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Yahoo!“The amount of plastic manufactured in the first ten years of this century will approach the total produced in the entire last century … ”
“One of the most ubiquitous and long-lasting recent changes to the surface of our planet is the accumulation and fragmentation of plastics … ”
“The recycling message is simple; both industry and society need to regard end-of-life items, including plastics, as raw materials rather than waste … ”
These quotes are taken from previous Ecofacts columns. I suppose that the amount of room taken up in Ecofacts by the subject of plastic is proportionally just slightly less than its ecological load on our planet. In keeping with this tradition, as my brother turned me on to this great piece in Scientific American, I pass it on to you.
It offers findings from a compendium of peer-reviewed articles recently published on the subject in the Royal Society B (Biological Sciences). This edition of the journal is also linked, here. Just looking at the article titles or abstracts is worthwhile.
From a political/economic standpoint, the oil industry piece of this is essential as 8 percent of the world’s production goes into plastics. Oil companies produce the feedstock that is used to make it, and often produce the end product too. Here is a fact sheet written by AIG on the plastics industry with regard to a corporate insurer’s standpoint. This lays bare the oil/plastics connection and the environmental risks therein.
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What is really sad and pathetic is that the City Council of Santa Barbara, a community that is supposed to be the birthplace of the modern environmental movement, has not got the courage nor the vision to ban or at least impose a tax on disposable plastic and paper bags. How hard is it to bring your own reusable bag when you go shopping? One would think that Santa Barbara would be a leader on this issue not a laggard. Maybe our leaders in Goleta will take up the challenge, although I am not terribly optimistic about them either. This is an issue that threatens to poison our entire ocean ecosystem but these same folks are squabbling over how many feet high some downtown building should be. Talk about rearranging the deck chairs while the Titanic is sinking. Shameful.
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Noletaman (anonymous profile)
July 12, 2009 at 9:28 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Not to mention those ridiculous mylar balloons which littler the ocean and are mistaken for food (look like jellyfish) by larger sea creatures - we need an immediate ban on those as well. Also, even though residential garbage pickup provides for comingled recylcling, and ALL plastics are now recyclable, as far as I can tell, commercial garbage pickup does not. I have worked at a number of food and drink - related businesses in Santa Barbara, and all waste except glass or cardboard goes right into the trash. What is up with this!?!
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nonni (anonymous profile)
July 13, 2009 at 9:22 a.m. (Suggest removal)
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