


Ready, Set, No Plastic

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

I've long known about the whole plastics-in-the-ocean problem but never really been struck by it. Does that ever happen to you? It's happened to me plenty of times, where some issue lurks in the back of my brain somewhere, not getting a whole lot of attention. Then one day, it rises up, out of the dark recesses and is all. I. think. about.

I already avoid certain plastics because I have young kids and try hard to minimize their exposures to toxic chemicals. But this is different, because all plastics are guiltily bobbing around the ocean, gumming up the works of wildlife and ecosystems for miles around. So when I read Olga's post about the great Pacific garbage patch on Enviroblog last week and caught a glimpse of the plastic-filled albatross video on You Tube, I decided to kick it up a notch.

So I did what any very forgetful person would do in such a situation: I taped a sign on our back door, not to be missed by anyone leaving the house (with a wallet, headed to a store, in other words), that reads: Remember the great Pacific garbage patch.