Drowning in plastic

I was totally shocked at the extent of this pollution. I have always been careful about what I throw away and have recycled for years as did my parents before me, but now I feel quite helpless. This is bigger than the individual. Governments world wide need to be addressing this and our scientists need to be looking at answers, but what can we do to make them! I am not sentimental about animals but when I saw those shearwaters and that poor seal there were tears in my eyes.

I too was shocked at the extent of the pollution. Those poor helpless creatures suffering and the destruction of beautiful habitats made for distressing viewing.

We've always recycled and take care not to buy excessive packaging but as individuals what more can we do?

I can only think that governments and world leaders Must step in to stop the unnecessary production of plastic. All those bottles! Are any of them essential? Maybe a few for providing water for victims of disasters. Most bottles are made to contain soft drinks. Not necessary at all. Do we really need Coke more than we need our oceans and marine life?

Have any of you seen the film Wall-e (think I have spelling correct) I believe it was a Pixar Studios one.

My GC love it, but it is so relevant to the current pollution
situation, scary, sad and uncomfortable watching at times, but looks like it could come true.

I didn't see it - the trailer was enough for me to get the message - but it's made me realise just how much plastic there is around; not just as litter but in daily use. There are so many opportunities to bring back 'old fashioned' paper bags eg shopping deliveries and to make use of recyclable materials but there just don't seem to be enough - yet.

I don't think there is much more we can do, if we recycle and don't get me wrong I'm not brilliant at this but it seems the poorer countries are not helping but I think awareness is key here, just thought it was a well presented programme

It’s a strange world isn’t it?
All the rubbish and pollution but we are told we still have to
produce more and buy more. Our economy HAS to grow!
So many people are worried that there will be a shortage of cars next year. I’m sure if none were produced for a couple of years we’d hardly notice. (That, of course, is a slightly flippant comment so please no lectures about job losses)

There was also a feature on the news about the problem of nurdles - the tiny pieces of plastic the size of a lentil - that are being found in huge numbers on our beaches and in the digestive system of marine life and birds. Because they are so tiny it takes hours to collect just a jam jar full of them. The beach featured in the news segment was in Hayling Island.

As a member of Greenpeace I've been more than aware of what's going on for many years.
The real scary piece of information was that plastic is a very good 'home' for bacteria to reproduce.
I'm afraid that I've come to the conclusion that we (our generation) won't see any progress on this problem.

I totally agree with you Pamela, as you say the economy HAS to grow, peoples standard of living must improve year on year even in developed countries, more cars etc MUST be produced year in year out producing more and more waste, plastic, emissions and god knows what pollutant till?????? How long can this be sustained before we all drown in rubbish, completely destroy the oceans and all who live there, completely gridlock the roads even minor ones, and eventually destroy the planet! It's just crazy!!

There are already energy recovery plants recycling waste that generates electricity and heat. With financial incentives to prevent dumping of waste this could be an answer.

Today, I didn’t buy a jumper from joules that looked like it was fleecy, (as bad as nurdles Jane?)I should have asked though shouldn’t I? Whilst we keep buying these products they will keep making them.
I have 2 fleece dressing gowns and a couple of ‘fleeces’ that I can’t wear because then I’d have to wash them and that would release the filaments to pollute the water.
Ideas on what to do with them would be gratefully received.

It is grim listening.

But so hard to avoid the darn plastic. I have just lobbied for the choir I belong to to stop providing drinks in plastic cups in the interval - a quick sup and someone comes round with a black plastic bag, fills it up and chucks it away.

And it is hard to buy anything loose now - all in plastic wrapping on the shelves.

It's all doable. Look at the young chap who was developing the edible wrapping out of algae. Pure genius, I thought.
I'm seriously going to try and track down this young man and see if I can invest in what he's doing.

Let us know how you get on Petra.

Petra I’m sure the BBC would help if you contact them.

PamelaJ1 thank you for reminding me about fleece products. I did hear about this some time ago but had forgotten. It is very disturbing when you see the racks and racks of them at very cheap prices in Primark.

www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/20/microfibers-plastic-pollution-oceans-patagonia-synthetic-clothes-microbeads

Thanks for the link Jane.
It’s one of my soapbox topics that so few have heard of.
When I say that I don’t buy fleeces and how bad they are for the environment people think I’m just loopy.

It is cheaper for food manufacturers to package stuff in single use plastic much of it unrecyclable than to think about alternatives. When you think of all those plastic milk and drinks bottles which are used once and thrown away its truly scary. So we as consumers have to be prepared to demand a change - paper bags not plastic for fruit n veg, all food products which need to be in plastic packaging should be recyclable and there should be deposits on bottles etc which should be returned to the shop which sells them.

I changed. I now have milk delivered in glass bottles by the local milkman. No plastic and provides jobs.

We have a canal at the back of our house. Some of the gardens slope up to the canal, so the canal is part of their garden, if that makes sense. Someone we know saw their neighbour walk to the top of he garden and tip all her household rubbish into the canal. Why? We have wheelie bins for everything. What chance have we got if that's going on?

I am trying to find shampoo and shower gel in glass bottles. Any suggestions?

No sure about glass bottles but Lush do shampoo bars. Not tried them though.

I now put as much fruit and veg loose in my basket and avoid the pre packaged stuff unless absolutely essential.The cashiers don't seem to mind and it all goes into my reusable bags.I would really love to have the nerve to rip off some of the excessive packaging -M+S in particular - and ask them to dispose of it.The local farm shop uses paper bags so that's another place I shop.Ive stopped using bin bags.The bin inners are plastic after all so stuff goes straight in the wheelie bin,and the smaller bins get a swill out with boiling water and a bit of disinfectant.We have stopped buying handsoaps in dispensers and gone back to some lovely hand soaps.And the shampoo bars are lovely and my hair is fine with them.We have always had milk delivered in bottles.And I'm even replacing all the plants in containers with lovely perennials rather than buy endless bedding plants each year.It all seems a bit futile after seeing the scale of plastic pollution,but every little helps I guess.And we can only hope if we humans were inventive enough to create plastic in the first place ,some of the more ingenious ,brainy and dedicated people out there can turn the tide and come up with solutions for sake of future generations.