You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘PLASTIC’ tag.
Made from 12,500 plastic bottles, David de Rothschild’s, Plastiki, has successfully crossed the Pacific ocean after 130 days at sea. The journey – meant to help lessen our plastic imprint on the world’s oceans – began in San Francisco three months ago and ended today, 8000 miles later, in Sydney, Australia. You can read all about it at theplastiki.com. While you’re at it, sign a pledge to beat waste.
Photo credit: Plastiki
If you’re a frequent visitor to this site, you know that plastic bags are the bane of our collective existence. And you know you should bring your own shopping bags to the grocery store. But what about those little plastic bags in the produce department? Refuse/Re-use. You can buy reusable produce bags online at places like reusablebags.com or you can even learn to make your own at motherearthnews.com.
Superuse is an online community of designers, architects and others who’re interested in inventive ways of recycling, from bottle-cap festooned guitars to tables made of discarded cassette tapes. At Superuse, everything old is new again.
Built by Japan’s Eagar Co., Ltd., D+ropop* is the world’s most ecologically friendly robot. Made from recycled materials (primarily corrugated cardboard), D+ropop is relatively inexpensive (a little over $5000 USD), light in weight, and performs a variety of customizable routines in its role as a robotic store mannequin.
* ‘D’ as in D-type cardboard; ‘ro’ as in robot; ‘pop’ as in point-of-purchase.
Hat Tip: .plasticpals
Designed by Jin-young Yoon and Jeongwoong Kwon, the Save Water Brick is designed to be manufactured from recycled plastic and decomposed leaves. Its built-in grooves collect water and channel it for gardening, storage, and a variety of other purposes.
HAT TIP: yankodesign.com
Throwing garters is a tradition that goes back to the Dark Ages. Fortunately, it can be carried on responsibly (but as rowdy as you like) with an environmentally-friendly garter created with ribbon woven from yarn made of 100% post consumer polyester that comes entirely from recycled plastic bottles. You can purchase yours at green-wedding.net.
THIS FRIDAY’S FOCUS is PLASTIC BAGS.
Every year over 1 million marine mammals, reptiles, and birds die because of plastic bags. Animals become entangled in them and routinely ingest them – in which case, they become lodged in the digestive tract. What’s more, as discarded bags slowly decompose they absorb toxic chemicals such as PCBs and DDE; so when they’re ingested, animals and fish are also high doses of deadly synthetic compounds.
Hat Tip://pollution control
The plastic bag monster (a.k.a. a passionately creative high school student from Santa Monica) testifies at a 2008 Santa Monica city council meeting.
Artist Virginia Fleck creates stunning mandalas created from used plastic bags. A mandala is a universal, non-religious tool for meditation typically composed of highly decorative, symmetrical patterns. According to the artist: “The imagery on each plastic bag is designed by advertisers to cause instant association with worldly acquisitions. My choice of media, plastic bags, imbues my seemingly irreverent mandalas with a contemporary narrative that allows me to analyze the activity of consumerism as a spiritual encounter.” Visit virginiafleck.com/ to see more.
Plastic bags have also become the primary material for Dianna Cohen’s wall pieces and installations.
The artist – a co-founder of Plastic Pollution Coalition – describes her work this way: “Cut like paper, sewn like fabric, these constructions have been presented as flat art (framed or mounted) with crumpled and shiny surfaces that are dulled by dirt and time: un-useful pieces of their former selves.”
You can see more at her online gallery: www.diannacohen.com.
About 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide every year. Countries that ban or discourage their use include Australia, Bangladesh, Ireland, Uganda, Italy, South Africa, and China. Up until 2008 when China’s ban was initiated, the country used 37 million barrels of crude oil to produce plastic bags every year.
Read more: thedailygreen.com.
Everyday Grocery Bag Handbag – Red Flower, originally uploaded by TrinaBrielleHow do you turn a one-use plastic bag into a stylish, multi-use hand bag? Knit it! Fast and easy instructions here.
In 2006, Tesco launched a multimillion pound TV campaign to get people to use fewer plastic bags when they shop. Here’s one of their commercials:
Like everyone else, we’re focusing a lot on oil these days. Better, perhaps, to be thinking about alternatives. And that’s Friday’s Focus. Starting with a post about researchers in England who’re working on a project to create automobile fuel out of thin air.
Researchers from England are working on a £1.4 million project to capture and process CO2 from the air turn it into car fuel. Their plan involves developing porous materials that can absorb the gas that causes global warming and convert it into chemicals that can be used to make car fuel or plastics in a process powered by renewable solar energy. More information here.
