Volunteers gather on the shores of some of the country’s oldest national treasures to scoop trash out of the water and on the beach. Plastic bags, dog waste and metal cans are just a few of the more than twenty items registered by the Blue Ocean Society of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Armed with gloves and plastic bags, Cooper and I set out to collaborate and recover waste that is ignored or deliberately discarded.
Dr. Richard Bailey, executive director of a volunteer task force in California, is most concerned about the plastic bags that get puddled and sink to the bottom. “We have a lot of bottom-dwelling animals: shrimp, shellfish, sponges,” he says. “It’s like you are eating at your table and someone comes and throws a plastic tarp on your table and you.”
My son Cooper and I fished more than 10 plastic bags Out of the bay, 8 piles of dog poop from the beach along with cigarette butts, candy wrappers, and a soccer ball. As we worked, numerous passersby thanked us for our efforts; Cooper smiled and thanked them. There are billions more where they came from, and as a result, our oceans are in trouble.
Tea plastic bag It is a symbol of convenience, the most abundant commodity on Earth, numbering in the trillions. Made from petroleum or natural gas, the environmental impacts of the manufacturing process are numerous and studies show that some bags contain lead, which has been shown to damage the brain, kidneys and reproductive system, cause birth defects, slow growth and hearing problems.
Americans waste 100 billion plastic bags every year it wastes about 12 million barrels of oil. Only 1 percent of plastic bags They are recycled around the world, about 2 percent in the US, and the rest persist for centuries. “They are so aerodynamic that even when disposed of properly, they can fly away and become trash,” says Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste.
Go to any parade and you will see several bathing in the nearby waterway. Plastic bags they have been found in the belly of albatrosses in remote areas. The floating bags look like jellyfish to hungry marine mammals. Research suggests that more than a million birds and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles die each year from plastic encounters. There are 46,000 pieces of plastic floating in every square kilometer of ocean. In the North Pacific Gyre, a large vortex of ocean currents, there is now a swirling mass of plastic estimated to be twice the size of Texas.
Ireland has a tax of 22 cents on plastic bags it has reduced use by more than 90 percent. In Bangladesh, where plastic bags cause flooding by clogging the drain, bags are prohibited. San Francisco and Oakland banned the use of plastic bags allowing only paper bags with at least 40 percent recycled content. Meanwhile, other communities across the country, including Santa Monica, California, New Haven, Connecticut, Annapolis, Maryland, and Portland, Oregon, are considering drastic legislative action against bags.
Tea problem with plastic bags is that they last forever. Plastic does not biodegrade.
That’s not the dog’s only problem, litter doesn’t last forever, but it still causes big problems, as Cooper and I learned while cleaning up the beach. Reusable grocery bags are a solution to plastic invasion. Invest in quality shopping bags, thanks to the whales and dolphins.