Whales rescued from plastic

[Catherine]

It is a sad reality that the oceans are filled with plastic and many animals die as a result. It is fortunate that there are people out there trying to help.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/16...31366.html

For at least one more whale life is better. Now what about all the rest.
We do need to reconsider our use of plastics.

This goes with the issue and is worth watching. It is no good to care about animals dying from plastics if we don't stop throwing them out.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/star...d=27531402
We can rescue the whales and we can stop them from getting hurt in the first place.

[Tobi]

Plastics are just dreadful. Yet we have to have life with them. Getting away from them now is almost completely impossible. I remember when I was a little child in the 1950s. Most things did not come in plastics. People used shopping bags or baskets to go shopping. Food was stored in ceramic dishes or glass. Milk came in glass bottles....food items we bought from small shops were wrapped in greaseproof paper, or even newspaper.....I can remember the Tupperware explosion which happened early 60s. Everyone had to have Tupperware all of a sudden....then cling-film, etc. Then supermarket plastic bags. And now everything is plastic.
Now -okay, I accept that we have to have plastic in our lives....but what I'd like to ask is -what are these items doing IN THE SEA? How the heck do they get there?!
Rhetorical question really. Answer: someone, somewhere DUMPS them in there!

People dump plastics on my lane (soda bottles, fast-food wrappers, yogurt cartons.....) Of course I pick them up. But I am getting annoyed about it. I would like to put a sign up at the end of my lane saying "Anyone intending to throw anything out of their car windows, which will not break down in 300 years or even more -has to pay a toll to pass."

[LPC]

Oh, no, not humans again! How many non-human animals pollute the earth with plastics? We're at it all the time.

Where we live in France, all rubbish which is not suitable for recycling is incinerated and the resultant energy is converted into electricity. It can be done, but it needs investment to set up the technology (including special filters to prevent toxic fumes being emitted).

Like Tobi, I can remember having butter sold in paper covering, and then stored in a glass dish. Milk in glass bottles, delivered by a milkman, bread delivered "as is" without wrapping, fish and chips sold in newspaper with no plastic trays underneath, sauces sold in glass bottles rather than plastic, etc. Even today, bread is usually delivered or sold here in rural France without any wrapping at all. We could go back to paper and glass again (which are easier to recycle, too), but somehow the world has moved on and doesn't want to give up the convenience of light plastic bottles which can easily be dumped - especially on Tobi's lane, not LOL! :not-lol

As usual, it is the animals who are innocent of such crimes against nature, but they are the ones who suffer the most. Thank you for making us aware of this latest threat to marine life, Catherine. BTW I found these two pages which are equally alarming: http://www.cookiesound.com/2011/08/the-g...age-patch/ and http://worldoceanreview.com/en/wor-1/pollution/litter/

[Catherine]

Plastic pollution is entirely our fault. Since we are the only species that uses plastic, we can't blame anyone else.

Plastic is very good and there are times when it is the best material for the job(disposable one use medical supplies). However, as usual with us, once we developed plastics, we went crazy and used them for everything. Because they were cheap we used them once and threw them away, often as not in Tobi's lane and other places where they should not be. (I know how frustrating that can be)
Responsible people run around and pick up other people's discarded plastics, but most just let them get washed out to sea. It doesn't help that some places actually dump their garbage in the ocean.

Now we have a crisis and it is part of a bigger eco-crisis that involves global warming and pollution. We need to act quickly and decisively to fix things, but it has to be on a global level. I don't know if we are capable of working together as a species.

In the mean time, it is good to reuse, reduce and recycle plastics. If we all try we can keep things from getting worse.
I can't imagine how we are going to fix the problem of giant floating islands of plastic waste. I had never even heard of the fine micro bits of plastic. That is a whole new level of problem.

[Tobi]

Thanks for that link, LPC. I posted the little video to Twitter. (the plastic bag's journey to the Pacific.)
Wow! Those 'islands' of plastic rubbish in the oceans are the stuff of nightmares. But they are real. I had no idea.

Today I picked up another plastic bag -dumped out of someone's car -on my lane.
WHY? WHY do people have to do that? Please, people -don't do that any more!

[Catherine]

Take your lane and multiply it round the world and that is pretty much what is happening. They don't respect your lane and they don't respect the rest of the planet. Maybe the penalty for littering should be community service, picking up trash along the rivers and shorelines. Repeat offenders have to care for animals damaged by litter. Hard cases get to go and live on trash island.
That sounds like a plan.


I finally got to see the plastic bag video. It just wouldn't play the other day. What a well done movie. I think they should play it everywhere. I do not know how we can begin to fix this problem.