the plastic, but what choice did we have? And as for "recycling" plastic - that's just a joke. Do you know what happens to the bulk of that "recycled" plastic? It ends up in huge dumps in Asia and Africa!

While we're on the subject: I was just reading a letter from some sailor who's cruising the Caribbean. He writes about some real nice island, I think off the coast of Venezuela and brags about how nice the island reefs are because "most" of them are still alive!! Remember, just a few years back when dying reefs was unheard of?

 

[Steve Dion]

I have been there and have seen it!

I must say that I have been there and have seen it. I was actually amazed the crap that is floating out there. We even saw a crab trap full of foam that must have fallen off a boat.

Unless someone like Greenpeace would get off their ass and do something productive I do not know that anyone would take on the task.

 

[dvideohd]

breaks down...

The first thing that caught my attention was the story about the container load of rubber duckies that fell off a container ship.. and the duckies escaped... The story is that they floated in Pacific currents for years... and still do....

The next thing that caught my attention was the break down mechanism.. the floating part might be good - since the material might decay via UV... but in the breakdown, the plastic appears to get get into smaller and smaller pieces.. and this stuff is going to find its way BACK to our food chain - as critters strain the water for food - and get plastic... I wonder about the long term effect here...

--jr

 

[Ross]

Eating and digesting are not the same.

You may eat as much plastic as you like but you won't benefit from the calories. Most critters that ingest plastic waste die from intestinal blockage. That is far worse than poisoning or starvation. Sea turtles often mistake floating ballons for jelly fish.
Only a study of caught fish intestines will reveal the extent of the effect of this problem on ocean life.

 

[CalebD]

Um, guys I doubt you read the article at Orion.net that JF posted

And yes Ross, eating versus digesting are two different things. Plastic does not decompose in ocean water as fast as it does in sunlight or on your boat. Therefore, that harmless piece of plastic that falls off your boat can circulate in the ocean for months, years, hundreds of years before some sea bird like an Albatross picks it up and it gets stuck in their systems as even digestive acids do not break it down quickly enough. Plankton and other small organizims do not seem to be able to break it down either. These animals and organisms do not have an HMO to check into to help clean them out. Imagine swallowing a few pennies a day and see how that made your body feel? Perhaps that analogy is false in that copper is potentially poisonous but who knows what happens with small particles of plastic that just block the digestive tracts of life forms we feed upon.
If we kill the bottom of the food chain with our plastics then what is to become of us? Wild organisms seem to think that every little particle that is floating in the water is also natural, and why shouldn't they? They eat everything they can because that is what they do.
No wonder we don't see even half of the sea life that used to be indigenous to our waters that were here more than 50 years ago.
Sorry to be a pessimist.
I think the evidence is overwhelmingly depressing.

 

[Steve Dion]

Lots of large pieces that are not being injested.

I must tell you that there are large piece of plastic out there. We saw things like dish drainers, plastic bottles etc. I doubt that many of these creatures are trying to eat this stuff when there are "smaller fish to fry". I am not trying to diminsh the need to clean up this stuff, but I doubt much of our sea life is dinning on this stuff verse their normal aquatic diet.

The only positive part of this problem is that the crap is in a circular pattern and will continue to float around in circles until we are dead or someone takes on the task of "trying to mitigate" the problem.

The good side of this is that is hundreds of miles off the coast. If it migrates to the eastern shores of the Pacific it will be much easier to capture.

 

[Ross]

I know several women that respond to the

question, "Paper or plastic?" with "I brought my own bags." And with that they bag their groceries in cloth tote bags that they made at home.

There is an abundance of fabric just laying unused in drawers and on shelves just waiting for people to use for utility bags.

I recycle everything, first at home with secondary uses and then with the county's recycling program.

 

[Bob S]

My wife included

We have bought a bunch of cloth bags from Whole Foods shopping, got a few at the Earth Fest concerts they have every year in Boston. We keep some in each car trunk to shop with. Unfortunately, I was thinking how those plastic grocery bags make great trash bags for our boating weekends. I have to rethink this. Lets face it, you can't buy anything that isn't overpackaged. Just walk down any isle at West Marine!
Depressing!

 

[Ctskip]

With the amount of trash

that we here in America produce (or should I say use), I shudder to think of the trash China and India are now producing and the amount they will be producing in the future. Never mind sending it to other countries. Most everything we buy today, it seems comes from either China or some other country. I just bought some really nice dining room furniture and it's made in Vietnam. Go figure. The trash, just getting it to my house from the warehouse was amazing. I can only imagine the trash produced just in the shipping stage! Buy six screws and the packaging is amazing. What is it going to take to get us to say stop with the trash! I see those plastics food bags blowing in the wind and in at least one tree everyday. Sickening. And the poor fish eating that crap and dieing such a agonizing death. Remember those six pack plastic holders from a few years ago, the rings? They stopped making those. I wonder what it took to get that to stop? Maybe we should look at what ever worked to get that done. When I lived in Connecticut we recycled, not in Oklahoma, but we do recycle in Texas. Whats with that? I would think recycling would be practiced across the USA. I know NYC sends most of it's trash somewhere down south around the Carolinas somewhere. I wonder if they recycle?
I liked the concept of buying plastic crap, like the cans and bottles of years gone by. I remember buying a ball glove with money I got from the cans and bottles I collected just walking along the roadside, coming home from school. Thats when a nickel actually bought something. Onward and upward.Speaking of upward... I know there have been proposals to send our trash into space. Wouldn't that be a sociologists dream 1000 years from now. Can't you see the headlines now... Space ship collides with earths trash. I'm going to go and throw up and use a paper towel so I can throw it away.

Keep it up,
Ctskip

 

[sailortonyb Allied Mis]

I hear ya, CT

I dont know if the rest of the world shops like we do. Our packaging comes in packing. Like you said, buy a few screws and that comes in a bubble pack. Then they put that in a plastic bag to go.

I can see how a lot of that type thinking may have gotten started with food protection. But me thinks that a lot of it has to do with increasing the size of the object to lessen the chance of theft.

Tony B