Growing trend to lay fake lawns instead of real grass causes loss of habitat for wildlife and creates waste that will never biodegrade
Showing posts with label plastic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label plastic. Show all posts
Monday, July 4, 2016
Growth in artificial lawns poses threat to British wildlife, conservationists warn | Environment | The Guardian
Growing trend to lay fake lawns instead of real grass causes loss of habitat for wildlife and creates waste that will never biodegrade
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
How plastics are changing the planet | World Economic Forum
Future archaeologists aren’t just going to be digging up old bones: Looks like they’re also going to be sifting though old fossilized plastics.
A review published (paywall) in the journal Anthropocene this month finds plastic has discernibly changed the surface of the planet since humans began using the material in the mid-20th century. They see this as evidence that the Earth is entering what the study’s authors call the “Age of Plastics.”
This chart from the World Economic Forum report The New Plastics Economy Rethinking the future of plastics shows the growth in Global Plastics Production 1950–2014. Data source: PlasticsEurope, Plastics – the Facts 2013 (2013); PlasticsEurope, Plastics – the Facts 2015 (2015).
MORE: How plastics are changing the planet | World Economic Forum
Friday, February 3, 2012
do you flick a bic? - NO MORE FLICKING! | plastics
Each day, BIC produces more than 5 million lighters worldwide.
FlickYourBic.com
bics & other "convenient" plastics kill - don't flick them!
photo by Chris Jordan
Midway: Message from the Gyre
On Midway Atoll, a remote cluster of islands more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent, the detritus of our mass consumption surfaces in an astonishing place: inside the stomachs of thousands of dead baby albatrosses. The nesting chicks are fed lethal quantities of plastic by their parents, who mistake the floating trash for food as they forage over the vast polluted Pacific Ocean.
For me, kneeling over their carcasses is like looking into a macabre mirror. These birds reflect back an appallingly emblematic result of the collective trance of our consumerism and runaway industrial growth. Like the albatross, we first-world humans find ourselves lacking the ability to discern anymore what is nourishing from what is toxic to our lives and our spirits. Choked to death on our waste, the mythical albatross calls upon us to recognize that our greatest challenge lies not out there, but in here.
Chris Jordan is an internationally acclaimed artist and cultural activist based in Seattle. His work explores contemporary mass culture from a variety of photographic and conceptual perspectives, connecting the viewer viscerally to the enormity and power of humanity’s collective will. Edge-walking the lines between art and activism, beauty and horror, abstraction and representation, the near and the far, the visible and the invisible, his work asks us to consider our own multi-layered roles in becoming more conscious stewards of our complex and embattled world. Jordan’s works are exhibited and published worldwide.
alternatives to flicking a bic
use matches! - zippos & lighter fluid, or at least refillable butane lighters
more on plastics
Plastic Pollution Coalition
Disposable plastics are the greatest source of plastic pollution. Plastic bags, straws, bottles, utensils, lids, cups and so many others offer a small convenience but remain forever. REFUSE disposable plastics! Follow the “4 Rs” of sustainable living: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
Coastal Issues / Coastal Care
WHEN THE MERMAIDS CRY:
THE GREAT PLASTIC TIDE
Nurdles covered beach. Photo Source: Algalita Foundation
By Claire Le Guern Lytle
The world population is living, working, vacationing, increasingly conglomerating along the coasts, and standing on the front row of the greatest, most unprecedented, plastic waste tide ever faced.
Washed out on our coasts in obvious and clearly visible form, the plastic pollution spectacle blatantly unveiling on our beaches is only the prelude of the greater story that unfolded further away in the the world’s oceans, yet mostly originating from where we stand: the land.
In 2008, our global plastic consumption worldwide has been estimated at 260 million tons. Plastic is versatile, lightweight, flexible, moisture resistant, strong, and relatively inexpensive. Those are the attractive qualities that lead us, around the world, to such a voracious appetite and over-consumption of plastic goods. However, durable and very slow to degrade, plastic materials that are used in the production of so many products all, ultimately, become waste with staying power. Our tremendous attraction to plastic, coupled with an undeniable behavioral propensity of increasingly over-consuming, discarding, littering and thus polluting, has become a combination of lethal nature...
more > Plastic Pollution | Coastal Care
AMRF Blog - Marine Plastic Covers Earth…Magazine
Ocean plastics made the cover of the February issue! And inside? An eight-page feature on the science of tracking plastic summarizes the most prominent marine debris research projects to date. Algalita gets first mention for Captain Charles Moore’s pioneering expeditions, plastic to plankton calculations and work raising awareness about plastic in the Pacific.
Author Barry E. DiGregorio provides an accessible and well-illustrated introduction to some of the field-defining scientific questions that Algalita and others are working hard to address: How much plastic is in the ocean? How long does it take for plastic to degrade at sea? What impact is it having on marine life?
