Seattle bans plastic straws

[mollusk]

1 hour ago, Twinsanity02 said:

My error, not plastic straws, but plastic bags....

 

As for reducing pollution, who can be against that? I live along Lake Houston and am appalled at all the trash that winds up there. Some of it is due to the rapid growth in the area, some to sheer carelessness. It is irritating and disgusting. If industry could make these things decay, and decay much faster that would be helpful. 

 

Don't plastic bags, cups, and bottles make up a significant portion of the trash that winds up on/in Lake Houston?

 

Then, there's this:  https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/03/whale-dies-88-pounds-plastic-philippines/

[samagon]

4 hours ago, mollusk said:

 

Don't plastic bags, cups, and bottles make up a significant portion of the trash that winds up on/in Lake Houston?

 

Then, there's this:  https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/03/whale-dies-88-pounds-plastic-philippines/

 

yup, this was the article I posted a few days ago, looks like they revised their numbers.

 

The main points I found in the article weren't that one whale died, while sad, it's a single whale. but to read the rest of the article, it's quite disparaging.

 

Quote

As the plastic pollution crisis grows, more and more dolphins, whales, birds, and fish are found dead with their stomachs full of plastic. In 2015, scientists estimated that around 90 percent of all seabirds have ingested some amount of plastic

 

“Basically, wherever we're looking for plastics, we're finding them,” says Savoca, “Now, we’re seeing that even in places humans never even have been close to, we find our trash. And not just that, but animals eating our trash.”

 

Blatchley has recovered 61 whales that died in the nearby Davao Gulf. Of those, he estimates that plastics were the cause of death for about 45 of them. The problem is exacerbated, he says, by heavy fishing in the region, which has limited the amount of food available for the whales to eat, making them even more likely to try to eat plastics floating nearby.

“It’s just tragic that this is becoming the norm, to expect that these whales will die because of plastic rather than from natural causes,” he says. “We’re losing them faster than they can evolve to learn not to eat the plastic.”

 

Every ounce of plastic in the environment is not natural and put there by humans.

[samagon]

another nail in plastic bags...

 

https://www.syracuse.com/state/2019/03/new-york-set-to-ban-plastic-bags-what-you-need-to-know.html

 

NY state is voting to ban plastic bags.

[Reefmonkey]

On 3/19/2019 at 11:05 PM, samagon said:

is anyone badmouthing Texas? is anyone badmouthing Texas because of straws?

 

the reality is, plastics pollution is the biggest environmental issue we face. far greater than climate change (whether you believe in that sort of thing or not). 

 

these plastics are getting into our food system. if that doesn't alarm you, it should.

 

I agree, your drinking straws are probably not having a huge effect, especially when you consider where most of the plastics pollution is coming from. overall, for the sake of our food chain (and not eating plastic), plastics need to go away. completely.

 

I have to agree, that while I don't discount climate change, it is a very serious threat, unfortunately in the public's eye it overshadows a lot of extremely serious environmental/human health threats, like plastics, endocrine disruptors, oceanic dead zones, deforestation, fresh water depletion....

Edited March 29, 2019 by Reefmonkey

[samagon]

here's a fun article on plastics!

 

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/plastic-problem-recycling-myth-big-oil-950957/

 

the first paragraph kind of lays it out there.

 

Quote

Every human on Earth is ingesting nearly 2,000 particles of plastic a week. These tiny pieces enter our unwitting bodies from tap water, food, and even the air, according to an alarming academic study sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund for Nature, dosing us with five grams of plastics, many cut with chemicals linked to cancers, hormone disruption, and developmental delays. Since the paper’s publication last year, Sen. Tom Udall, a plain-spoken New Mexico Democrat with a fondness for white cowboy hats and turquoise bolo ties, has been trumpeting the risk: “We are consuming a credit card’s worth of plastic each week,” Udall says. At events with constituents, he will brandish a Visa from his wallet and declare, “You’re eating this, folks!”

 

[trymahjong]

We were in Colorado Springs for a week. Each grocery store, bakery we visited had a $00.10 charge for plastic bag.

[hbg.50]

10 hours ago, trymahjong said:

We were in Colorado Springs for a week. Each grocery store, bakery we visited had a $00.10 charge for plastic bag.

California has been like this for at least 5-10 years.   Annoying.