1,000,000 trees cut down every year; 2,000,000 plastic bottles used every five minutes. The statistics are alarming, yet difficult to envision. Renowned photographer Chris Jordan brings these staggering numbers to life in manipulated digital photographs that are at once alluring and shocking.
This Friday’s Focus is Recycling. It begins with a demonstration of wearable art created from plastic bags:
Designed by Louie Rigano, these rain boots these rain boots are made from discarded plastic bags picked up by impoverished Argentineans who make their living collecting trash in Buenos Aires. Rigano created a template that allows the collectors to easily construct the boots from hot-pressed layers of the plastic. To see more examples of Louie Rigano’s innovative product designs, visit louierigano.com.
The following is a recent blog post from the 5 Gyres group. Please visit their website at 5gyres.org – a project aimed at “understanding plastic marine pollution through exploration, education, and action” (visiting the site will hopefully help justify our use of their photograph). BTW: Friday’s Focus is PLASTIC. 8 new posts, dead ahead.
“Patricks’s Point is in Northern CA on the CA 1. We stopped to camp amongst the redwoods and walked down to the beach at sunset to walk our dog, collect and photograph beach trash. There was almost as much plastic as driftwood — we gathered so much we weren’t able to carry it all, and ended up with little piles along the shore. Here’s a quick picture of what we amassed in about an hour. Some of the most interesting pieces found were: a toy spinning top from the Seoul, South Korea Olympic games in 1988, a pair of kids’ sunglasses that once were bright blue and missing their lenses, and the bottom half of a toy figurine.”
Richie Sowa’s dream was not uncommon – to live on a tiny island off the coast of Mexico. But there’s nothing common about the way he realized his dream. He built his own island – out of garbage – including over 100,000 plastic bottles. Check out this one-of-a-kind experiment in repurposed plastic. Visit Richie’s beach at spiralislanders.com.
The Gorillaz’ Plastic Beach is an enviromental-song cycle, available at better digital music stores worldwide (no plastic CD case required).
When and if you’re confronted with the question, “paper or plastic,” the best choice is neither. Which is to say, BYOB – bring your own reusable bag. According to MSNBC.com, manufacturing all the bags Americans use each year takes 14 million trees (for paper) and 12 million barrels of oil (for plastic). Making paper bags creates 70 percent more air pollution than plastic, but plastic bags create four times the solid waste. And they can last up to a thousand years. The most compelling reason to reject plastic bags can be seen in our next post.
This disturbing video shows the Brydes whale who died after becoming stranded on a Cairns beach. The post-mortem found that the whales stomach was tightly packed with six square metres of plastic – much of it plastic checkout bags. The antidote to the revulsion you’re bound to feel is a visit to one of the following: http://www.seashepherd.org, www.savethewhales.org, and/or http://www.savethewhalesagain.com.
The government of Taiwan is turning 1.5 million recycled plastic bottles into a $9 million, nine-story exhibition hall to host fashion and environmental protection shows at the Taipei International Floral Exposition in November. “The bottles are processed to make bricks that can resist earthquakes and powerful winds,” explains Rachel Chen, from the Far Eastern Group, which is sponsoring the pavilion.
Hat Tip: google.com/hostednews
Preserve® plastic products are made from benign #5 polypropylene plastic that is collected from reputable sources and transformed into new products. Among their many innovate and eco-friendly products is the “mail back” toothbrush, which comes in packaging that doubles as a return envelope – so you can send it back for recycling!
Artist Miwa Koizumi has found a way to transform one of the greatest dangers to our oceans – single use plastic containers – into permanent works of art that celebrate the some of the ocean’s most beautiful creatures. Brilliant. See more at miwa.metm.org.
We’re late, we’re late! Problems with wordpress. Please stay tuned for Friday’s Focus. One word: PLASTIC.
The post continues: …if you hold the idea that the solution to the plastic pollution problem is to go to any of the 5 gyres and get it, you’re wasting your time and money. The plastic out here will likely photodegrade and break apart into smaller and smaller fragments. After cycling through untold numbers of marine organisms through filter-feeding or food mimicry, the particles will likely sink to the seafloor, either as fish poop or become encrusted by colonizing critters. They will take their polymer chains and absorbed pollutants to the sequestering grave of deep sea mud. Solutions to plastic pollution begin on land. And at 5gyres.org.
