Protecting the Leatherback Sea Turtle – by Rebecca Mayer

The leatherback sea turtle, the largest sea turtle on earth (that apparently can grow to the size of a small car) has no shell.  Instead, it has only skin for protection.

The leatherbacks are endangered by fishing apparatus, desalination plants, offshore drilling operations and of course, plastic pollution.

The Obama administration has done their part to protect over 40,000 miles off the California coast as “critical habitat” for the species, which has declined 95 percent in the past 30 years.

Let’s do our part, both by encouraging this massively positive legislation and by continuing to reduce our consumption of single-use plastic, which still finds its way into the turtles’ critical habitat.

Read more about Protection for Fragile Sea Turtles in the Mercury News.

Indoor Air Pollution?

According to ABC News and the Environmental Protection Agency, you may not be safe from air quality hazards like plastic particles and chemical components even within your own home.

Here are their suggestions to diminish risks:

Look for certifications.  Certifications for low chemical emissions are in their infancy, but the more people who buy and request certified products, the more there will be.  Greenguard, part of Underwriters Laboratories, certifies furniture, paint, and other office and household products.  Scientific Certification Systems is another certifier.  And, for carpet, you can look for the “Green Label Plus” created by the Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI).

Choose unscented products.  Many manufacturers make both scented and unscented versions of their products.  Always choose the unscented ones.

Avoid pressed wood.  Pressed wood and wood composite materials are manufactured using strong glues that often contain volatile organic compounds.

Unwrap.  When you buy new furniture, unpackage it outdoors and let it sit outside for at least one week to air out. Similarly, make sure to unwrap your dry-cleaning outdoors before bringing it into your house.

Ventilate.  Try to paint in the spring and fall when you can comfortably leave your windows open for ventilation.  Same goes for new furniture or cabinetry.  Keep your windows open for a couple of weeks, if possible.

Paint first.  It’s a good idea to paint your home first, then ventilate for several days before installing new carpeting and other textiles.  That’s because these products can absorb chemicals from the paint and re-release them into the air over time.

Buy used.  Chemical emissions are at their highest when a product is brand new, so one solution is to buy used furniture that has already off-gassed in somebody else’s house.  (Unless that used furniture has just been refinished.)  Just be careful, because you want the latest safety features in things like baby cribs.  And you should look for furniture built after 1978, when lead paint was banned.

 

Saving the Plastic Bag?

Read one man’s opinion about the Save the Plastic Bag‘s campaign to end the Plastic Bag Ban in the ocean-side town of Santa Cruz, California in the Huffington Post.  Let us know if you agree!

It’s corporate bullying by the plastic industry to make cities and counties think twice before passing environmental laws that cut into their profits, laws that are supported by the majority of residents who prefer to live in clean communities, free of harmful and wasteful single-use plastics.

Exciting News from Ford – by Rebecca Mayer

My World War II pilot grandfather bought us each a car for graduation.  (I know; we are lucky.)  The only stipulation?  It had to be American-made.  I drove my Ford Escort with pride for many years during a hippie phase, with Grateful Dead Bears dancing on the rear window.

Now there’s another reason than patriotism to buy American.  Ford is using recycled plastic bottles to make electric seats for its new Focus.  Read the announcement in PC Magazine.

According to the blog Pacific Swell, they also  report the sobering news that in America, only 29% of plastic bottles find their way to being recycled, which is about half the rate in Europe. Awkward!

Haven’t Found a Green Resolution Yet? Here are some ideas… by Rebecca Mayer

It’s about time we at Bag It posted some new How To’s.  If you haven’t yet, how about incorporating just one new green action into your life this January?  Your choice…

HOW TO…Compost.  Here’s a great blog post about getting your apartment or office building on board.

HOW TO…Store vegetables and fruit without plastic.  Here is an amazing alphabetical list of recommended storage for various types of produce.  There is even a printable PDF to post on the fridge!