Algalita Marine Research Foundation - Marine Research, Education and Restoration
Adverse Health Effects of Plastics | Fact Sheets | Ecology Center
In addition to creating safety problems during production, many chemical additives that give plastic products desirable performance properties also have negative environmental and human health effects. These effects include
• Direct toxicity, as in the cases of lead, cadmium, and mercury
• Carcinogens, as in the case of diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP)
• Endocrine disruption, which can lead to cancers, birth defects, immune system supression and developmental problems in children.
People are exposed to these chemicals not only during manufacturing, but also by using plastic packages, because some chemicals migrate from the plastic packaging to the foods they contain. Examples of plastics contaminating food have been reported with most plastic types, including Styrene from polystyrene, plasticizers from PVC, antioxidants from polyethylene, and Acetaldehyde from PET.
Among the factors controlling migration are the chemical structure of the migrants and the nature of the packaged food. In studies cited in Food Additives and Contaminants, LDPE, HDPE, and polypropylene bottles released measurable levels of BHT, Chimassorb 81, Irganox PS 800, Irganix 1076, and Irganox 1010 into their contents of vegetable oil and ethanol. Evidence was also found that acetaldehyde migrated out of PET and into water.
Recommendations
Find alternatives to plastic products whenever possible. Some specific suggestions:
• Buy food in glass or metal containers; avoid polycarbonate drinking bottles with Bisphenol A
• Avoid heating food in plastic containers, or storing fatty foods in plastic containers or plastic wrap.
• Do not give young children plastic teethers or toys
• Use natural fiber clothing, bedding and furniture
• Avoid all PVC and Styrene products
see also
• what next: plastic
what next: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch | 5 Gyres
what next: Plastic Soup - Pacific Garbage Dump
Thursday, January 19, 2012
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch | 5 Gyres
The short-term convenience of using and throwing away plastic products carries a very inconvenient long-term truth.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also described as the Pacific Trash Vortex, is a gyre of marine litter in the central North Pacific Ocean located roughly between 135°W to 155°W and 35°N to 42°N. The patch extends over an indeterminate area, with estimates ranging very widely depending on the degree of plastic concentration used to define the affected area.
The Patch is characterized by exceptionally high concentrations of pelagic plastics, chemical sludge, and other debris that have been trapped by the currents of the North Pacific Gyre. Despite its size and density, the patch is not visible from satellite photography, since it consists primarily of suspended particulates in the upper water column. Since plastics break down to ever smaller polymers, concentrations of submerged particles are not visible from space, nor do they appear as a continuous debris field. Instead, the patch is defined as an area in which the mass of plastic debris in the upper water column is significantly higher than average.
Some of these long-lasting plastics end up in the stomachs of marine birds and animals, and their young, including sea turtles and the Black-footed Albatross. Besides the particles' danger to wildlife, on the microscopic level the floating debris can absorb organic pollutants from seawater, including PCBs, DDT, and PAHs. Aside from toxic effects, when ingested, some of these are mistaken by the endocrine system as estradiol, causing hormone disruption in the affected animal. These toxin-containing plastic pieces are also eaten by jellyfish, which are then eaten by larger fish.
Many of these fish are then consumed by humans, resulting in their ingestion of toxic chemicals. Marine plastics also facilitate the spread of invasive species that attach to floating plastic in one region and drift long distances to colonize other ecosystems.
On the macroscopic level, the physical size of the plastic kills birds and turtles as the animals digestion can not break down the plastic.
Research has shown that this plastic marine debris affects at least 267 species worldwide and a few of the 267 species reside in the North Pacific Gyre.
Great Pacific Garbage Patch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Plastic Trash Plagues the Ocean
Plastic pollution in the ocean is a serious problem. Our flotsam can choke, entangle, or kill marine life and is dangerous to humans as well.
CREDIT: Onno Groß, DEEPWAVE
Once upon a time, the ocean was considered the last place where we could still find an undisturbed environment. This was before the plague of man-made plastic trash flooded the seas. During my travels, I have realized that everything has changed. There is scarcely a place on Earth where plastic litter is not present. Standing on the decks of our research ship, miles away from any large urban areas, we have retrieved plastic from the deepest parts of the sea.
“No more trash in the ocean” must therefore be our highest priority. |
In North America, many people have heard about the Pacific Garbage Patch, which Project Kaisei, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, NOAA, and others have recently studied. In the North Sea, where I have spent time on DEEPWAVE expeditions, the amount of trash found on our beaches is steadily increasing. On average, 712 pieces of refuse are found per 100 meters (or roughly 330 feet) of coastline. This quantity has remained high during the last ten years, despite an international agreement to protect the marine environment in the north Atlantic and reduce the flood of plastic refuse through tighter laws. On our recent Marine Litter Watch Expedition, I saw the problem first-hand as we watched freshly deposited blue garbage bags and their contents float at the surface in shipping routes through the North Sea—the “motorways of the sea.”
There are various sources of plastic litter entering our seas: shipping, tourism, and fishing to name but a few. Countless loopholes in marine law even legalize this. The consequences for the ocean’s inhabitants are devastating. Thousands of sea animals die in agony through the deadly flotsam of our consumer society. There are at least 138 marine species that regularly entangle themselves in this rubbish, including 6 types of sea turtles, 51 sea bird species, and 32 kinds of marine mammals. The problem of marine refuse is therefore interconnected with the loss of biological diversity.