According to worldcentric.org, 73 billion styrofoam and plastic cups and plates were put in the trash in 2003 in the USA alone. World Centric provides high quality compostable food service disposables and food packaging products for use in schools, corporate cafeterias, restaurants, hospitals, and homes. They use renewable resources like corn and discarded sugar cane and wheat straw fiber to make sustainable alternatives to plastics and styrofoam.
You can order a “generic sample pack for $7.50 plus shipping and handling at
worldcentric.org.
From a slideshow about plastic bags: www.poconorecord.com.
The 5 Gyres Project is involved in studying huge areas of our oceans that collect single-use plastics and other garbage — much of which is thought to be endangering the food chain. Right now, researchers are in the North Atlantic Gyre. You can follow them daily or help with donations by visiting 5gyres.org/.
BELOW: Made to last forever but designed to be thrown away, milk jug rings are just part of the problem.
originally uploaded by Michael_Lehet
The toy industry is one of the most egregious in terms of generating plastic waste. And don’t get us started on those toxin-laden Chinese toys. For a great range of eco-friendly and child-pleasing playthings including recycled plastic trucks and organic plush toys, check out Organic Bug.
Beyond toys, Organic Bug offers an incredible variety of ecologically sound, fair trade, and health-oriented merchandise. The founders invite individuals to use their purchasing power as a vote for social and environmental change, while delivering an informative one-stop shopping experience for today’s busy consumer. We’re sold.
Organic Bug is located HERE!
Without a doubt, the issue that raises the biggest stink for eco-conscious parents is what to do about diapers. It’s estimated that up to 25 million disposable diapers are sold ever year, with at least 90% of those ending up in landfills. As you parents know, that is some seriously toxic waste – so we found two solutions that will work well for both your baby and mother Earth.
(1)
gDiapers give parents the ease of a disposable diaper with a 100% biodegradable insert, or the option of using soft and trim-fitting cloth inserts. gDiapers are plastic-free, elemental chlorine free, latex free, and perfume free. For more info, visit gdiapers.com.
(2)
EarthBaby is a unique company (serving only Northern California at the moment) committed to eliminating disposable diapers and wipes from landfills. For a monthly service fee of $29.99 they will deliver, pickup, and process their unique, compostable diaper products. Click earth-baby.com for details.
The 5 Gyres Project is the first comprehensive study of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans. Beginning January 18, 2010, the project will travel thousands of miles across the North and South Atlantic oceans, collecting ocean samples to study plastic accumulation, as well as examining fish for possible plastic ingestion and toxins in their tissues. These expeditions will help further our understanding of the impact of plastic waste on the world’s oceans. Visit http://5gyres.org/ for more information (the site includes a What’s Happening Now blog).
Artist Dianna Cohen uses plastic as her primary medium. She’s also a co-founder of Plastic Pollution Coalition, an organization whose mission is “to create a global community and ignite a social movement that will eliminate the toxic impacts of plastic pollution worldwide.
You can visit Dianna’s online gallery at diannacohen.com. Plastic Pollution Coalition lives here.
originally uploaded by estherase
If you despise one-use plastic bags as much as we do, here’s some news that’s totally, like, nano-tubular. A chemist has created an “upcycling” method of turning the disposable bags into carbon nanotubes. Nanotubes technology is pretty new, but Stanford University researchers recently coated copier paper in ink made of carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires to create bendable, highly conductive storage devices. Nanotubes could also become self-repair tools for electronic circuits in our smart phones and laptops. Here’s the scoop.
Newsstand copies of the November issue of Creative Review are wrapped in a revolutionary new bag that dissolves in hot water.
CR is the first magazine to use “Harmless Dissolve,” a new packaging material created by British firm, Cyberpac.
We don’t mean to get on your case, but chances are you could be using more eco-friendly luggage. Introducing the EcoCase - made from 100% recycled plastic. By utilizing recycled materials to create stylish and functional new baggage, HeyUSA repurposes plastic that would have otherwise taken a one-way trip to a landfill.
For those who missed the blog over the Thanksgiving holiday, we’re extending Friday’s Focus and for those who didn’t, we’re adding three new posts. In short, the Green Ad Festival continues:
photo: Vince Alongi
If you were walking down the street and you saw a plastic bag lightly tumbling in the breeze, would you stop to pick it up?
photo: Bobbytee.
If you’d been with us aboard the Baylis, you would without question.
Welcome to the Derick M Baylis, a 65-foot auxiliary-powered sailing research vessel, a Prius at sea.
Chartered by Sealife Conservation, its mission is to inspire conservation of the Oceans by fostering awareness of the marine environment through research and education. On board, a mixture of open minds: a fifth grader and an ocean activist, college students and college grads, dads and daughters. The most obvious commonality is the desire to experience and learn.
