I don’t need a bag, thanks
Garbage ‘ Soup’ twice area of US in Pacific Ocean.
Well no surprise there then , yet more environmental damage , I dread to think what wildlife is trapped and regularly dying I the name of ‘ Progress ‘ and ‘ Population Boom’
A ‘ Plastic Soup’ soup of rubbish twice the size of the US is floating around the pacific at present.
The drifting expanse of debris, in two separate areas either side of the islands of Hawaii, reaches from 500 miles off the coast of California to almost all the way to Japan.
[We can hope that the only good thing that this expanse can do is scupper the Japanese whaling, sorry scientific research fleet]
It’s growing at a dangerously large rate endangering, heaps of marine life.
It was discovered believe it or not in 1997 during a yacht race, so why have no countries or petrochemical companies, as it is after all them that provided the ‘ Raw’ goods to make said monster?
It translates at around 100 million tonnes of rubbish circulating in the region, held in situ by the underwater currents.
Not happy with landfill, are we trying [And it appears succeeding in filling the ocean trenches]
It’s not actually detectable to satellite photography because it’s below the water’s surface.
‘They’ have attributed approx 1/5th of this to being rubbish thrown of ships and oilrigs, the rest comes from land.
If we as a species do not cut back on the use of disposable plastics, it’s very likely that this ‘soup’ will double in size within 10 years.
How many species will it eradicate by then?
What effect will this have on the marine eco systems?
Is anyone actually listening?
As it stands plastic debris cause the death of more than 1,000,000 seabirds and 100,000 [ Guestimate ] marine mammals a year.
2740 per day, 114 per hour that’s almost 2 per minute.
And that’s just the birds.
Plastic constitutes about 90 % of all rubbish in the ocean.
The UN estimated that in 2006 that there are about 46,000 bits of plastic in every square mile of ocean.
Think, for a moment.
Is that plastic bag at the supermarket, really that essential?
Does that shallot really need to be wrapped in cling film?
Buy your stuff loose, make the supermarket staff work for a living, after all they may only be getting paid a minimal wage, but how many shoppers are getting paid for doing self service checkouts?
Don’t buy into excess packaging that is so commonplace.
Don’t add to the floating land[ocean]fill.
6 comments Tuesday 05 Feb 2008 | Porl | Blog
convinced me…….I’ll pass it to the next generation
I am trying to say NO as much I can. However, I forget to take my shopping bag sometime.
My supermarket now has a big pile of recycled cardboard boxes (which they have to dump otherwise), as well as reuseable bags… but they are still giving out plastic more than anything else. The consumers MUST make the choice and most people dont’ bother. It makes me angry. It’s not like it’s hard or any kind of sacrifice to use a box or reuseable bag. To still use plastic is just plain apathetic. Collingwood, in Golden Bay, however have gone one step further and banned plastic bags from their town. YES!
This “discussion” has been ongoing for years n years. Go to a local hardware/warehouse (red barn) and buy a large cloth bag, when you get to check out, place your bag into trolley (assuming the average shopper buys by the cart load?) transfer all goods before check out person puts them into plastic bags, wheel out your shopping and transfer bag to car – same can be done if you only take a basket, transfer to panions on bycycle, or if using backpack, place objects directly into it. Easy!! its only shoppers being lazy that’s all, I DO agree with you!
I’ve always wanted to ride my xtracycle through the supermarket, loading the huge panniers with groceries as I go then ride into the check out. I wouldn’t even need to get off my bike! They could just load me up after paying and I’d ride away… no bags required!
I shop at the place I do because they offer a huge range of organic goods, they buy and label local goods. Anything that came from within a 200km radius has a big yellow tag on it, making buying locally every easy. They give away reuseable bags (if you use one ten times, they give you another for free) and have free recycled cardboard boxes. Quite progressive for a supermarket but I don’t think they are quite ready for the xtracycle ride-thru…. yet.
Murray , you are indeed ‘THE LEGEND’