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  • #1

    If you're still using plastic bags, bottles, toys and so on...

    Why Midway | Midway *
    Take 8 and a half minutes to watch the video on that page.

    Keep in mind that only about 10% of rubbish floating at sea is actually dumped by boats... the rest of it comes from the land; or in other words... we put the rest of it there.

    I actually knew about this before I saw the video just now but was staggered (and, I don't mind admitting, realy rather upset too) by the sheer scale of it all.

    I already avoid using plastic - but this just made me determined to stop altogether. Time to start saving up for a load of terracotta seed pots and making trays from wood.



    * If you're easilly upset and have already stopped using plastic, maybe give it a miss - otherwise, watch it and think on.
    Tags: None
  • #2
    The film is shocking and horrifying and so sad. If you aren't going to watch it, basically it's about tons and tons of plastic debris floating around on the Pacific ocean.

    Sea creatures and birds eat the plastic and die.

    A lot of the plastic litter is dropped or flushed by us.

    You should NEVER flush sanitary products, cotton buds, baby wipes, dental floss or nappies. The plastic gets flushed out to sea and doesn't decay. You can see it on our beaches.

    Get involved? You can adopt a section of your local beach and clean it of litter: Adopt-a-beach and Beachwatch

    You can sign a petition: http://www.adoptabeach.org.uk/pages/...h_petition.php
    All gardeners know better than other gardeners." -- Chinese Proverb.

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    • #3
      A very moving video. I had no idea of the pollution in the water to that extent!
      It's very hard to avoid plastic. As for supermarket plastic shopping bags, they don't exist here any more. You take you own bags to the shops. I buy virtually no processed food apart from things like tinned beans. I try not to buy ham in those awful plastic trays.....buy how do you avoid toothbrushes?
      Part of the problem is how these things are disposed of. They shouldn't be able to make their way into the sea.
      Certainly something to think about. Thanks, Organic.

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      • #4
        Originally posted by Patchninja View Post
        how do you avoid toothbrushes?
        With these: Eco friendly Wooden Toothbrush

        Or these which use less plastic than normal ones
        Last edited by Two_Sheds; 25-03-2010, 09:22 AM.
        All gardeners know better than other gardeners." -- Chinese Proverb.

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        • #5
          i have plastic carrier bags from the supermarket but they are used for carrying lunch boxes and after that, as a bin liner for the waste.

          We buy some processed food but we work full time and commute, we would love to be completely green but the alternatives are starve or have something ready for when we get home after a long day.

          Of course, it's shocking to see the level of waste in the oceans and every one should do their bit but scaremongering people without real practical alternatives is difficult. I'm completely for recycling and reusing but it's getting near hysterical levels now.

          Plastic (when used correctly) is a good solid material that lasts a long time with many useful properties.

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          • #6
            According to the UN's Environment Programme, there are about 13,000 pieces in every square kilometre of sea (every sea or ocean)

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Bramble_killer View Post
              Of course, it's shocking to see the level of waste in the oceans and every one should do their bit but scaremongering people without real practical alternatives is difficult. I'm completely for recycling and reusing but it's getting near hysterical levels now.
              hear, hear.
              Last edited by SarzWix; 25-03-2010, 01:19 PM. Reason: The last bit has a forward slash - [/quote]
              Kernow rag nevra

              Some people feel the rain, others just get wet.
              Bob Dylan

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              • #8
                Doh! you would think after three years I would get the hang of quotes!
                Kernow rag nevra

                Some people feel the rain, others just get wet.
                Bob Dylan

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                • #9
                  Yes- very touching.

                  I do try and do my bit, although I have to say that because French matches are so rubbish-(they either don't light , or snap in half) I've started to buy plastic lighters...OK- will be importing UK matches from now on!

                  Every bit helps me thinks.
                  "Nicos, Queen of Gooooogle" and... GYO's own Miss Marple

                  Location....Normandy France

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                  • #10
                    Although I do recycle everything I possibly can, I also think there is a little scaremongering going on. Having been on many cruises, I have never seen any pollution in the sea.
                    sigpic“Gorillas are very intelligent, but they don't have to be as delicate as chimps -- they can just smash open the termite nest,”
                    --------------------------------------------------------------------
                    Official Member Of The Nutters Club - Rwanda Branch.
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                    Sent from my ZX Spectrum with no predictive text..........
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                    KOYS - King Of Yellow Stickers..............

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Bigmallly View Post
                      Although I do recycle everything I possibly can, I also think there is a little scaremongering going on. Having been on many cruises, I have never seen any pollution in the sea.
                      You would need very good eyesight to see it from the deck of a ship, I haven't seen the posted video but it isn't a new phenomena - just google on Pacific Gyre.

                      PS A typical 3,000 passenger cruise ship produces over eight tons of solid waste weekly

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by TEB View Post
                        PS A typical 3,000 passenger cruise ship produces over eight tons of solid waste weekly
                        The ships I have been on have massive skips waiting for them at the ports.
                        sigpic“Gorillas are very intelligent, but they don't have to be as delicate as chimps -- they can just smash open the termite nest,”
                        --------------------------------------------------------------------
                        Official Member Of The Nutters Club - Rwanda Branch.
                        -------------------------------------------------------------------
                        Sent from my ZX Spectrum with no predictive text..........
                        -----------------------------------------------------------
                        KOYS - King Of Yellow Stickers..............

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                        • #13
                          Pollution certainly does exist in the sea, just pop to the coast in winter BM and do a walk along the high tide mark, its staggering.
                          As a kid, and later as a growedy up after I'd left the army, I lived by the sea and spent most of my free time hanging about there, and the amount of stuff I picked up (even 35 years ago) was just amazing.
                          I was having a conversation with some friends recently, and they were explaining how the actual molecular make up of the sea is changing. There is plastic that apparently has degraded as far as it will, and is now floating about in the sea, invisible to the naked eye, but cannot degrade any further.
                          It had been a bit of a long night, and some of the facts and my memory may have been Pastis distorted, but its frightening really.
                          Bob Leponge
                          Life's disappointments are so much harder to take if you don't know any swear words.

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                          • #14
                            I'm not denying it doesn't happen Bob, I just sometimes think it's exaggerated........It is an almost impossible task to get every person in the world to sing from the same sheet.
                            sigpic“Gorillas are very intelligent, but they don't have to be as delicate as chimps -- they can just smash open the termite nest,”
                            --------------------------------------------------------------------
                            Official Member Of The Nutters Club - Rwanda Branch.
                            -------------------------------------------------------------------
                            Sent from my ZX Spectrum with no predictive text..........
                            -----------------------------------------------------------
                            KOYS - King Of Yellow Stickers..............

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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Bigmallly View Post
                              The ships I have been on have massive skips waiting for them at the ports.
                              Thats probably just the glass and aluminium waste as they cannot be disposed off onboard, typically solid waste is incenerated, pulped or ground up onboard and then dumped over the side (brother is in the merchant navy engineering officer), and that only accounts for solid waste, no mention of greywater/blackwater/bilge water, dumping ballast water from one ocean/sea into another ocean/sea, fortunately since about 200? cruise ships now utilise onboard treatment facilities to deal with gray/black water.

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