I'd say we are. Truly.
My town's annual cleanup day was today. A couple of miles of coast and both sides of the main road and a few side roads.
The turn out was great. About 30 of us from a town of about 150+. Those who were gone away for the weekend cleaned up stretches of the road during the past week. The town is fortunate in that the people who care, really care.
But you guys! The garbage collected! We lost count. Picture above is of about 30% of what we collected. We figured close to 100 bags, 3 truckloads to the dump.
I myself collected 3 full bags.
About 90% of it plastic: Tubs, bags, bottles, floats, fishing net pieces, wrappers.
Surely it's about time we stopped using plastic? And only used recyclable or cloth grocery bags (I do) and drank water from the tap (I do)and filled our own bottles (I do) if we insist on walking around like big babies with a bottle to our lips all the time. (Gee, our ancestors worked hard in the fields or on the water or in mines and didn't suck off bottles all day long, think about it.)
We need serious anti-disposable plastic laws in place. I'm writing an article for next weekend's paper on this.
I live on an island.
We are drowning in plastic. I can't bear thinking about the birds, fish and animals who choke on this stuff every day from the plastic we don't even see.
Stop it already.
It's insane. Although I have to admit that sometimes I use cloth bags and sometimes plastic - because I re-use the plastic bags as trash bags.
ReplyDeleteI love how you call a place of150 people a town!
ReplyDeleteIt's a village!
We have around 350 in our village
I am now going to call trelawnyd a town!
Unfortunately so many household items are made wholly or partly of plastic, it would be impossible to get rid of plastic. We'd have to dispose of our cars, washing machines, computers, mobile phones, light fixtures, electric sockets, you name it. But we could certainly cut down on how much we use, and be more careful about how we dispose of it.
ReplyDeleteI'm about to become a grandma for the first time (yay) and I was astounded to discover that cloth nappies are almost non-existent here in Australia. Our garbage dumps are being filled with plastic disposable nappies! I'm appalled .
ReplyDeleteI am one of the people you don't need to convince and I feel that way about anything that can be recycled. But yes, this overuse of plastic has to stop. I do my bit and then some, but manufacturers have a lot to answer for also. I try to buy as little packaged food as possible, but even 5 kg of potatoes come in a plastic bag.
ReplyDeleteSAW:
ReplyDeleteI find myself eyeing my garbage to evaluate what I'm throwing, it's mind-blowingly more plastic...
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Actually John the word "village" is never used here, it's "outport" but nobody outside of Newfoundland is familiar with this word so I compromise with "town".
ReplyDeleteLet's declare you a city :)
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Nick:
ReplyDeleteWell I did list what we gathered up - it is mainly the bags and the bottles we need to deal with.
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Debstar:
ReplyDeleteCongratulations - wonderful news. I can only wish you the joy my grandchild has given me over the years and she is now an adult, so many, many wonderful years for you too. :)
Plastic nappies, yeah I know, it's appalling.
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Irene:
ReplyDeleteOne of the few things that come in paper here are potatoes go figure. Wonderful fire-starter for my woodstove!
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No excuse these days - it's all recyclable. If your area doesn't do it - start another campaign in the local paper.
ReplyDeleteHave you caught up with the dangers of the plastic microbeads used in cosmetics? They're contaminating food and water supplies on a huge scale.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/environment/plastic-timebomb-microbead-pollutants-in-cosmetics-washed-into-the-sea-and-ending-up-in-the-food-chain-30284718.html
RJA:
ReplyDeleteWe're very limited here in recyclables - for instance there is no facility on the island for recycling glass. Hard to believe but true. We do recycle most plastics, tins and paper.
It's the reduction of usage should be the most important but is a huge FAIL until legislated.
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Nick:
ReplyDeleteI saw that, it is incredible. We are literally drowning ourselves and all on the planet in our so-called "disposables". Nothing is disposable. It is all waste.
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Good for your town and good for you for keeping it in front of the pubic. Maine is one of the states that charges a fee on bottled drinks, which you get back when you return the bottle. More states are getting on board all the time. My town recycles everything, and I mean everything including food waste to make compost. It's profitable or they wouldn't continue to do it. That's harder to do if you are on an island....
ReplyDeleteMy town council are excellent at recycling our waste. The problem is some people are to lazy to even bother with sorting their waste, they would rather bung it in a hedge or on the streets.
ReplyDeleteThis is a global problem and to me would appear to offer no short term radical solution other than to globally and totally ban plastic bags, and containers. That does not seem possible either. I do not know how it will all end up.
ReplyDeleteIt is insane, as Secret Agent Woman says. We are short-sighted to the point of self-sabotage. Making people buy plastic bags did a lot for Ireland in terms of reducing litter, but it's trivial in the larger scheme of things.
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