RE: A study of mesopelagic fish found that 73 % of them had plastic in their gut!
It is so disheartening when I see pictures and read stories such as the ones you have shared. Plastic does not go away and it is a shame humans are so irresponsible with their garbage. The bottom line is that it seems many people are lazy and apathetic. I always take reusable bags to market for my groceries. I am usually the only one with everyone else using those wretched plastic bags.
It takes little effort to remember the bags and I really have a hard time understanding why everyone still uses plastic...it is wasteful. It is no mystery what plastic does to the environment, its inhabitants and our ecosystems...I feel like they have taught us from a young age...still people make no effort to improve the situation.
Every little bit helps and it all adds up. We can not make people care but we can still educate and lead by example. When I go on hikes with my nieces and nephews, I pick up trash others have left behind on the trail. The young eyes see this and I hope it resonates with them throughout adulthood. The children are the future and introducing them to environmentally conscience habits now will hopefully produce environmentally conscience adults.
Great article and insight! Thanks for sharing @valth !
Thanks for your comment!
I personally try to do my best with not wasting plastic, but I stumbled onto a pretty stupid problem when I tried to use only reusable bags; I needed to buy other plastic bags to throw my garbage away. I couldn't even find any biodegradable plastic bags that was the correct size, so I am kind of stuck to using plastic grocery bags.. So the only thing I can do is to try my best to not get any more then I need, and rather use a reusable bag if I end up with too many plastic bags at one point. I find this system to be pretty stupid, but hopefully we will be able to use more environmental-friendly options in the future.
That's great! I think small things like this can really shape how they care for the environment and nature itself when they grow up, so I'm all for educating the children with these issues. I believe one of the major reasons why I'm really advocating a more sustainable future has a lot to do with the fact that I grew up during a time where all children were urged to do beach cleanings, learn about the problems of pollution etc.
Again, thanks for a great comment, @kiristin!
I too have that problem. You would think they would make biodegradable garbage bags. I have my fair share of plastic bags and reuse them for instances like smaller trash bags, cat litter box cleaning and dog waste when walking. It is not perfect but reusing them makes it not so wasteful, I think.
This rings true with me. My parents always picked up others trash when we would go on outdoor outings, my dad would take me to the recycling facility with his cans and then give me the money from his cans. At five years knowing I could get money for recycling meant a lot LOL.
Yeah, that sounds reasonable. If everyone was doing this, we would certainly be able to reduce the overall plastic production, so this is a good habit to have!
That's a nice story! I think the incentive to return cans and get paid a little bit for it can be very nice for children, but it could also lead them to think along the lines of not caring about returning the non-paid waste. But I definitely think it has a net benefit.