Plastic is Forever

“Even if you never have the chance to see or touch the ocean, the ocean touches you with every breath you take, every drop of water you drink, every bite you consume. Everyone, everywhere is inextricably connected to and utterly dependent upon the existence of the sea.” 
― Sylvia A. Earle, The World Is Blue: How Our Fate and the Ocean’s Are One

Right now, according to Smithsonian Ocean, it is estimated that there are 5.25 TRILLION plastic particles or 244,000 metric tons of plastic in the world’s oceans. That is a lot of plastic!

Some of you may be thinking, “What’s the big deal? I live a thousand miles from the ocean – it isn’t my problem.”

But it is, it is all of our problems. Approximately 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic are produced every year. Only about 9% of that is recycled. What is really interesting to me about recycling is that in most cases plastic can only be recycled once or twice. That water bottle you tossed in the recycle bin is likely to become fabric. When you are finished with that fabric, then what? It ends up in the landfill (hopefully it stays there and does not blow into a waterway…) where it will stay forever. Plastic does NOT decompose, it just breaks into smaller pieces, known as microplastics.

My daughter and I took a walk along our beautiful bosque, picking up trash along the Rio Grande. Of the trash we found 94% was plastic and just a short way from ending up in the river. Although the Rio Grande often dries up before reaching the Gulf of Mexico, the fact remains that it is our direct tie to the ocean and whether we realize it or not we are contributing to the problem.

Plastic is everywhere! We don’t want it to end up in the ocean or to fill up our landfills. Once we have purchased an item that is plastic we have contributed to the plastic problem in one way or another.

I am trying to make a concentrated effort to reduce my plastic use, join me on my journey! Hopefully we will all learn something new. I want to hear from you, please share with me your suggestions and tips.