Everyone needs to be more mindful of what they throw away... This is absolutely disgusting...
Anyone know any cleanup efforts currently going on? I like to help out on this.
Ooofff...those videos are painful to watch. It's such a shame what we as a human population are doing to our environment.
In terms of ocean clean up...I know SavetheBay.org is doing some great stuff in the San Francisco Bay Area. I'm pretty sure they have community clean up days too.
I heard about this! It is so disturbing and I think it needs to be made mainstream and common knowledge, it is at least my hope that if everyone saw this everynight in a commercial while they watch TV that it might open some eyes.
I went on a cruise to the Western Caribbean just before Christmas and one of the ports we visited was Costa Maya, a port that wouldn't exist except for cruise ships. The entire population is made up of people who work at the port and beach areas. I was apalled at the amount of trash on the beach just 100 feet away from the pristine, groomed, tourist portion of the beach. I imagine most of it came from the hurricane that hit there 2 years before, because there aren't enough people living in a 400 mile radius to produce that much trash!
It would be such a good idea to get some funding to go down there on an environmental tour and spend time on the beach areas cleaning. Like those working vacations that Sierra Club hosts, maybe they have something like this already.
Oh yeah, I've been following the great pacific ocean gyre for sometime now.....They call the landing place for all the plastic particles "garbage island" . There is a great documentary that you can view on-line that tells the whole disgusting story (kind of makes me ashamed to be a consumerist human being). The good news is that if we smarten up with our disposal issue we can actually reverse the effects of the ocean gyre within I think 25 years or something? That is of course if we get our acts together soon enough.
Here's a sneak peak (only part 1 of 12) I definitely recommend it! The rest can be viewed here: TOXIC - Garbage Island
Stins - isn't it?... I feel so ashamed and hurt. I grew up in Hawaii... and haven't been back for many years. I'm almost afraid to go back and see all the trash on the beaches I once hung out at.... I'll definitely checkout that organization when my fiancee and I move down there.
srj0385 - I can imagine the amount of trash. I was in Brazil couple of months ago and I was blown away at how much trash the beach crew collected in ONE DAY! People just throw all kind of plastics and waste on the beach. It's a sad sight to see on such beautiful strip of beach...
PUREShop - Thank you for the videos, it was very informative. I honestly can't say how long it will take. It is the micro plastic particles I'm most afraid of... Now I'm afraid to eat sushi...f'ing plastics...
Oh my god... I had no idea it was that bad. Yes, I always believed that garbage is one of our biggest problems that needs to be addressed IMMEDIATELY but wow... This is much worse than I thought. The problem is that people still take the easy way and leave their garbage behind when they are at the beach. I grew up in Greece and this has always infuriated me. I had to tell my friends to pick up their garbage and they were super annoyed, like I was ruining their weekend or something. I spent most of my time on the beach picking up people's garbage. And the problem doesn't stop at the beach. Anytime I am out in nature I have to look at other people's garbage, they stop to have a snack and they throw their garbage right there. They are obsessive about keeping their houses clean but are OK with the environment being a huge garbage can.
How do we change these attitudes??? Seriously this is something I need to do something about.
Most people are reactive beings. They can’t see or refuse to see at what magnitude their behavior is affecting us all. Being reactive beings, you need to have people face and see the magnitude of their waste. If you have each household in charge of taking care of their trash and waste than you will see people starting to react differently. Put heavier penalties on overloading their trash and recycling bins. Put tougher environmental charges against people or companies illegally dumping trash and recyclables. Then, refocusing people by rewarding people and companies for keeping a low volume of trash, buying renewable energy, promoting and living substantially, using new biodegradable or non plastic packaging, etc. If companies see more incentives of becoming eco friendly they will do. Also, if being eco-friendly saves them money they will do it. Most people in the world really don’t care about the environment. It will take laws and regulations to reverse these damages. Support governmental and business intervention that will support these actions. It will take governmental, business and grassroot actions.
Found some great resources on living without or using much less plastics. Check them out:
1) http://plasticfree.blogspot.com/
2) http://www.lifewithoutplastic.com/index.htm ( give you some ideas about products)
3) http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/03/plastic_free_life.php
4) http://lifelessplastic.blogspot.com/2008/09/plastic-free-shampoo-suggestions.html
5) http://www.care2.com/greenliving/plastic-free-picnics-protect-family.html
6) http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/23/plastic.free.climate.change
