The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Have you ever heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?  No?  It's in the middle of the ocean, so most of us will never see it, but it's one of the largest man-made environmental disasters in the world.  It is the world's largest landfill and it's getting larger every year!

The ocean is constantly moving.  Ocean currents move the water in different directions depending on wind, temperature and other factors.  The North Pacific Gyre is a  place in the Pacific Ocean between California and Japan where many currents come together to form a giant, clockwise moving area of water.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also known as the Pacific Trash Vortex, is located here in the North Pacific Gyre.  It is literally a giant, floating patch of garbage twice the size of Texas and made up of millions of pounds of plastic, chemical sludge and other debris.  Greenpeace has said that 10% of all plastic manufactured each year ends up in the ocean!

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch presents hazards to marine life.  Plastic can end up in the stomachs of marine birds, sea turtles and fish.  These toxic plastic pieces can also be eaten by jellyfish, which are then eaten by larger fish.  When the larger fish are eaten by humans, these toxins can enter our bodies!  All life on Earth is connected.  Our abuse of the environment comes back to us full circle.

Be aware of your waste!  Throw garbage in the trash, not on the ground!  Recycle plastic disposable products when you can or avoid buying them altogether!  The next time you see a piece of garbage about to blow into a sewer, a river or a stream, pick it up and throw it away.  How big will the Garbage Patch get before we start to act?

MATTRESS FOLLOW-UP

In my quest to prevent a mattress from going to the landfill, I called several more numbers today to find a different solution.  The first number I called was a company known as "Eco-Haul" and wanted to charge me $80 to pick up the mattress and then recycle it.  I told them I was just a kid and didn't have $80.  Another company, which I will not name, wanted to charge $120 and would have just thrown the mattress into the garbage dump anyway.  (This was very confusing.)  Neither of these places had any idea what else could be done with an old mattress.

It seems as though just throwing our old stuff away is the cheapest and easiest solution.

My mother noticed my frustration and called a few friends to see if anybody wanted a free twin-size mattress in good condition.  In no time at all, she found someone to adopt it.  Somebody gets to sleep on a nice mattress and one less object is going to the landfill.  This makes me very happy--but I want to continue investigating why recycling is such hard work.

RECYCLE - EVEN WHEN IT'S NOT CONVENIENT

This week my mother wanted to get rid of a mattress.  So she put it on the curb to be picked up with the rest of the trash.  When I got home, I asked her if she would let me try to find some other place for it to go besides the landfill.  She put up a fight because she didn't want to haul the mattress back inside, but I was able to convince her.

My first idea was to donate the mattress to a charity.  It's in good condition and nobody has even slept on it for the past few years.  To my surprise, the Salvation Army branch in my town told me that they didn't accept mattresses.  I guess they're worried that the mattress might be dirty.  Next I called several bedding companies to ask if they knew of any mattress recycling locations nearby.  All three places I called treated me as if I was crazy.  I was confused.  Why would a business that sells mattresses not have any suggestions for what to do with an old one?

I found a few other numbers in the phone book and I will try them on Monday.  I hate to think that sending a big mattress to a landfill is the only option, but so far I have had no luck.  It turns out that going green isn't always convenient and getting the right answer may not happen on the first try.  Environmentalism takes work.

WHAT IS SUSTAINABILITY?

This is a word I’ve been hearing a lot lately.  But what does it mean?  According to World Commission on Environment and Development, sustainable development is defined as “the ability of humanity to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

What are some things we do today that will negatively affect the kids of tomorrow?  Polluting the air with greenhouse gases, polluting the soil and water with landfill, polluting oceans by dumping garbage, threatening sea life by overfishing, threatening water supplies by spilling harmful chemicals, wasting natural resources, relying on energy sources that damage our environment, and the list goes on.

Ancient tribes of people, like the Native Americans here in this country, lived in a way that was sustainable.  For example, Native American tribes would use every part of an animal after they killed it so that no part was wasted.  These people believed that humans must live together peacefully with nature instead of dominating it—or worse yet, destroying it.

Here are some basic rules for how to live sustainably, provided by environmentalist Paul Hawken:

·      Leave the world better than you found it.

·      Don’t take more than you need.

·      Try not to harm life or the environment, make amends if you do.

Right now, there are many things we are used to doing and buying that are unsustainable.  The older we get, the more we will see sustainable products and sustainable ways of life becoming available.  But how can we make sustainability popular?  Isn’t it easier to keep things the way they are?  Will you be a kid who looks for these new advances?  Are you able to recognize things you do every day that may be unsustainable?

A WORD ABOUT THE PLASTIC BAG

Did you know that each American uses between 300 and 700 plastic bags per year?  Most of these bags are used only one time (some of them for mere seconds!) before being thrown away.

Did you know that only 1% of plastic bags in the U.S. are ever recycled?

Did you know that it takes 10-20 years for a single plastic bag to decompose?  Of course, this is only if it gets caught in a tree branch or sits on your lawn all that time.  Plastic bags buried in landfill can take up to 1,000 years to decompose!

Did you know that when garbage items (including paper products) are buried, their decomposition slows almost to a halt because they are not exposed to air or sunlgiht?  In digs through old garbage dumps, newspapers from the 1930s have been found that are still completely legible!



If you really want to jump aboard the “green” bandwagon – you should start using canvas bags when you go shopping!  Keep some in your car, your garage, your trunk, your desk, or inside your carry-all bag so you never forget to bring them with you!  

Make a pledge that you will make this green change today!  Don’t be embarrassed to carry reusable bags!

And the next time a cashier asks if you’d like a bag to carry that single item to your car, don’t feel weird to say, “No, thanks!” We should all start feeling weird when we waste!