A Plastic Ocean

[Tobi]

I have four sturdy long-term use bags. 2 were free give-aways, and 2 I bought but they were only 80p each.
Now I started to use the bags for collecting sticks and kindling for the fire. So they do a great job for that!  I load all 4 on a big metal trolley and trundle them home.
I shop online now for groceries and always ask for my groceries to be delivered without bags. So when the delivery man comes, he carries the stuff to my door in big plastic boxes, then I take everything out, put it on the stairs quickly, then sort it all out when he has left. It only takes 5 minutes!

[Catherine]

You don't use the one use bags at all and you don't miss them.
I don't use them and I don't miss them.

We just don't need to use those one use bags. They are such a foolish invention. I wonder whose idea they were.
While we cling to using bags and water bottles we are going to keep destroying the oceans. It could take centuries to clean up the mess we have created in a short number of years. I still remember us using paper bags. The plastic bags seemed like such a good idea when they first came out. We just didn't think about what would happen when we discarded them.

For a while every body was trying to use reusable bags. Now people boldly ask for the plastic bags and they don't care what that does to the planet. For some older people they don't care because they won't be around to see the results. It is someone else's problem. That is a very selfish attitude. They are choosing to leave future generations with big problems to solve.

The jokes on them. They are living longer than they expected and they will be around to suffer some of the consequences of their selfish behavior.

[LPC]

(03-05-2017, 05:21 PM)Catherine Wrote: For some older people they don't care because they won't be around to see the results. It is someone else's problem. That is a very selfish attitude. They are choosing to leave future generations with big problems to solve.

This is indeed an attitude which I find hard to understand. Do these people not have children or grandchildren, or even if not then perhaps younger brothers or sisters or nephews and nieces?

Even if one were totally alone in the world, with no living relatives, the moral responsibility to honour and protect this world remains - and it is a vitally important moral obligation. What a mess we humans have made of this earth. If only we could live more in harmony with nature, as other animals do....

[Tobi]

I think maybe it's about 'turnng a blind eye'. Many people don't think about anything but their own concerns and their own little world. They assume what happens in the Pacific Ocean has nothing to do with them at all.

I always think it's not so much that the plastic bags exist, as what people choose to do with them. Of course, even with a well re-used plastic bag, which hasn't been thoughtlessly discarded, when it becomes unusable any more there is still some plastic to be got rid of.
Well...why aren't they made of recyclable materials? And why aren't ALL plastic tubs, containers, etc made of recyclable material? If these items were, that would be okay, and they could be collected by the recyclers each week.

But people continue to throw their junk away thoughtlessly. Sometimes into a river, or out of their car windows! Those are the ones I CANNOT understand. There are at the moment, about 50 or so energy drink cans which have been just dumped along a grass verge near where I live. I shall collect them up when the weather is better than it was today.
Now why do people do that? It is so easy to just put them out for the recyclers. So that person collected 50 or more cans and then just chucked them on a beautiful country lane!
So it makes me wonder....even if the bags were recyclable, would they meet the same fate with people who only have half a brain?

[Catherine]

Quote:Even if one were totally alone in the world, with no living relatives, the moral responsibility to honour and protect this world remains - and it is a vitally important moral obligation. What a mess we humans have made of this earth. If only we could live more in harmony with nature, as other animals do....

Many people don't have a sense of moral responsibility. Their morality is whatever they can get away with. They have no idea that they owe the planet anything. They can't think in global terms. They just think in terms of what they want right now. Many don't think in terms of being responsible for their own health and live very unhealthy lives. When that catches up with them they are very upset and want someone else to fix it for them. They want some pill that will make them healthy again with no effort on their part. Even the slightest effort towards helping the planet is more than they are willing to do.

We have a very good recycling program in Toronto. They pick the recycling up from people's homes regularly. There are recycling bins on the street next to the garbage cans. There are recycle bins and garbage cans everywhere. So, does that mean we have no litter on the streets and along our streets, rivers, ravines and the lake shore? NO! We have garbage and recyclable materials discarded by thoughtless people everywhere. I have seen people throw the stuff on the ground right next to the bins. Why wouldn't a person just put it in the bin?

We have made it so easy to recycle and people still don't do it. I can picture your lane in the beautiful countryside, covered in empty cans and bottles. People seem to think that once something leaves their hand it is no longer their responsibility. I wish there was some way to gather up the mess and return it to the people who dumped it.

Since we can't do that, those of us who care will be out there picking up garbage as soon as it is warm enough. Someone has to do it. Tobi, I know you will be out there as soon as you have a nice day. I just hope that other people will learn from your example. The day that there are more of us picking up litter than discarding it we will make progress on cleaning up the planet.

I just don't know how we are going to fix the oceans.

[platy]

On a tv show they were talking about those take away coffee cups from starbucks and the like, and how they are misleading people to believe they are recyclable. Printed on the sleeve it may say 100% recyclable, which leads people to think the whole cup is. However the cup is lined with polyurethane. When non-recyclables are mixed with recyclables the whole lot then just ends up in landfill.

When this was mentioned to the CEO of starbucks he said they're trying to encourage people to buy a reuseable coffee cup and they won't be changing their take away cups, even though there was a more environmentally friendly option that could be wholly recycled because $$$.

The woman commenting on the show said that if she were to buy a reuseable coffee cup and remember to take it around with her then she should be rewarded with free coffee.

And that's just it. People feel they must be rewarded for doing the right thing.

[Catherine]

Starbucks could be a leader in this. They could produce a special 100% recyclable cup. The planet would thank them. People can use their own mugs some of the time, but you can't always carry a mug with you.  When you look at what Starbucks charges for mugs and coffee they should give us something free.

Single use water bottles are another big problem. If I end up with one, I refill it and use it over and over. I try to carry a proper refillable bottle at all times. I drink tap water.

Anything that we use just once is a problem for the planet. It is worse when people don't bother to recycle it.  I wish we could make everyone watch A Plastic Ocean. They don't want to know, but they should have to know. Just because they don't care doesn't mean they will escape the consequences of their self centred behavior. They will be the first to complain.

[platy]

What is wrongggg with people!?

Whitney Port. I'm sure most people know of her. One of the blonde chicks from tv show The Hills.
Anyway, recently she, along with brand Cheeky, have created a line where for every pack bought, a hungry person is provided with a meal. That's great.

What really bothered me is the line is all disposable, single-use party ware. And I'm thinking whyyyyy. Just what the world needs, more single-use plastic crap. America isn't exactly known for its recycling. And people are going to buy them because they're cheaper than most and they're created by Whitney.

So I've been speaking with Whitney and the Cheeky brand, expressing my thoughts on their clear disregard for the environment that they expect to keep producing food for all these hungry people. And I was pretty much told that it's A-okay because their plastic is recyclable and has the recycle image on the packaging (which is also plastic) *face palm*

Money certainly makes the world go round, but you can't eat it when there's nothing left.

[Catherine]

Even if their stuff is completely recycleable(do we believe it?), that doesn't mean people will try to recycle it.
I do mean "try to recycle it" because many places do not have recycling programs.

They would be better to produce a product that is biodegradable. We are working to produce a self driving car. What we need is "self destructing" plastic.

Like you said...What is wrongggg with people!?