The Anti-Plastic Post

So after sitting inside in front of a computer screen all day, wondering to myself how in the world people can do this every day for five days every week, I was more than excited to spend some of my internship hours this evening at a much more social and educational event. The fabulous world of Facebook had invited me via my membership in my hosting internship organization's page to a special Earth Day/Week presentation by Dr Marcus Eriksen and Anna Cummins, who were two of the individuals behind the Junk Raft. Both are (now engaged!!) oceanic researchers primarily focusing on the increasing problem of plastics in our oceans.

Being the ever resourceful nerd that I am--I took notes on the back of a scrap of paper---in order to share with all of you!

--In order to construct the raft, they used 15,000 plastic bottles which they stuck into two big nets in order for 30 broken plastic masts to rest on top and form the raft. Then they purchased an old airplane from a junkyard for the cabin. They left from Long Beach, CA and arrived via drifting in Hawaii 88 days later (6 weeks later than they thought it would take them).

--In terms of plastics, 50% of plastic products goes into the landfill, 20% is made into goods that actually last and are durable, 5% is recycled, and the other 25% is unknown where it goes

--80% of plastic in the ocean is due to run off/human contamination (think littering, streams dumping it into the ocean, etc); while only 20% is due to the maritime industry

--In the 9 years of testing, these researchers have seen a doubling of the amount of plastic particles found in the oceans. While some plastic materials may break down over time into small pellets, many items stay larger in size. I'm sure we've all seen some of the recently released photos of animals damaged by plastics via our waterways.

--In a trip during a recent summer, Dr. Eriksen was visiting a Pacific Island and found numerous bird carcasses with stomach regions full of plastics (the plastics can't break down or pass obviously, causing the birds to eventually die) For this example they had pictures and he also brought some of the items: tooth brushes, the leg of an action figure, bottle caps, etc.

--While doing water tests in recent years, 35% of the 621 little fish that they gathered in one night had hard plastic pellets in their stomachs. These fish are eaten by larger fish (which then contain the plastics and any other additional plastics they may eat mistakenly). These larger fish are eaten by humans.

---Which leads us back to that issue of bioaccumulation...but first!

--Many of these plastics contain those nasty harmful chemicals of concern I'm always writing about on here (or at least should be!) that are POPS (persistent organic pollutants) which take forever to break down if they ever do and do the afore mentioned bioaccumulation...meaning that the level of POPS increases as each new level/creature ingests them. It takes them so long to break down that they instead accumulate in a person's body---which in turn is known as an individual's body burden. (Humans basically only excrete POPS when females breast feed their babies and via the growing fetus as well.) Which in turn produces children who can have higher loads of toxins than their parents, increasing their chances of negative health effects.

--So back to these fish with plastics in their stomachs. Plastics that contain POPS, which studies have shown that these POPS from plastics are able to over time become part of the chemical load of the fish, which is then eaten by another fish, which is thereby eaten by a human...further increasing the human ingestion/exposure to POPS.

Pretty incredible stuff. Marcus and Anna, if I can call them that, are on an educational tour to present their data and to increase awareness of these issues. However interestingly they are touring via biking from Vancouver, BC to Tiajuana, MX, and are being sponsored by that fabulous ocean-caring organization Surfrider. They are also calling for change. Part of the purpose of this presentation was to educate individuals to recycle more, but to also USE LESS especially of plastics. Plastics are especially prone to one-time usage and often not all plastics are accepted for recycling. So be wise BEFORE you buy and opt for glass (healthier too!) or another alternative before going for that plastic bottle, bag, etc. Although anymore, even cardboard milk jugs and aluminum cans are all lined with plastic coatings----great for those health concerns, no?

Couple other highlights: Portland's mayor Sam Adams arrived and gave a short speech in support of the Ban the Bag Campaign in Portland, and accepted a small token from Marcus and Anna. Another educational component the two are doing is gifting 100 small jars of collected plastic pellets and debris mixed with the Pacific Ocean water it was collected in. Sam Adams accepted with pride. Now let's see if you can make your own dent in the plastics affair!

And here's a link to the artist who sang for us tonight: Micah Wolfe