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  1. #1
    Senior Member flowerseverywhere's Avatar
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    Plastic plastic everywhere, challenge

    During the summer we camp around in state and national parks, army corps of engineer lands and so on. There is plastic strewn everywhere. Bottles, caps, broken toys, plastic bags, wrappers. I fill a crochet bag that I rinse out everyday. On the shores of pristine lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, trails, sides of roads. I use a grabber and I am very careful, but I am appalled.

    What do do you do to fight this plastic everywhere? Besides grocery reusable bags, what can be done to get all these plastics out of the waste stream.

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    Senior Member Teacher Terry's Avatar
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    I have never seen litter in the state or national parks we have gone too. That sounds awful.

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    Senior Member flowerseverywhere's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Teacher Terry View Post
    I have never seen litter in the state or national parks we have gone too. That sounds awful.
    It’s on the trails, and once a bottle gets in a body of water by a boater or careless person, it can travel for miles. Washing up on a distant shore is causing havoc around the world. I believe what Bae describes is the current reality.

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    Senior Member bae's Avatar
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    Small scale individual action is fine and dandy, but won't remotely influence a problem this size. The amazing quantity of stuff I see wash in on our shores here, or when I am offshore, is unbelievable.

    Switching from plastic straws isn't going to save us.
    Last edited by bae; 8-16-18 at 8:01pm.

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    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bae View Post


    Small scale individual action is fine and dandy, but won't remotely influence a problem this size. The amazing quantity of stuff I see wash in on our shores here, or when I am offshore, is unbelievable.

    Switching to plastic straws isn't going to save us.
    +1
    And thanks for the Derrick Jensen reference. This, and Vol I, were great books.
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
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    Senior Member flowerseverywhere's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bae View Post


    Small scale individual action is fine and dandy, but won't remotely influence a problem this size. The amazing quantity of stuff I see wash in on our shores here, or when I am offshore, is unbelievable.

    Switching to plastic straws isn't going to save us.
    thank you for this recommendation. I found lots of info about his talks and they are archived on Facebook. I agree 100% with all you have said here. But I can’t stand to leave the plastic on the bank of a body of water. A tiny drop in an ocean of debris, I know.

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    Senior Member SteveinMN's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bae View Post
    Switching from plastic straws isn't going to save us.
    I am a big believer in "the starfish story" but I believe bae is correct in this; the scale of the problem multiplied among a few hundred million USians and industrial processes and marketing efforts make whatever I can save/not use a teaspoon in the ocean.

    Quote Originally Posted by Chicken lady
    a few weeks ago I started reading about shampoo. Which led to reading about bar shampoo. Which led to discovering that bar shampoo is basically my homemade soap with a little extra oil for moisturizing, and fragrances.
    Apparently I don't use much shampoo because whenever I finally empty a container and go back to the store to buy more, it's been discontinued or is no longer available in my area. So this last time I bought a shampoo bar (okay; it was substantially cheaper than many of the others, which helped). It's amazing! Easy to use, less mess than the stuff in the bottle, and it will last a good long time. I'm a convert. If the co-op no longer sells this when I go back for more, I'll look for it on-line.
    Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington

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    Senior Member KayLR's Avatar
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    Bottled water drives me nuts. I know it's necessary after disasters where there is no clean water source, but our receptacles here are just crammed with them. They also litter the gutters, sidewalks, roadways....

    They make reusable ones, but people are lazy. It's too easy to simply buy another pre-filled bottle.
    My therapist told me the way to achieve true inner peace is to finish what I start. So far today, I have finished two bags of M&Ms and a chocolate cake. I feel better already!

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    Quote Originally Posted by KayLR View Post
    Bottled water drives me nuts. I know it's necessary after disasters where there is no clean water source, but our receptacles here are just crammed with them. They also litter the gutters, sidewalks, roadways....

    They make reusable ones, but people are lazy. It's too easy to simply buy another pre-filled bottle.
    Here in Oregon, there is a .10 deposit on plastic water bottles. High end commodity among the homeless.

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    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by KayLR View Post
    Bottled water drives me nuts. I know it's necessary after disasters where there is no clean water source, but our receptacles here are just crammed with them. They also litter the gutters, sidewalks, roadways....

    They make reusable ones, but people are lazy. It's too easy to simply buy another pre-filled bottle.
    And the bottled water manufacturers have done such a great job of branding water. It drives me nuts that I have a water filter in my refrigerator, but BIL will bring home 12 oz bottles of Dasani for home use because he likes the taste of it. According to him, Dasani water is better tasting than Evian or Poland Spring or any other bottled or filtered water.
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
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