Monday, June 28, 2010

Day 129 - June 27, 2010

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA
trash collected for 20 minutes
3.8 pounds
510 pounds total

TODAY I PARTNERED WITH OCEANS 4EVER - THE (MOM) CINDY & (DAUGHTER) ALEXA TEAM - WHO WENT OUT TO THEIR LOCAL LAKE IN INDIANA FOR A 20 MINUTE CLEANUP. THEIR FINDINGS TO FOLLOW.

THEY WERE ALSO A PART OF THE OCEAN HERO AWARDS FROM OCEANA.

This is recyclable. If you define recycling as a closed loop, meaning that the material that you start with is recycled into the material that you end up with.
An aluminium can can become a can again.
A glass bottle can become a recycled glass bottle.
Paper can become recycled paper.

BUT THERE IS A MYTH ABOUT PLASTIC RECYCLING. PLASTIC GETS DOWN-CYCLED -
meaning that the plastic bottle or bag you start with at the beginning of the recycling loop takes chemicals and a lot of energy to make the plastic pliable enough to mold into a new plastic item.
This usually means an inferior plastic product, like single use plastic siding for houses which when it reaches the end of its life, is simply thrown away. But there is no away....
Annie Leonard who did, "The Story of Stuff," has now done the "Story of Bottled Water."
I think that I have mentioned this before. In this short documentary she goes to India to visit the mountain of plastic bottles that are just sitting there in landfills that have been shipped from the USA. Astounding and disturbing, please watch.
What does a water bottle have to do with the BP Oil Disaster? (I read in a comment on Beth Terry's site Fake Plastic Fish yesterday that a reader of hers refuses to call it a "spill". She's right, it is not a spill it is a "geyser" an environmental disaster of proportions never before seen on earth. Period. That was a horrible sentence to write.)

Anyway - plastic bottles are made from petroleum based plastics. Drink soda or water out of plastic bottles? Increase our dependence on oil. Allow more companies like BP to say they are just fulfilling the demand of the consumer......Sounds harsh? It isn't. The Cove director said (paraphrasing here) "Want to do something to help the Gulf? Don't ever drink out of a plastic water bottle again!"


Please read Beth Terry's informative post on WHY YOU CAN'T CLEAN UP THE PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH. This is something I'll cover more about in future posts. She does it so well on her blog that I urge you to go there and inform yourself.
THANK YOU BETH!!