HOW TO…Shop for fruit and vegetables without plastic.  Shameless self-promotion here, but Bag It produce bags are not only stylish but incredibly serviceable.

We will keep the ideas coming, and please share your ideas with us too!

Save the Camels! – by Rebecca Mayer

A new update from the Far East…Half of the deaths of camels in the deserts of the United Arab Emirates comes from calcified plastic in their stomachs.

Having just ridden a camel through the desert of Rajasthan, I can attest to the fact that camels are curious and hungry creatures, willing to sample anything they come across.  They are adventurous eaters.  When the plastic hardens in their huge stomachs, they die of suffocation.

United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan has called upon UAE residents to support the country’s Make UAE Plastic Bag Free campaign to curtail use of plastic bags by 2013.  Read more here.

And, since I have never posted a photo, here’s one of me on a camel…

Way to go, Japan! – by Rebecca Mayer

It’s wonderful to have good news about the state of our planet, and an example to follow.  Thank you Japan.

According to a recent article by Justin McCurry in the UK Guardian, Japan is way ahead of the global curve in plastic recycling rates.

Japan reportedly recycles 77% of its plastic waste.  The US currently recycles 20% of its plastic.

In Japan, the list of items that can be recycled also  exceeds the list that we are accustomed to – lids and caps as well as food wrappers are all separated for recycling and picked up free of charge for processing.

It’s not only Japan’s rate of recycling that makes it an exemplary model.  It’s how they use the process -converting recycling into thermal energy and creating toys and recycled plastic water bottles.

This is recycling at its best, as it exists today.  There are still some issues (the large quantity of packaging used in the country) that still (obviously) make reducing the first choice.

How do we push for change in our own country’s waste-management system?  According to McCurry, “Japan has been able to make progress in plastic recycling because waste-processing agencies have won the support of manufacturers.”

Let manufacturers of products you use know that you want more recycled product!  And let us know about any creative solutions that you come up with!

 

Where it all began…by Rebecca Mayer

The issue of plastic bag pollution is trendy.  It doesn’t matter on which side of the issue you fall.  Being part of the debate is enough to make you feel as if you are involved with something vital, important to our future.

In fact, as David Byars, former Bag It Town Coordinator put it, “the issue of plastic bags is what we consider to be low-hanging fruit.”

The idea is – if you are challenged to think about your single-use plastic bag consumption, you will also begin to consider your energy, water, food, fuel and resource consumption as well.  In all these areas, the idea of consuming less and enjoying simplicity more will begin to take shape.

That’s what we at Bag It hope and believe, at least.

How did the issue of plastic consumption become so trendy anyway?

An article by Juliette Jowit in the UK Guardian takes us back:

Plastic bags became almost a national symbol of waste and decadence thanks to BBC camerawoman Rebecca Hosking, who travelled to the remote Pacific island of Midway to film a nature documentary.

As the Guardian reported at the time: “Instead of finding some prelapsarian wilderness, she and a colleague were confronted with the horror of hundreds of albatrosses lying on the sand. The great birds’ stomachs had been split open by the heat and bits of plastic were spewing out between the feathers and the bones. All kinds of plastic – toys, shopping bags, asthma inhalers, pens, cigarette lighters, toothbrushes, combs, bottle tops. The birds had swallowed them and choked to death.”

Later, Hosking and her colleagues found humpback whales, seals and turtles, “all dead or dying from the plastic”, which rolled in on every tide.

The Journey to Midway continues with updates, poems and films on the Journey to Midway blog.  Stay up-to-date with the team’s discoveries about the effects of our culture of consumption in one of our last remaining natural, untouched areas.

The Arabian Sea: Not a Fairytale – by Rebecca Mayer

Yesterday I visited the Arabian Sea, a beach on the coast of Vypeen Island in Kerala, India.  The Arabian Sea sounded like a mythological place to me, with genies and lamps and men with sashes and swords hiding in caves.