Would you step out of your way to pick up that Styrofoam cup in the park?
A day aboard the Baylis would provide you with more than one reason to do it.
The Baylis has just left its slip and nets are manned on both the port and starboard sides. A candy wrapper is the first catch of the day, small, but certainly there’s not a thought of throwing it back. A simple standard has been set: if you see it, call it out, and it will get hauled in. During the trip to the sea, other debris is collected. The experience is underscored by living sea lions basking on a buoy, pelicans flying overhead, and twenty or so dolphin close enough that you can
hear them breathing and slapping the water. A drifting patch of kelp is hoisted on board and the passengers comb through the leaves looking for life’s beginning stages taking refuge in the safe haven. Tiny crabs and other little creatures are placed in beakers so they can be studied.
A torrent of plastic and other trash is impacting their lives, so while the ocean is where most of earth’s life begins, it seems to be our least-respected resource.
If you were strolling on the beach, would you salvage that plastic cup half buried in the sand?
photo: Alan.Slmak
If you knew the crew of the Baylis, absolutely, you would.
The Billabong seaplane rendezvous with the Baylis off the SoCal coast.
On board are three incredible, big-wave riders. Mike Parsons, Grant “Twiggy” Baker and Greg Long don’t look like the hell men they really are as they board the sailboat from a dinghy, calm and clearly intrigued. Each of them has surfed the largest waves in the world with that same studied character.
They understand the ocean and it’s contents. Around the globe, they have seen pristine beaches turn into dumps and witnessed a bounty of plastic bags and bottles mixed with syringes. They watch as the Baylis nets its own collection of discarded objects, using GPS to note the location.
Would you stop a boat to pick up a floating water bottle?
At this point you know the answer is yes. A manned net on the starboard side misses a plastic bottle and suddenly the boat is turning around to gather it – a 65-foot boat on a turnabout for a single water bottle. There are no complaints, only interest in the brand and where it is from. The 180-degree turn for the bobbing plastic makes a point – for if we can stop trash like this from ever leaving the land, it will never find its way to the ocean’s garbage dumps.
That plastic bag, tumbling in the breeze?
Are you going to pick it up?
There was a point in my life when I would have answered, “no.” Or perhaps I wouldn’t have answered the question at all. Today I find myself stuffing plastic bags in my wetsuit sleeve while surfing. There are funny looks from the others in the line -up until I explain that, to a turtle, a plastic bag looks just like a jellyfish. Suddenly, they understand.
Back aboard the Baylis: A chunk of Styrofoam is netted (the little foam balls that break-off are easily mistaken for food by fish and sea birds). A silver Mylar happy birthday balloon is scooped off the surface to a chorus of hilarious, helium-inspired cheers. Things change. I’ve changed. Anything is possible.
Aloha,
Steve Lawrence, greenlandoceanblue
**All unattributed photos by Steve & Madison
Unlike any other running bikes, the Wishbone Bike evolves with a child’s different stages of development. It starts as a trike, converts to a running bike as the child grows, and by four to five years old, the ‘wishbone’ frame is flipped, making it one of the largest running bikes on the market. Every Wishbone Bike has 60% post-consumer recycled plastic wheels, is made from sustainably managed woods and is bonded and finished with eco-friendly products. The Bike box and all printed material inside is recycled and printed with non-toxic inks. For more information, visit skiphop.com.
A town in New South Wales, Australia, may be the first in the world to ban bottled water from store shelves. Just two hours drive south of Sydney, the village of Bundanoon voted for the ban in July. John Dee, a spokesman for the campaign that inspired the decision, says that the 2000-person town demonstrates at the local level how “we can sometimes do things that can surprise ourselves, in terms of our ability to bring about real and measurable change that has a real benefit for the environment. The alternative doesn’t have a sexy brand, doesn’t have pictures of mountain streams on the front of it, it comes out of your tap.”
HAT TIP: wl.theaustralian.news
If you’re wondering about how to replace the plastic containers you use for food storage, here’s a tip: recycle and use glass bottles or jars (a single one can save enough energy to light a 100 watt light bulb for about 4 hours). Or buy a SLOM JAR with lid for just $2.99 at Ikea (see photo).
Hat Tip: www.brighthub.com
Instead of tossing out cell phones and other electronic devices, artist Boo Chapple suggest that we should eat them. In a pamphlet titled, Consumables, she says that “if electronic devices were edible, we could save on petrochemicals and solve the global food crisis in one simple move. In place of e-waste, there would now be e-food. There would be no more photo essay exposés of towns in China piled with PCB’s, dusted in plastic and beset with birth defects. There would be no more African famines.”
