Sharing this post about the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch". Very good read. I highly suggest you check it out and follow the links. Please. This is a problem and we need some sort of movement to open people's eyes...Is the population really this blind?
One Shade Greener:Pop Quiz: How much plastic is in the Pacific Ocean?
a) enough to form an island the size of Texas
b) so much that in some ocean currents the mass of plastic exceeds that of ocean life (zooplankton) by a factor of six
c) it is so prevalent that migratory birds can’t distinguish between plastic and food, and die of starvation, while their bellies are full of plastic
d) we may never know
The answer, sadly, is all of the above.
Photo from The Institute For Figuring
Photos from our "Plastic Mountain"
In our small town of Twin Falls, our curbside recycling is very limited, only accepting cardboard, cans, and newspaper. And, I am sad to say that there are only two of us on our block that actually use this service! Everything else we store in the garage and then make our own trips to the Center (you should see our mountain of plastic...Lance is rarely in town and he is our recycling driver). We are also limited as to what the Center accepts. Can you believe they do not accept glass! Twin Falls is so behind in the times! To recycle the glass we must drive to the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Park. They will recycle it in National Park's pathways...Very cool! But come on! How many people actually know this...I am spreading the word -but then, save the glass and spend gas/money driving it there? Where does the line divide the two evils?
Oh...and don't even get me started on the fruit and veggie stands, all those bloggers out there who make daily trips to the local produce stands: I can't begin to tell you how jealous I am!
3 comments:
Oh my, sounds like you have some cages to rattle. Can you start to bring it up in town meetings?
Even if it is a rural area, can you maybe bring up what other rural ares are doing? Maybe establish a center that people drive to that takes all this stuff?
Here is an example: http://www.chathamrecycles.com/
When I lived here we could take ALL of our stuff there. It was easier for them to establish a program that was workable.
Keep us posted.......Shannon
LOVE the recylced R&R bottle!!
gigimegs
I have the same problem. I come from a very small remote community in alaska. no roads to and from other communities. only way to get in and out is with a commercial airline which is very expensive.
Lack of funds,and people to start up a recycling center or a collection site seems impossible. To make it worse the City cannot maintain the open dumpsite and these that enter the dumpsite might have already leachate into the ground water.
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