Toxic: Garbage Island - Part 1

I've read a lot of factual information about the amount of plastic in the Pacific Ocean. But seeing the story unfold on video is quite a different experience.

There's a 12-part series of these videos that you can watch online: http://www.vbs.tv/video.php?id=1485308505

I plan on watching these videos after I complete my writing tasks for the day.

It's All in the Movies

Oh, dear...I've not been a good blogger these days. So to help cover-up my slack, my friend Len has kindly offered to write a guest post on the blog. I think you'll enjoy his post and his good humor. Thanks for the guest post, Len!! :0)

In 2005 the American Film Institute published its list of the top 100 quotes from U.S. movies. Number one on the list was Rhett Butler’s final comment to Scarlet O’Hara in the 1939 classic, “Gone With the Wind” – “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” GWTW actually had 3 of the top 59 quotes on the list. “The Wizard of Oz” contained 3 of the top 100 lines, with “Toto, I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore,” coming in at #4. But neither of these quote-machine movies could compare with “Casablanca.” Starting with Bogie’s “Here’s looking at you, kid” at #5, the war-time tale produced 6 of the top 67 quotes in U.S. film history.

Interesting, you say, but what has this to do with plastic bags? Bear with me.



Two lines tied for the shortest quote – a single word. The first of these is listed at #17. Even if you have never seen the movie – and I have not – everyone is aware of a single word uttered in “Citizen Kane” – “Rosebud.” The other one-word winner came from the 1967 hit, “The Graduate.” At #42 on the list we have this bit of sage advice – “Plastics.” Ahhh … and now I have your attention.

Wikipedia explains that “A family friend, Mr. McGuire, gives Benjamin Braddock one-word career advice: ‘Plastics.’” Stephen Holden, writing for the New York Times said, “’The Graduate’ didn’t invent the use of the word plastic to signify everything phony and superficial in American life. It merely sealed it in, well, celluloid. To sneer at all things plastic was to offer an instant definition of oneself as among the young, hip, truth-seeking cognoscenti (now THERE is a word for Michelle!) locked in a moral power struggle with an older generation of square, corrupt, greedy, warmongering materialists.”

Wikipedia does not disagree, writing, “Some see this as advice on the key to corporate success – becoming shallow and fake or ‘plastic,’ which Ben struggles with, as a recurring theme in the film.” However, Wikipedia astutely takes it a step further adding, “it was also an amazing foresight: while plastics were in use in 1967, since then they have come to be the predominant type of material used in consumer products, medical equipment, packaging, and even automobiles.” And, something even Mr. McGuire probably could not have foreseen, grocery bags!

But, 41 years after “The Graduate,” it may be that things finally are beginning to change. As you probably know, effective June 1, 2008, China has banned the use of free plastic bags.

So, let me leave you with two more lines. For those of you not familiar with collegiate life, I offer Rocky, at #80 – “Yo, Adrian.” But for those of you who have graced the halls of our nation’s institutions of higher learning, nothing on the list seems more appropriate than the 82nd entry from “Animal House” – Toga! Toga!” Fortunately, regardless of your background, I feel confident that the #1 quote does not apply to you, because if you are reading this blog, I suspect that frankly, you do “give a damn.”

Wildwood vs. Silk?

I've continued to reflect upon my conversation with Allen@Wildwood of Wildwood Foods. Allen told me that they only sell what consumers will buy. And what customers want to buy is convenience. For Wildwood Foods, this means offering customers plastic fitments on their soymilk containers. So what'll happen if Wildwood Foods eliminates those plastic fitments from their containers? Will customers abandon this company in favor of their competitor, Silk, because it's more convenient to have a plastic fitment on soymilk containers?

Maybe, but not necessarily. It's all a matter of framing (and some creativity).

Here's an idea: What if Wildwood Foods got rid of those plastic fitments and redesigned their containers to be eco-friendly? They could even add an eco-friendly logo on their containers to promote this redesign. Better yet, Wildwood Foods could have a cute slogan telling customers how they're helping to save the environment by eliminating unnecessary waste in their packaging.

Ok, so let's say Wildwood redesigned their product to be 100% eco-friendly. And suppose you were at the supermarket wanting to buy soymilk. Would you buy the Wildwood brand that no longer has the plastic fitment, but endorses the protection of our oceans and planet with this eco-friendly container, OR would you go with Silk, the competitor brand that offers the convenience of having a plastic fitment on their containers?