Hat Tip: fastcompany.com/blog
All images are from Consumables, a project by artist Boo Chapple, with photography by Bo Wong.
Bisphenol or BPA is used primarily to make plastics. It is also an endocrine disruptor widely-suspected of leading to an assortment of health problems. Now, Science News has published an article suggesting that sales receipts (yes, sales receipts) may provide even greater exposure to BPA than plastic. For more about the research that led to this startling conclusion, visit www.sciencenews.org.
Hat Tip: thedailygreen.com
Phthalates are chemical “plasticizers” used in hundreds of consumer products. Billions of pounds of phthalates are produced every year despite the fact that they’ve been banned in the European Union, Japan, Mexico and Argentina. Researchers believe most of the phthalates in our bodies come from food and studies show they disrupt hormones — in this case, testosterone. Just one more reason you should seek out alternatives to plastic (e.g., BioBags — 100% biodegradable and 100% compostable bags and films – for information visit biobagusa).
Hat Tip: Peligro Films and www.webmd.com.
Photo: iPhone 3G Case available on eBay
Fashions may fade, but plastics last forever. Fortunately, the designers at Bagir are picking up disposable plastic bottles (soooo last season) and transforming them into some of today’s hottest fashions.
For everything from washable clothing made from 55% recycled PET bottles to the transparent suit that turned a few heads at last month’s New York Fashion Week, click on over to bagir.com.
These shoes were made out of recycled plastic bags by Childean design student Camila Labra. The bags were fused together and the result is a material that is flexible, light, and non-toxic. They can be bought for about $45 USD. For more information, visit botasdacca.blogspot.com and if necessary, bring a translator.
Very impressive indeed. Loll Designs have figured out a way to take used plastic milk jugs and transform them into some of the most imaginative and stylish outdoor furniture we’ve ever seen.
What did you think we were talking about? Check ‘em out here.
The Polymer Energy company has been working hard for years and claims to have struck oil in a most unexpected place – your local landfill. Using a process called “catalytic pyrolysis,” the company claims to have developed a viable way to turn plastic waste (including disposable shopping bags and household cleaner containers) into crude oil. Finally – a domestic energy source we can all get behind. Learn more here.
Plastic bags can be fused to make reusable grocery bags, wallets, and more. For instructions, visit etsylabs.blogspot.com.
Hat Tip: thegivinghands.org
What’s the matter, Bizarro? Can’t even punch your way out of a plastic bag? ~ Batman in “Challenge of the Superfriends” (1978)
CLICK CHART TO ANIMATE.
Image: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. “Trash is swept up by the currents of a gigantic swirling vortex called the North Pacific Gyre.”
Hat Tip: greenpeace.org/usa/
Plastic film is a thin gauge packaging medium used as a bag or a wrap.
Every year we make enough plastic film to shrink-wrap the state of Texas.
More than 60 percent of plastic film uses low-density polyethylene.
Polyethylene is 100 years old this year.
That’s way beyond retirement age, right?
Hat Tip: http://www.greenfeet.net.
Photo taken from the ORV Alguita
The following is an edited blog post from the Oceanographic Research Vessel Alguita. It’s followed by Steve Lawrence’s account of our journey to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. FROM THE ALGUITA: …after one attempt that caused the seaplane to bounce three times across the water before it found air and speed to climb back up, they aborted the mission. The pilot came over the radio saying they were unable to land due to the confused nature of seas producing large swells with only five knot winds. The captain said he understood and saw the rough ride they had with the attempt to land. And the pilot came back, “You should have seen what it looked like from here. It could have ended badly.” But all was not lost. The captain asked if the pilot he would check for any debris sightings. After making several laps around the area, the pilot came back on the radio to report they saw not one but two huge wind-rows of plastic debris. He started rattling off things they could recognize from above including a coat hanger. On his last lap around, the pilot preformed an air drop. The packaged contained something the captain had asked him to bring for a badly needed part for a generator. Thank you.
FROM GREENLANDOCEANBLUE CO-FOUNDER STEVE LAWRENCE:
17 September 2009
It is 5:30 am in Honolulu on this mid-September morning, the sky is dark and it is nearly soundless. Early, no doubt, but the energy brewing among those gathered is not generated from the airport hanger’s coffee pot. Indeed, the buzz this morning is all about the Patch.
