Why Animals eat plastic

[Catherine]

Animals in and around the oceans are eating plastic. It has been thought that this was because it looks like food. It more smell like food and triggers a feeding response.

http://news.google.ca/news/url?sr=1&ct2=...t=2&at=dt0


We have created a serious problem. Animal are eating  a lot of plastic, some of it very fine plastic. We don't know what the consequences are going to be. In what way will all this plastic harm the animals that eat it. They can't digest it and they gain no food value from it.  One thing that is certain is the fact that we are going to ingest the plastic too. We get it from the fish we eat.
No one has any idea what this will do for our health.

Do you ever feel like life is a giant lab experiment and we are the lab animals. Sadly it is.

[Tobi]

That article helped me to unerstand it a bit better now. This is devastating for marine wildlife.

I have NEVER been able to understand how so much plastic ends up in the oceans anyway! The secret is not charging 5p  (in UK anyway)for a carrier bag at the supermarket or banning bags. The secret is doing the right thing with them once we have them! For some unknown reason the 5p carrier bag charge is having NO effect on what is being tipped into the oceans! What is going on? How is so much garbage ending up in the water?

[Catherine]

I don't think charging for the bags has helped. People feel that once they have paid for a bag they can dispose of it any way they want.

I don't know what would help. People do not take the problem seriously. They routinely toss plastic garbage anywhere they want. The flush all kinds of weird things into out water system. They just don't see the connection between their actions and serious ocean problems.
I wonder if they will see a connection when they develop health issues from plastic they have ingested from the bodies of fish they are eating.

It is really an emergency, but people are not reacting. They want to think that pollution is someone else's problem or it doesn't really exist anyhow. If the oceans die we will wish we had done something better.

[Tobi]

Yes I have seen litter just tossed out of cars etc, and some of it ends up in streams and rivers. But more of it stays in hedgerows and grass verges (unless someone picks it up) Where I live I often walk along the river, and occasionally do see something floating in the water that shouldn't be there. But it's fairly rare.
But for THAT amount of plastic to be ending up in the oceans there has to be something else going on surely -on a larger scale?
I am surprised that sewage treatment systems don't filter plastic out, or anything flushed down the toilet. It seems that whatever goes into drains is going straight into the ocean. Now why?
One problem was those micro-beads which go into facial scrubs and body scrubs. We hardly notice them and they get washed into the drains. They have been recognised as terrible polluters. Most beauty manufacturers are now having to use something else.
(There never was anything wrong with oatmeal for a facial or body scrub!) Cheap, effective, healthier and not dangerous!

[LPC]

Incineration is not an ideal solution, but here in many parts of France rubbish is burnt (including plastics not suitable for recycling) in incineration plants. This is used to create electricity. Filters are fitted on the chimneys to trap any fumes.

The real answer is to stop issuing non-recyclable plastics. In France, the old-style flimsy, non-recyclable bags have been banned for many years and cannot be bought in supermarkets. People must either bring their own bags, or else pay a sizeable sum for a sturdy, reuseable bag. I'm not sure of the cost these days: maybe a euro or two. The carrot is that when a bag is too old to be used any more, the supermarkets will replace it free of charge - if the old one is brought back to the store. That system seems to work. I don't know why the supermarkets in the UK can't do the same thing.

[Tobi]

That sounds like a good system LPC.
The problem is as you say -many plastics are manufactured which aren't recyclable. And that shouldn't be happening.

[Catherine]

The micro beads are a big problem. They haven't been banned in many places. I buy from companies that never used them. As you say oatmeal is good and so is sugar. It makes a fine scrub. They also us very finely ground coconut bark. These  things are harmless to the environment and they are "sustainable", they are things we can easily produce without harm to the environment.
What we lack is a global will to do it. Not all countries care and not all shoppers care. Try talking to someone in the store and warn them about micro beads. They will shrug and buy them anyhow.

Those flimsy plastic bags are another matter. France seems to have a good idea. There is no reason to still be using them. People here like to use them as garbage bags. They are 5 c each and many people buy a lot of them just to use them for garbage. Some people hoard them because they are scared they will be banned. I can get a special biodegradable plastic bag and I use it for compostable materials. Recycling can go in the bin directly so no bag is needed. Garbage can go in a big bag that is handled differently. They do make biodegradable big bags.  I have a whole collection of reusable bags in different sizes and strengths.
There is no need for anyone to use the flimsy bags.

This article describes how the plastic ends up in the ocean.

https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&...KKKiti6bBg

This will keep you awake nights.

https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&...FfcdufJ7-g

It is an emergency  and we need the whole planet to see it that way.
However even if the whole planet is slow to respond it still helps that some countries are doing their best and some people are doing their best.