Everyone as Conservationist - The Plastic Problem

I'd be remiss if I didn't touch on plastic. Plastic is the material of modern times. Plastic is highly versatile: it can be light and airy like grocery bags, shaped into cylinders, squares, and tiny cartoon characters, and it's great at keep things fresh, keeping out water, air, etc.

It's also cheap and convenient. Perhaps too cheap and convenient.

When we're done with a straw, drink lid, fork, bag, etc. We throw it away.

Some plastic is recyclable but not all of it. Knowing which plastics are recyclable is tricky business. NPR just ran a guide to help with the challenges of knowing which plastics are recyclable.

In the end the complexity of plastic recycling and that fact that it's often mixed with things which are not plastic recyclables means a lot of plastic ends up in the landfill; either because we just throw it away or because it's considered contaminated and non-recyclable.

Most plastic takes somewhere between an eon and an eternity to break down; it's not biodegradable. And it eventually escapes the landfill, blows around, gets caught in trees, ends up in the water, and eventually compiled in the ocean into giant plastic islands.

Animals like whales, sea turtles, and pelagic birds get confused and eat the plastic. And eventually die. And of course if fish and other critters are ingesting micro-plastics then we are too when we eat those fish.

In short, plastic (in particular disposable plastic) is a very real problem washing up on our beaches.

Like many of the problems we face, the plastic problem is our problem, and that means changes to our own behaviors are the solution.

5 Simple Things You Can Do:

1) Use cloth bags for shopping instead taking store plastic bags

2) Buy non plastic food packaging - look for aluminum, tin, cardboard or glass containers

3) Instead of baggies - use reusable containers like glassware or even long-life reuse-able plastic if necessary

4) No plastic straws - paper, metal, or just no straw at all 5) Bottled Water? - If you live somewhere, where the water is potable, you don't really need it. Use a reusable water bottle, stop buying tap water from somewhere else filled into 20 oz bottles

Bonus - If you are out for a walk and see a loose piece of plastic trash, pick it up and put in the garbage.