We have come to the Kamaka Air Hanger with a singular itinerary – an historic, 600 mile flight into a southern portion of the North Pacific gyre, or as headlines across the world have broadcast it – The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. There we are to rendezvous with Captain Charles Moore of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation – the man who actually discovered the patch a decade ago. This is an unprecedented journey, and we are fortunate to have secured the Billabong Clipper – a Grumman Albatross – the only plane capable of the four hour journey, the ocean landing and the return to Hawaii.
There are nine passengers in all, including a pair of students (one journalist, one biologist), an activist, an eco website editor, a mayor’s consultant, and myself, a filmmaker. We are greeted by Jacob Asher from NOAA, who confirms the importance of the journey and instructs us on how to observe and log debris sightings along the way. Mr. Asher has done his fair share of debris overflights around the Hawaiian Islands in the past few years. “Mark the latitude and longitude with accuracy down to the minute in the first column” he explains while indicating a grid which specifies commonly sighted items ranging from ghost nets to general debris such as plastic bags.
After a safety briefing, the props kick over and we are soon airborne, banking northward as the morning sun pulls itself from the vast Pacific and a morning blessing appears in the form of a rainbow. Mobile phones are soon rendered useless, due not only to lack of service, but the deafening roar of the engines that hoist the 30,000 ton craft.
We fly at a relatively low 1000 feet, which offers a much more intimate perspective that the typical 40,000 feet of a commercial aircraft. In fact, even before the island behind us has faded from sight, we spot our first debris – a loose buoy, now just another piece floating garbage being slowly pulled out to sea by the centrifugal swirl of the gyre.
As we all settle in, Hayden Smith is already at work. Mr. Smith, the activist, intently watches the surface below, pen and pad at the ready, tearing himself away from the window only to confirm coordinates with the cockpit. As a Harbour Master (that’s Harbour with a “u”) in Auckland, New Zealand, he knows the business of marine debris better than most. At the age of thirty one, he is a veteran environmental protector. With the support of the government his efforts have been concentrated on Waitemata Harbour for the past seven years. He hopes his meeting with Capt. Moore will help him better understand the Algalita’s research, and how he might apply the knowledge to his work back home.
The farther we travel, the greater the frequency of debris spotting. Log sheet notations range from ghost nets to bags and bottles – visible even from this height.
Tellingly, the most abundant animal life spotted from the plane are the many birds that skim the ocean surface. Three hundred miles from the closest land mass, the birds scan the waters and dive in for lunch. Unfortunately, what appears to be ocean life is often degraded plastic lurking just below the surface. Hundreds of thousands of these birds die every year from mistakenly ingesting these toxic remnants.
Three hours into the flight and the debris sightings soon develop a kind of rhythmic cadence. Surface debris flies by like confetti on the surface below, styrofoam cups, basketballs, bags, pure trash scattered in the texture of the sea. As the plane descends closer to the surface, the debris stream is a constant… 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4… 4/4 time beats of trash with scattered accents along the way. A sad song indeed.
In the vast blue sea, we spot the Algalita research vessel. Circling the craft, the pilots search for a window to safely land.
We are told to fasten seatbelts, yet in our attempt to land we are nothing more than a skipping stone. What looked land-able from a higher altitude is in fact a small but lumpy mix of swells. We pull up and the pilots take a wide lap riding a wind line. This line we are flying along is an ocean convergence zone — an area of converging forces. In this case, the forces in opposition are strong ocean currents. Along this definition in the sea, from horizon to horizon, is a line of trash. We stare in awe at what looks like the high tide line on the world’s most polluted beach. It is composed of a variety of plastics and debris, everything from broken coolers to milk crates.
Unfortunately, no camera can fully capture the sickening sight, especially traveling at our air speed. Every photograph is a blur. Yet one thing is perfectly clear, man’s impact on the once pristine Pacific.
Most remarkably, what we see is only the tip of the iceberg. This is only the surface debris. Just below the surface, the synthetics are mistaken for plankton and other edibles. It is no wonder wild life and sea life feed on it. Unlike the animals that live in and around landfills, these creatures have not been conditioned over time to recognize hazardous foodstuff. Since these species have existed, the food chain could be “trusted.” That is no longer the case.
The equation becomes frighteningly obvious. Small fish eat the plastic, medium sized fish eat the small fish, large fish eat medium-sized… and who eats the large fish? We do.