Our Plastic Oceans

Beth from fakeplasticfish.com recently asked me to write a letter to Wildwood, which is a company that sells organic goods. The purpose of writing this letter was to encourage Wildwood to stop using plastic fitments on their soymilk containers (you know, that plastic thingy that keeps milk fresh).

So I wrote this letter. To his credit, the President of Wildwood sent me a very courteous response on the same day. In his reply, he said that Wildwood has addressed the issue of waste on a broader level. For instance, Wildwood doesn't purchase soybeans from China, thus reducing their dependency on fuel.

Yet, based on his response, it was clear to me that this fitment issue was considered too trivial for Wildwood to address.

So I started asking myself, is this really a puny issue or is there something more? And that's when Beth told me about her concern regarding the effects of plastic waste on marine life. Wanting to know more about this issue, I've spent the last few days reading about the amount of plastic found in the Pacific Ocean. I learned, for instance, that there's six times more plastic than plankton in the Pacific, which is quite a disturbing statistic.

Anyway, if you have a moment, I hope you watch this 10 minute video that raises awareness on the amount of plastic waste found in our oceans.

Another Bag Dilemma: Plastic Bags and Trash

Since this project began, many folks have told me how they deal with their leftover grocery bags. What's the #1 household use of these plastic bags? Using them for trash. Recently, an elderly woman asked me the following question, which I've paraphrased here:

I use grocery bags for trash, thus avoiding the purchase of larger plastic bags. But if I use reusable bags, I'll have to buy larger plastic bags for my trash. Which is worse?

Brilliant question. Of course, the answer is not immediately obvious. It also reminds me of a chapter in the Cradle to Cradle book entitled, "Why being less bad is no good."

The problem with using plastic bags is that they're made with polyethelyne (i.e., crude oil and natural gas), which are non-renewable resources. Put in a different way, it takes just 14 plastic bags to fuel a car for 1 mile. So when plastic bags are used for trash, we're also throwing away valuable resources into landfills. Worse yet, as these bags photodegrade for the next 1000 years, they're releasing toxins and other hazardous materials into the environment.

The good news is that we can sidestep this bag dilemma by purchasing biodegradable trash bags, which are made from cornstarch and other renewable resouces. This is advantageous because it reduces our dependency on natural gas and crude oil. The single downside is that biodegradable bags will not biodegrade in the absence of oxygen; this is an issue because landfill covers reduce oxygen levels dramatically.

But let's curtail this downward spiral: If we used biodegradable bags, we can compost our food scraps and those bags. And in conjunction with the 3R's (reduce, reuse, and recycle), we could significantly reduce the amount of trash sent to landfills. Taken together, we can feel good knowing we're preserving earth's non-renewable resources by using biodegradable trash bags.

Paper or Plastic: What's the Greener Choice?

Jennifer, thanks for letting me know about the Dateline report, which addressed the classic grocery store question: Paper or plastic?

Apparently, this question elicits a lot of guilt among shoppers. Some folks think paper is better than plastic, and vice versa. According to Allen Hershkowitz of the Natural Resources Defense Council, the decision to use paper or plastic bags depends on where you live. If you live near a coastline, use paper. If you live in the Midwest, use plastic, he advised.

Is this sound advice? Unfortunately, the story did not provide any compelling evidence to support this claim. Given that a vast quantity of recyclables are shipped to far-away places for processing, does it really matter where I live?

In fairness, this report did make a good point: When it comes to selecting the right bag, the decision isn't always easy. I agree because shoppers aren't presented with a third option: reusable bags.

We could all sidestep this bag dilemma by bringing our own bags (or purchasing cloth bags at the checkout). That way, we wouldn't have to weigh the pros and cons of this "paper vs. plastic" decision, nor would we feel guilty about our bag selection. And maybe, just maybe, we could enjoy the rest of the day, perhaps even focusing on other issues that merit greater attention.

Goodbye Plastic Bottle, Hello SIGG

As part of the requirements for my college degree, I had to enroll in a course on health & fitness. I was shocked to learn that adults should drink 3 liters of water daily. That's basically a gallon of water every day. My jaw dropped in astonishment.

Oh my Lord, I thought. If I drink 3L of water everyday, I'm going to spend most of my day in the bathroom. Good grief.

But, I reasoned, this is good for my health. So I decided to drink more water, that is, 3L of water each day. And yes, I spent more quality time in the bathroom! But my body adapted to this change, and now, it's a daily habit. My body actually feels deprived whenever I don't drink my usual 3L of water.