The real Arabian Sea here is dubiously yellow-tinged.  The barefoot sensation of the sand was spoiled by the sticky scum that accumulated on the soles of my feet.  I almost stepped on a glass light bulb.  Plastic trash lay everywhere on land.  I had to close my eyes just to enjoy the only pleasure afforded by the sea – the sound of the waves.

Before I am so quick to judge the nation of India for its appalling treatment of the natural environment, I must remember that most of our curbside recycling plastic gets bundled and shipped overseas.

Its fate is unknown since “an end use hasn’t been provided for those plastics,” says Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste.

The light bulb I nearly cut my foot open with could have originated in our fair country.

Most of this plastic will end up in the ocean.

The Clean Oceans Project, based in Santa Cruz, California, is working on the problem of ocean waste by converting styrofoam at sea into fuel.

This sounds too good to be true.  My first thought was “how much does the conversion process pollute the air?”

According to Kiyoshi Nakajima, creator of the machine, The end products consist of water vapor, inert char — which can be reused as fuel — and negligible amounts of carbon dioxide.

On the smaller models, “the amount of carbon dioxide is less than one adult breathing,” Nakajima said.

Read more in the Mercury News.  And to learn how to become involved with the Clean Oceans Project, visit them here.

The Debate – by Rebecca Mayer

Pity the much-maligned plastic bag, says Marc Gunther in his article In Defense of the Plastic Bag.

Gunther says he is not persuaded that plastic bag bans or taxes makes sense.  His points are, basically:

• Paper bags are environmentally taxing, and are not a good alternative to plastic.
• The Great Pacific Garbage Patch isn’t as big as we think.  Even more importantly, the distressing amount of plastic in marine debris is made up of many other plastic items.  Since plastic bags are not the only cause of marine pollution, why not use them?
• Recycling is better than reducing, because we are never going to stop using single-use plastic.

I can’t tell you all the times, in reading this article, that I began mentally spluttering.  But…How can you…Why…How does that…?  My thought process was less than eloquent.

Thank heavens for Stiv J. Wilson, Communications and Policy Director of 5Gyres.org, who wrote a thoughtful and (mostly) respectful reply on the Huffington Post, In Defense of Plastic Bag Bans.

To Wilson, the bottom line is that plastic does not biodegrade.

What’s at issue is this: Plastic does not biodegrade in a meaningful if even comprehensible timeframe. Thus, some portion of it accumulates in the environment. The more we produce, consume, and recycle plastics, the more plastic will come into the world and accumulate in landfills, on land, in rivers, and the sea. Plastics at sea concentrate incredibly dangerous chemicals, fish eat plastic, and we eat fish.It’s really that simple. This is why we care. It sure as hell isn’t for the paycheck.

Don Loepp, the editor of Plastics News responds to the debate, in particular Stiv Wilson’s call for biodegradable products, with the most ludicrous question of all.

But wait — is biodegradability a good thing? We’ve heard from recyclers concerned that increasing use of biodegradable plastics and additives would hurt their business.

I am back to spluttering thoughts.  Statements like these confuse and anger me.

I guess it’s a question of motivation.  If your bottom line is profit, not preserving our natural environment or cutting down on the needless waste that is finding, increasingly, that there is no “far away” place to go, then you are more concerned with the business of recycling than the actual point of recycling.

Thankfully, again, Wilson comes to the rescue.

That plastics bags are 100 percent recyclable isn’t the issue. It’s that by a massive percentage they are not recycled. … Furthermore, why are we investing in a system that has to fabricate bag recycling rates to trend positively, even though the fabricated trend still amounts for next to nothing? What society accepts a 4.3 percent efficacy rate in any system without abandoning it and going back to the drawing board?

And as he closes In Defense of Plastic Bag Bans, Wilson makes me feel better about my incoherent thoughts.  Because he is angry too!

He writes, they might want to quit insulting our intelligence. Environmentalists will come to the table, because we understand how damaging to this Earth plastic bags are...We might not have the money on our side, but we have something that always wins in the end: the truth.

Amen to that.