As we ponder the implications, the plane makes another pass at landing alongside Moore …. to no avail. The sea is simply too rough. The plane begins a gradual ascent and the realization hits us all. The disappointment is most evident on Hayden Smith’s face. He fights the urge to appeal the pilot’s decision. It was a long trip to be denied the destination… traveling all this way and just getting the post card. But, as Smith realizes, our safety is the primary concern… and we have in fact seen what we came to see. In this case the pictures do not tell 1000 words, but what we have seen is indelible.
As I settle back into my seat, frustration soon gives way to a renewed sense of purpose. People will argue that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is an urban myth, they will dispute its size and density…. but there are eleven more of us who now know the truth. The Patch is real. We may not be able to fathom how it all got here… or how we might begin to clean it up… but we can and must take immediate steps to stop it from growing any larger.
On Board the Billabong Clipper
Pilots Mike Castillo, Lynn Hunt
Team Joel Clausen, Colby Munson, Keith Rollman, Hayden Smith, Ericka Staples
Camera Hugh Gentry, Bill Paris
GLOBe Steve Lawrence
With support from Billabong, Tenth Millennium
Today is the day! After months of planning and co-ordination, our team is off to the gyre. Filmmaker Steve Lawrence and crew have departed Hawaii aboard the Billabong seaplane and on are their way to the heart of the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” – a Texas-sized “toxic soup” where more than two million pounds of plastic debris are caught in a gigantic vortex of currents. This man-made disaster has caused the death of hundreds of thousands of seabirds and marine animals, and as the latest research indicates, has lead to the contamination of human food chains.
On today’s historic journey, the GreenLandOceanBlue team and an international consortium of concerned individuals will rendezvous with Captain Charles Moore on the research vessel Alguita. They will spend the day documenting the garbage patch and interviewing the Alguita researchers in order to better understand the devastating effect of plastic pollution on the world’s oceans. Upon Steve’s return, the first Plastic Pacific film project will begin production. Stay tuned!
C21stSM, originally uploaded by uberschnapp.
Latest news from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch: researchers are finding that jellyfish are eating the small pieces of plastic, and they in turn arevbeing eaten by larger fish, such as salmon and tuna. In other words, we’ve not only polluted the ocean with plastic but now we run the risk of being poisoned from the fish that ingest it.
GREENLANDOCEANBLUE is flying to the GPGP this Wednesday aboard the Billabong seaplane. Stay tuned for details.
Hat Tip: eastbayexpress
Plastic Pacific: greenlandoceanblue’s Excellent Journey, 9/15/09
On Tuesday, September 15th, film director and greenlandoceanblue co-founder, Steve Lawrence will fly from Hawaii via seaplane, the Billabong Clipper, with a group of planet-caring souls to an area of the Pacific known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Once there, the group will experience the environment first hand as they join the ocean research vessel Alguita, captained by Charles Moore – the man who discovered this once Texas-sized soup of plastic a decade ago.
Lawrence, who directed Disney’s recent X Games 3D, will produce a diary of the journey on film which greenlandoceanblue hopes can become the centerpiece of a global lesson plan to help educate students and the media about the growing problem of plastic waste worldwide.
On their flight to the Garbage Patch, the group will also be assigned the task of noting ocean debris with GPS units and the data they collect will be used to help NOAA scientists involved in at-sea detection and removal of large amounts of debris.
Credits: For more information about greenlandoceanblue, please visit www.greenlandoceanblue.com and for information about Capt. Charles Moore and Algalita Marine Research Foundation, visit, www.algalita.org.
Thank you, Billabong (www.billabong.com)
Photo Hat Tip: Splash & Play Seaplane available for purchase here.
SOME FACTS ABOUT BOTTLED WATER:
90% of the cost of bottled water is due to the bottle itself.
Well over 20 billion single-serving plastic bottles go to the dump per year in America from bottled water (not including soda).
Bottling and shipping water are the least energy efficient methods ever used to supply water.
Although it can be easy and convenient to pick up bottled beverage products, the end cost to the environment is staggering.
Namaste: greenupgrader.com
Lightweight, checkout-style plastic bags are now banned in South Australia. We Americans use 100 billion plastic checkout bags per year(producing them takes 12 million barrels of oil).
The world’s first Plastic Bag Free Day will be on the 12th September 2009. Leave plastic bags at the checkout, help to make your town Plastic Bag Free or join in the celebrations at town’s that have already stopped using plastic bags. You could also write to shops and supermarkets asking them to support the day. For more information, visit adoptabeach.org.uk.
Sea turtles can easily mistake floating plastic bags for jellyfish. As a result, they eat them and die from choking or simply from being unable to eat. A single dead turtle discovered near Hawaii had more than 1000 pieces of plastic in its stomach including a comb, a toy truck wheel, and nylon rope.
