marine – A Home by the Sea

I imagine it started off so well.

There you were, sitting by the side of the lake, on a saturday night, admiring the moon reflecting on the water, the tide gently lapping a romantic lullaby in your ears.

The night was young and you got carried away in the moment, perhaps with your loved one by your side?

But did you remember to take your rubbish with you, when you left?

This sight greeted me on my walk this morning at 6am.

An almost empty can of whisky, a plastic bottle half filled with juice, and some leftover food in a single-use plastic bag.

Dear Litterbug:

If I knew where you lived,

I would gladly return your left belongings to your door.

Did you not realize perhaps that this lake opens out to the sea? A sea where marine animals and fish live? Someone’s else’s home?

When you finished eating your take out meal, (or take away, if you are an Australian), did you not walk directly past the bin? It takes but a second, to look and check for a nearby rubbish bin/trash can and dispose of your waste in a bin that waits there just for that sole purpose. A bin, which has been put there for your convenience. A bin which you might even pay for, with your taxes, or as part of your council rates.

Did you not see the location of the bin was a mere 10 – 20 steps behind you, depending on your height, of course?

Your thoughtless act of carelessness contributes to contamination of our waterways with plastic wastes.

Thanks to you, it will take 20 years for that one plastic bag to break down in the environment and even after that, will still pose a threat to fish and other aquatic life, entering their bodies in the form of micro-plastics.

Fish or aquatic animals, that you, yourself, might eat one day. This means you will also ingest micro plastics in to your gut. Just like this whale. Plastic didn’t do him any good.

If you are a turtle, whale, dugong, or larger marine animal, you might ingest the whole plastic bag, and who could blame you, as bags do look like jelly fish. For these creatures, the consequences are fatal.

All because you forgot or couldn’t care, to dispose of your leftover waste in a responsible manner.

Plastic Waste:
According to an estimate, every year Americans use approximately 1.6 million barrels of oil just for producing plastic bottled water. Plastic waste is one of many types of wastes that take up to 1000 years to decompose in landfills.
Plastic bags take 10-20 years to decompose, while plastic bottles take 450 years.

Aluminum Cans:
Every minute, every day, more than 120,000 aluminum cans are recycled only in America. But, at the same time, every three-months, enough aluminum cans are thrown away in America that can rebuild the entire American commercial air fleet.
Aluminum cans take 80-200 years in landfills to get completely decomposed.
environment.about.com

Be a responsible citizen, your planet needs you to be one.

My 2020 plastic audit for the lake near my home continues.

Do you want to conduct your own plastic audit?

Join me in documenting the amount of waste you find in your local environment.

Make people take notice.

Take a Helping Hand Grabber Tool, (so that you don’t have to touch the rubbish), and dispose of it responsibly, for the folks who haven’t yet developed that level of thoughtfulness.

More Ideas to Reduce Plastic Use

https://forestwoodfolkart.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=21542&action=edit

Every day my daily walk takes me to the lake, usually with the resident Schnauzer in tow.

It is a beautiful walk and the developer and Council maintain the street and pathways to a high standard. They want to sell the remaining blocks of vacant land, I guess.

What is very disappointing is that, each and every day, I find some plastic washed up by the shore of the lake.

Each day, I hope to find a clean and clear shoreline. Predominantly, I find plastic wrap for packs of single use plastic water bottles and plastic packets for food floating on the water or washed up on the rocks.

Each day, I remove this plastic and dispose of it in the rubbish bin; it’s just a few steps away.

In this small corner of the world, on just one corner of the lake’s shoreline, I am removing 2 – 10 pieces of plastic rubbish each and every day. So, let’s put that in a global context:

“Every year, about 8 million tons of plastic waste escapes into the oceans from coastal nations. That’s the equivalent of setting five garbage bags full of trash on every foot of coastline around the world.” (EACH YEAR!)
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/plastic-pollution/

Plastic pollution has become one of the most pressing environmental issues, as rapidly increasing production of disposable plastic products overwhelms the world’s ability to deal with them.

Single-use plastics account for 40 percent of the plastic produced every year. Many of these products, such as plastic bags and food wrappers, have a lifespan of mere minutes to hours, yet they may persist in the environment for hundreds of years.

Some plastic contain additives to make them stronger and in doing so, extends their life meaning they will take up to 400 years to break down. At the rate plastic is being produced, we will be drowning in plastic, in 400 years.

Plastics – Key Facts

Half of all plastics ever manufactured have been made in the last 15 years.

Production increased exponentially, from 2.3 million tons in 1950 to 448 million tons by 2015. Production is expected to double by 2050.
Trash is also carried to sea by major rivers, which act as conveyor belts, picking up more and more trash as they move downstream. Once at sea, much of the plastic trash remains in coastal waters. But once caught up in ocean currents, it can be transported around the world.

More about plastic-pollution

We urgently need to reduce or eliminate our use of plastic.

Long-term effects of Plastic Pollution

It upsets the Food Chain
Marine animals mistakenly ingest plastics (Turtles mistake plastic bags for jellyfish)
Creates Pollution of waterways from chemicals entering ground water
Land Pollution from Landfill
Expels air pollitspollutathe manufacturing process
It Kills Animals – seabirds and fish get caught inside or around it
It is Poisonous – to humans and animals
It is Expensive – it costs more to produce than a reusable natural bag

I will be keeping a count of the days without plastic.

How You Can Help

Responsibly dispose of plastic pollution when you find it in your local area
Say No to Plastic bags from shops
Use re-useable cloth or string bags
Refuse products with excess packaging
Ask if the packaging is reuseable PRIOR to purchase- especially with take away food, smoothies, coffees and drinks, so that business owners try to be more selective in their product choice
Carry a refillable drink or coffee flask and reusable straws
Don’t buy bottled water – or drinks in plastic bottles – preference glass containers where possible
Be responsible with your own rubbish when out and about