Plastic and other trash travel everywhere the waves and currents carry them, irrespective of political boundaries. Costly and manpower-intensive litter-gathering activities on beaches (such as the Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Clean-Up this Saturday) and in the water (such as the Fishing for Litter program) are a practical first step toward a solution. However in the long-term, a serious effort must be made at the source in order to prevent harmful material from reaching the sea at all.
“No more trash in the ocean” must therefore be our highest priority.
Raising public awareness about the problem is critical. If we all start by educating ourselves and sharing the messages with those around us, the issue will receive more attention—and hopefully action.
We are just as endangered by marine litter as the sea inhabitants themselves. None of us can afford to ignore this problem.
Editor’s note: Our guest blogger, Dr. Onno Groß, is a marine biologist, environmental journalist, and president of the Marine Conservation Organization DEEPWAVE.
Plastic Trash Plagues the Ocean | The Ocean Portal | Smithsonian Institution
5 Gyres
Nearly every food product we buy...
Take a look around you- most of what we eat, drink, or use in any way comes packaged in petroleum plastic- a material designed to last forever, yet used for products that we then throw away. This throwaway mentality is a relatively recent phenomenon. Just a generation ago, we packaged our products in reusable or recyclable materials – glass, metals, and paper, and designed products that would last. Today, our landfills and beaches are awash in plastic packaging, and expendable products that have no value at the end of their short lifecycle.
The short-term convenience of using and throwing away plastic products carries a very inconvenient long-term truth. These plastic water bottles, cups, utensils, electronics, toys, and gadgets we dispose of daily are rarely recycled in a closed loop. We currently recover only 5% of the plastics we produce. What happens to the rest of it? Roughly 50% is buried in landfills, some is remade into durable goods, and much of it remains “unaccounted for”, lost in the environment where it ultimately washes out to sea.
Take this challenge
Walk into any grocery or department store and try to fill a grocery cart with individual products that are not made from, packaged, or labeled with plastic. Though some products, like plastic bottles, have a recovery plan, most do not. Even fewer are truly recycled. Plastic lost at sea is an environmental and potential human health hazard. We must demand zero tolerance for plastic pollution. Reducing our consumption and production of plastic waste, and choosing cost-effective alternatives will go a long way towards protecting our seas- and ultimately ourselves.
5 Gyres - Understanding Plastic Pollution Through Exploration, Education, and Action
see also
• GlobaLove Think Tank: playing with matches
• what next: Plastic Soup - Pacific Garbage Dump (Videos)
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Plastic Soup - Pacific Garbage Dump
how much plastic do you use? where does it go?
Great Pacific Garbage Patch
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also described as the Pacific Trash Vortex, is a gyre of marine litter in the central North Pacific Ocean located roughly between 135ºW to 155ºW and 35ºN to 42ºN. The patch extends over an indeterminate area, with estimates ranging very widely depending on the degree of plastic concentration used to define the affected area.
The Patch is characterized by exceptionally high concentrations of pelagic plastics, chemical sludge, and other debris that have been trapped by the currents of the North Pacific Gyre. Despite its size and density, the patch is not visible from satellite photography, since it consists primarily of suspended particulates in the upper water column. Since plastics break down to ever smaller polymers, concentrations of submerged particles are not visible from space, nor do they appear as a continuous debris field. Instead, the patch is defined as an area in which the mass of plastic debris in the upper water column is significantly higher than average.
> more: Great Pacific Garbage Patch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pacific Garbage Dump- Nightline
Real Great Pacific Garbage Patch
This is a video I made with my US Foriegn Relations class in Zoo Academy. We spent from the beginning of november to the last day of school before christmas break on this. It was very frustrating but very informative. Please watch with respect and take note on how we are treating our ocean these days.
Charles Moore - the Great Pacific plastic trash island
The Great Pacific plastic TRASH Island. -
Please see my post on how to reduce your plastic consumption on my web site.
http://www.maskaras.com/2009/02/25/lets-talk-trash/
When are we humans going to STOP raping the Earth?? If you do have a conscience about this and want to start doing your share of “what we should have already done”, then start by – first calculating how much non biodegradable waste you generate in a week, then do a sanity check and see how much of this lands up in the ocean and land fills. Second, multiply the result by 54 weeks and think about it. It is an embarrassing and shameful situation. I will let the video do the talking..A BBC coverage of what is happening at the beaches of Hawaii - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8639769.stm?ls (below)
BBC News - Ocean debris turning Hawaiian beach 'into plastic'
Consumer waste from the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" is turning a Hawaiian beach "into plastic", Tropic of Cancer presenter Simon Reeve has found.
Conservationist Sam Gon escorted him to the remote Kamilo Beach on Hawaii, where plastic bottles, bags, tyres, rusting petrol cans, and other waste from around the world washes up. They found more plastic particles than sand, as they dug a hole on what has been described as "the world's dirtiest beach."
click to visit page and watch video
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