Learn why all of the world’s marine turtles are either endangered or threatened with extinction at panda.org.
Namaste: Bag Monster & seaturtle.org
Albatross adults fly thousands of miles in search of food for their young and often bring back plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch by mistake.
In this inset photo you can see what was found in the stomach of just one dead Laysan albatross chick (photographers: David Liittschwager & Susan Middleton).
Namaste: dailymail.co.uk
Learn more about the world’s biggest garbage dump here. Coming soon: details about our own journey to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
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- Researchers Head to Great Pacific Garbage Patch (blippitt.com)
Mr. Potato Head, originally uploaded by herobyday
A British company, Vegware, is using potatoes to create disposable items such as cutlery and tableware. Because they’re made from vegetable matter, the products are totally biodegradable. Vegware also produces take-out boxes made from sugar cane and compostable straws made from corn and other natural starches. Check them out at www.vegware.us.
Hat Tip: www.zible.com
Increasingly, plastic water bottles are being targeted as a major source of pollution. In response, cities around the world are promoting tap water (Venice, Italy, is branding it “Acqua Veritas” and cites a reduction of plastic trash by 27 tons a year.
Hoping to combat negative perceptions about plastics and single-use disposal litter, The Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI) is about to launch a social media-based Internet campaign targeting the millennial generation.
Complete story: huffingtonpost.com
Once upon a time, the Citarum was a gentle waterway whose resident fish helped feed the millions who live along its banks. Today, the river is polluted by the by-products of more than 500 factories and the waste of nine million people. Foraging for rubbish is now a more profitable occupation than fishing, despite the high risk of disease.
Namaste: dailymail.co.uk.
It may take 1,000 years for plastic to decompose but decompose it does, which means there must be microorganisms out there doing the decomposing. Could they be bred to do the job faster? The question was recently answered by 16 year-old Canadian high school student, Daniel Burd, who immersed ground plastic in a yeast solution that encourages microbial growth, and then isolated the most productive organisms. He kept at it, selecting the most effective strains and interbreeding them. After several weeks of tweaking and optimizing temperatures, Burd achieved a 43 % degradation of plastic in six weeks, an almost inconceivable accomplishment. More of the story here.
Crocodile fish tangled in discarded net, originally uploaded by Debby Ng, Hantu Blogger.
Ghost fishing is the term for abandoned or lost fishing gear that keeps killing marine life for days, months, or even years after it vanishes.
A new United Nations report calls for more attention to the source. Most of the gear is made of plastic, and most of it comes from ships. And it is, of course, against the law to dump plastic at sea—specifically, it violates the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL).
The report recommends solutions aimed at prevention, mitigation and cure.
That translates to 1) reducing the likelihood of fishing gear being lost or dumped at sea 2) promoting biodegradability to make plastics less of a problem and 3) making it easier to track and recover lost gear. For details, click here.
An infographic is a “graphical exploration of the data that surrounds us.” This one is a look at plastic floating in the Pacific Gyre. Click here for the amazing, full-size version. Thanks to Peligro Films for the link to Good Magazine.
Consumerism, originally uploaded by jefftolentino.
Biodegradability may not be a worthy goal at all. Most landfills are tomb-like and, in the absence of oxygen, the process produces methane, a greenhouse gas that’s 21 times more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide. But all’s not lost. In answer to the problem, companies like the UK’s Symphony Environmental Technologies have developed a special formulation called d2w, which makes plastic self-destruct in the presence of oxygen on land or water. While normal plastic may emit methane while decomposing, oxo-biodegradable plastics are made to degrade leaving no fragments and emitting no methane. So, do we have future or don’t we? You can begin to find the answers here. And here.
Related article: Breakthrough In Methane Research (popularlogistics.com)
Please do not feed the elephant!, originally uploaded by dhecker2000.
A new study finds that Styrofoam can be used to increase biodiesel power output. The study demonstrates that, by dissolving polystyrene packing peanuts in biodiesel, scientists can actually increase the power output of the fuel. Although plastic doesn’t break down easily in petroleum-based diesel, it breaks down almost instantly in biodiesel. Scientists are still facing some problems but the study co-authors hope to refine the process in the near future. Details here.
Plastic Issue, originally uploaded by Light and Life -Murali.
For sustainable living, what comes from the earth should go back to the earth. This has been done for millennia in rural India, by composting crop and food wastes. Now, in some parts of the country, environmental experts are exploring how plastic waste can be used for road construction. Click here for more information.
