This past summer I finished Alan Weisman's book The World Without Us. I ran across the book when Weisman was interviewed on the John Stewart Show. The premise of the book was really interesting - what would happen if humans were gone - what would our physical, environmental legacy be on the planet and how long would it take mother nature to erase that legacy. It wasn't depressing, trust me, it covered history, engineering and science and is a compilation of about 10 topical stories with a lot of "what-if" scenarios, like what would happen to New York City's skyscrapers, subways and bridges if there were no humans to tend to them, how nature would undo these engineering wonders, slowly but surely. That said, it is highly recommended.
One of the more interesting topics Weisman covers in the book is the legacy that plastic will leave on the planet when the human race is long gone. Essentially a archaeologist of the future, millions of years from now, will find fossilized plants, maybe mammal bones and perhaps a largely preserved plastic Barbie doll among the fossilized record of the 21st century. This is simply because plastics, a polymer, never truly degrade, they simply break down into smaller and smaller pieces. Plastics for the better or worse of it, are everywhere and are a part of most of the things we wear, use and discard on a daily basis.
In this context, Weisman talks about the North Pacific Gyre, essentially a is a swirling vortex of ocean currents comprising most of the northern Pacific Ocean. It is located between the equator and 50º N latitude and occupies an area of approximately ten million square miles (34 million km²). The North Pacific Gyre has a clockwise circular pattern and comprises four prevailing ocean currents: the North Pacific Current to the north, the California Current to the east, the North Equatorial Current to the south, and the Kuroshio Current to the west.
Historically, trash and debris from ships and land have landed in the ocean and travelled along the Gyre's currents to form essentially a huge floating trash fill. With organic materials, this material degraded over time. However, with the emergence of plastics over the past 50 years, especially as a disposable packaging component, scientists have seen a tremendous increase of non-degrading plastic trash filling up the Gyre. In Weisman's book, he estimated plastic being 90 percent of the trash content of the Gyre. Weisman also states that 80 percent of the plastic discarded on land eventually ends up in the ocean creating millions of tons of plastic trash that breaks up into little pieces, undigestable and extremely harmful to sea creatures big and small.
Greenpeace put together an interactive ocean current model that shows how land originated trash moves along ocean currents to end up in the Gyre, also referred to as The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
OK, so what do you do? Can't say its really practical to abolish all plastics from your life ( some people have though). Here are some tips I came up with that can help:
1. Use reusable shopping bags when you go to the grocery store or retail store. They are pretty cheap these days and are sold at most stores. Or if you have an item you can carry out, ask that it not be put in a bag.
2. Don't buy products that have excess plastic packaging. This includes food items such as lunchables, a lot of lunch items, toys.
3. Move away from using one-use plastic bags to store food in the refrigerator and use durable containers instead (we have done this now for about 6 months and have saved some money as well).
4. Even though they are recyclable, don't buy one-use plastic bottles. Get a metal canteen or water bottle instead. Sigg, makes some really cool reusable water bottles that have nice designs. We gave these as Christmas presents this year and they do keep water as cool as it would be in a one-use plastic bottle.
Incorporating these tips have been relatively painless for my family and in some cases have saved us some money by moving away from disposables to more durable storage items. Plus, I can feel that at least I am trying to make a difference and not contribute to this growing unseen problem.
One of the more interesting topics Weisman covers in the book is the legacy that plastic will leave on the planet when the human race is long gone. Essentially a archaeologist of the future, millions of years from now, will find fossilized plants, maybe mammal bones and perhaps a largely preserved plastic Barbie doll among the fossilized record of the 21st century. This is simply because plastics, a polymer, never truly degrade, they simply break down into smaller and smaller pieces. Plastics for the better or worse of it, are everywhere and are a part of most of the things we wear, use and discard on a daily basis.
In this context, Weisman talks about the North Pacific Gyre, essentially a is a swirling vortex of ocean currents comprising most of the northern Pacific Ocean. It is located between the equator and 50º N latitude and occupies an area of approximately ten million square miles (34 million km²).
The North Pacific Gyre has a clockwise circular pattern and comprises four prevailing ocean currents: the North Pacific Current to the north, the California Current to the east, the North Equatorial Current to the south, and the Kuroshio Current to the west.
Historically, trash and debris from ships and land have landed in the ocean and travelled along the Gyre's currents to form essentially a huge floating trash fill. With organic materials, this material degraded over time. However, with the emergence of plastics over the past 50 years, especially as a disposable packaging component, scientists have seen a tremendous increase of non-degrading plastic trash filling up the Gyre. In Weisman's book, he estimated plastic being 90 percent of the trash content of the Gyre. Weisman also states that 80 percent of the plastic discarded on land eventually ends up in the ocean creating millions of tons of plastic trash that breaks up into little pieces, undigestable and extremely harmful to sea creatures big and small.
Greenpeace put together an interactive ocean current model that shows how land originated trash moves along ocean currents to end up in the Gyre, also referred to as The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
OK, so what do you do? Can't say its really practical to abolish all plastics from your life ( some people have though). Here are some tips I came up with that can help:
1. Use reusable shopping bags when you go to the grocery store or retail store. They are pretty cheap these days and are sold at most stores. Or if you have an item you can carry out, ask that it not be put in a bag.
2. Don't buy products that have excess plastic packaging. This includes food items such as lunchables, a lot of lunch items, toys.
3. Move away from using one-use plastic bags to store food in the refrigerator and use durable containers instead (we have done this now for about 6 months and have saved some money as well).
4. Even though they are recyclable, don't buy one-use plastic bottles. Get a metal canteen or water bottle instead. Sigg, makes some really cool reusable water bottles that have nice designs. We gave these as Christmas presents this year and they do keep water as cool as it would be in a one-use plastic bottle.
Incorporating these tips have been relatively painless for my family and in some cases have saved us some money by moving away from disposables to more durable storage items. Plus, I can feel that at least I am trying to make a difference and not contribute to this growing unseen problem.
Sean
Other articles:
The Earth's Eighth Continent, by By David Reid - http://thetyee.ca/News/2007/11/21/PacificGarbagePatch/
The Plastic Sea, by Paul Watson - http://thetyee.ca/Views/2006/07/26/PlasticSea/