A solution to the plastic in the oceans

This guy is pretty inspiring. And so young, too! Makes me feel like I haven’t done anything with my life.

Garbage in the Oceans

Found this neat little article about the plastic gyres in the ocean. Glad at least there is at least one positive that came out of the Malaysia Air disappearance.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/04/140404-garbage-patch-indian-ocean-debris-malaysian-plane/

Trashed

Similar to the informative and very cool Clean Bin Project, Trashed is a documentary about garbage — literally. Unlike the former, however, Trashed goes into depth about the many toxins and chemicals that kill, mutate, and harm both our species and the planet because of our glorious waste. Shot after shot of mountains of garbage, it’s truly a sad sight to see.

This is the kind of thing I want to avoid. This is partly why I try to live as close to Zero Waste as I possibly can. Yet, telling people about the dangers of this — any sort of social change, really — is so difficult. I can’t even convince my own mother to stop buying plastic-wrapped buns from the local Chinese bakery despite giving her alternatives, such as paper bags. Many people don’t realize just how harmful plastic is; they think it’s simply that it leaches chemicals over time, but it’s much more than that. Plastic in the ocean breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces, but it doesn’t really go away. It creates toxicity in the water. Sea animals also eat the plastic and absorb toxins. And of course, we eat these animals too.

I want to develop a workshop, similar to what SPEC does in their workshops, and present it to my family, then to friends, then to my community and neighbourhood. I want to change the world now.

There’s a part in the movie where one of the interviewees wistfully notes what a change it would be if the entire world cut down on their waste, if they resorted to properly disposing of it instead of sending it off to landfills or incinerators, how the toxins would go down, how much healthier people would be — and the cynic, and sadly, the realist in me thought, “There’s no way that could ever happen.”

But dammit, if I’m not gonna try.