beach cleanup #371
tower 26 - Santa Monica, CA
trash collected for 20 min.
7 pounds tonight
1,369.5 pounds of trash off this beach total
I find many, many plastic beverage bottles of all kinds. I find too many. I also occasionally drink iced green tea out of a plastic bottle. I found it really easy to grab one when I took time off from doing regular beach cleanups after my daughter was born.
I went to Starbucks last night. I wanted to try their new Fizzio or something drinks. It's summer. I was thirsty. I would recycle it. Oh wait, I don't believe in plastic recycling (if you'd like me to explain leave a comment) Well, just this once...This was the conversation in my head.
But I'd just done a beach cleanup the night before and so I reached for a glass bottle instead of ordering a fancy Starbucks drink that comes in a plastic cup. Glass is truly recyclable. I recycled the bottle at home. Direct content with the items found on the beach forces me to make different choices in my day-to-day life. It's one of the reasons I think beach cleanups are effective.
We're never going to clean the entire coastline, or even the entire beach in one night, but every day we are going to go buy stuff. And the stuff we buy, the choices we make, create change.
So how about next time, just today, or tomorrow, glass over plastic?
Most definitely, glass over plastic.. contents last longer and the plastic doesn't leech w/whatever is in the bottle. btw did u notice the higher prices @Starbucks?
ReplyDeleteYou and I stop and think..but there are legions who give no thought..Else how could you find 7lbs of trash in 20 minutes. And it will keep coming. I pick trash up on every beach walk, bags of it..much of it deposited in the sand a few feet from a trash container.. Hence my feeling "we are lost"
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments.
ReplyDeleteI understand feeling like people are lost - or we are lost - but if a solution (and I believe there are many) is to be a leader by modeling the behavior we would like to see, i.e. looking after the planet, without recruiting, then perhaps we have to do it? If we see then does it then become our responsibility to lead? And if the solution is slow does it make it any less of one? All things to ponder. I hope you'll stay connected here. We do this better if we have company.