Here is an extract from an article from the last Junk Mail about a subject that is dear to the
hearts of the WAGS group - plastic!
"There are now three main types
of plastic carrier bag dished out by shops; the older,
stronger plastic carrier, the thinner de-gradable carrier
and third type made from bio-degradable plastic often
used as compost liners.
The first two are made from
petrochemicals (oil) and the latter is usually made from
vegetable starch, hence its bio-degradability. Plants still
have to be grown to convert into plastic so it
still better to have a reusable basket or bag.
Every piece of (petro-chemical
derived) plastic that has ever been made is still in
existence and will be for the next 1000 years at
least. That means every plastic tube, top, bottle, nappy,
toothbrush... the list goes on. Plastic has become a useful
part of our lives. Can we do without it? I ask the
question because it is causing a problem so huge, most of us
don't like to think about it. Ultimately though, it
affects us all whether we like it or not. My daughter recently
fished a fertilizer sack out of the river Teign and as
she walked the mile or so home, she filled it, with
plastic litter from about a half mile stretch of lane, then
she stopped as it was too overwhelming. This sack will be
sent to landfill - out of sight, but not out of our minds.
No bacteria have yet evolved that can break plastic down,
including de-gradable plastic. Instead it
photodegrades, in UV light breaking up into smaller and
smaller pieces called nurdles or mermaid tears.
Meanwhile 10% of the 100 billion
kilos of plastic produced every year ends up in the sea.
The natural forces of the oceans has gathered much of
this up into a kind of vast raft, assimilated into two
parts of the Pacific 'gyre'. This is where it is entering our
food chain as plankton eaters unwittingly take it into
their digestive systems. Larger pieces are also taken up
by some animals, 500,000 albatross chicks hatch yearly,
200,000 of them will die by consuming plastic fed to them
by the parents who confuse it from food sources. Turtles
confuse plastic bags for jellyfish and their stomachs get
filled up with indigestible plastic and these creatures
which can live for up to 200 years slowly starve to
death.
No sea animal is safe from
this ubiquity as it infiltrates up the food chain,
releasing noxious chemicals. We eat sea food from all over
the world, we are not safe. A small fraction of the
plastic we use is recycled and transformed into
other useful goods, such as textiles or plastic board for
furniture etc. In years to come plastic will be mined from
landfill as a useful raw material, this is already being
done in the US and Canada.
Reduce; reuse &
recycle! Reduce the packaging; try to buy goods that are
not over- packaged, or packaged at all. Re-use bags, even
non carrier bags; re-use them for buying vegetables. Think
"stuff". Two questions are:
-
Where does it come from (it's source) and
-
Where is it going?
If the "stuff" comes from our
environment close by, and can be safely returned to our
environment through bio-degrading, then be happy!"
Yuli Somme