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April 10, 2009

Plastics in turtles, tin in goats, what to do, what to do...

Yet another plastic is evil story...

Leatherback-turtle-photo Plastic Found in 1/3 of Leatherback Turtles, According to Study

The article talks about plastics (mainly from bags) ending up in oceans, ending up in turtles as they look like jellyfish!

What about the jellyfish? The fake plastic jellyfish are SAVING the jellyfish! Go plastics!

But seriously, it touches on my major pet peeve of anti-plastics rhetoric. They are mostly nattering nabobs of negativism that lack clear and better alternatives and solutions.  In this case their simplistic solution? Less bags. Now I'm all for reusable bags as superior to any throw away bag. But the problem is not the bag, the problem is you!


They don't touch on the core issue.  HOW did that bag get there in the first place and what can be done to prevent it?

Keep America Beautiful Many of you will remember Keep America Beautiful's great Crying Indian Ad, where he is sad at the littering.  Ocean trash gets there from litter and tossed trash.  If people had better control of themselves we wouldn't live in a trash filled world. 

So many activists just want to shoot the messenger... throw out the baby with the bathwater... Oh I could go on.  Do ANY of them rail against the litter? Virtually none. They spend ALL of their time villianizing the material.

The true solution reminds me of the Caesar, the dog whisperer, when he says, "Lady, the problem is not your DOG. The problem is YOU!"  If goats really ate tin cans, these folks would all be against the evil tin! Rid the world of tin! Save the Goats!

If every one of the anti-plastics used that energy in a more productive, practical solution mindset and be against littering and simply pro bio-degradable instead of silly plastics is evil routine, we'd just get so much more done!

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I had to look up the word 'nabobs' and I was surprised to find that you are using Spiro T. Agnew quotes.

I did a quick search on my blog and I found that you are right. I have never explicitly said that people shouldn't litter.

I did write an open letter to 'Joe Six-Pack' asking that he cut up his plastic six-pack rings to avoid entangling ducks.

I have pointed out how littering in the city can clog up drainage systems causing the streets to flood when it rains.

I think that people who read blogs mostly know that littering is bad. I think devoting a lot of energy towards reminding them word be more like 'nattering' than what I do now.

Fortunately you are saved by the adjective, "virtually"
http://www.greenplate.org/tools-resources/

You may want to check out the large and active "Pack Your Trash" efforts.

VERY much focused on litter (which is mostly plastic) and on picking up litter (again. mostly plastic) left behind on the beaches.

After decades of volunteers picking up trash, and society creating more and more of it, it makes sense that the message now includes "use less" and biodegradable/reusable considerations.

Who are "these folks" you refer to anyhow? The hundreds of thousands of volunteers who work on the weekends to clean up plastic pollution (and some tin cans)?

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