Anyway, my jaw recently dropped on another occassion. This time, it was at BagFest. I was gleefully following along to Elizabeth Royte's talk, when suddenly she raised a plastic bottle to make a point about the dangers of plastics. Now, this was no ordinary plastic bottle: It was MY plastic bottle she was publicly condemning! Oh, for the love...how I embrace public shame is beyond me. I think I actually cowered when I saw that bottle raised in contempt.

But point well taken. As I recently learned, disposing plastic bottles is a dirty business. Toxins and dioxins are released when incinerated, so torching them is out of the question. In landfills, plastics can last for thousands of years, leaching toxins as they disintegrate. (Ok, that's not a good solution.) And recycling plastics creates poorer-quality plastics. (Great, we're three for three here. Folks, that's a strike-out!)

As Tony asked, "What on Earth are we to do?"

For me, the answer was simple: Stop using plastic bottles. So now I'm the happy owner of this SIGG bottle. It's a 1L bottle made from aluminum, which I purchased from www.reusablebags.com. I also got a 1/2 L SIGG bottle for easy travel.

So, goodbye plastic water bottle. Hello SIGG! :0)

Water Issues

First off, I would like to admit that I have been a little negligent about actually checking the blog, but boy, look what I was missing! I am a bit of a novice when it comes to blogging (case in point: this is really my first, err, second time), so I hope that you all will forgive me. After perusing the various postings I was astounded by the revealings of my peers, and I have come to the realization that this particular blog is quite resourceful; when it comes to environmental issues, consider me sold.

Recently, I had the opportunity to submit a research paper regarding the issue of water diversions out of the Great Lakes basin. It seems that as denizens of this region, not many people (myself included), were really inlcined to know much about the Lakes, so I decided to do a little bit of investigating. After reviewing some scientific literature, the inferences that I was able to procure were quite alarming. In lieu of trying to summarize all of my findings, I would definitely encourage you to do a little bit of surfing around. A great website for learning more about diversions and the immense capabilites that the Great Lakes system provides is available at the following:

http://www.glwi.uwm.edu/ourwaters/

The information was compiled by the Great Lakes Water Institute and I found it to be very insightful.

To tie this all back to Royte and sustainability, one very interesting fact that I was able to glean from my research deals with bottled water. Due to the seemingly vast amount of fresh water right next door and looming concerns over the issues related to water scarcity, some proponents of diversions see it as an opportunity to exploit the water and sell it as a commodity; even ship it overseas. Fortunately, there is some legislation to protect this from happening, but loop-holes do indeed exist.

According to some information from the GLWI website, "The 2005 Annex Implementing Agreements regulate new diversions and exports of water out of the basin in pipelines, canals, and containers larger than 5.7 gallons." Current legislation does not, however, contain a mandate on shipping water out of the basin in smaller containers, and the implications of such could be disastrous for our region. What we're talking about is the complete loss of habitat as the lake levels decline. This could ,in turn, play host to a number of malignant scenarios, any of which we would not wish to come to fruition.

To make matters worse, the U.S. alone has witnessed a marked rise in the consumption of bottled water. The GLWI provides that, "Americans drank 6.8 billion gallons of bottled water in 2004, compared to 15.3 billion gallons of soda. The Beverage Marketing Corps. predicts that bottled water will soon be Americans 2nd most popular beverage (soft drinks rank 1st)." The fact that the water is "bottled" only confounds our current plastic footprint. What on Earth are we to do?

PLASTIC ! POISONOUS!

When I read Royte's chapter on e-waste and how poisonous that was, it scared the hell out of me. I acted first and had to get my two, very old desk-top computers out of my basement and I knew that poison was off my way. Little did I know what her next chapter held. On reading about plastics and learning that plastics are poisonous, my heart missed a bit. What! poisonous! I am surrounded by plastic all over my house. Plastic plates and spoons, plastic dishes to keep my left overs, plastic bags, and other plastic bathroom items. I was not sure if I was ready to trash all those items and I even did not know where to get replacement for them. Just learning that they are not good for our health and our environment was important, but it also did send chills down my spine. Did anybody else think the same? I am eager to finish her book but now am approaching every remaining chapter with caution as I expect her to talk of something that may be really bad to use, yet I may be using it everyday. Anyway, it is better to learn it than have someone benefit with my dollars in exchange for my health.