PP -PLASTIC PROBLEM

PLASTIC Problems

Taken in a place with no name (See more photos or videos here)

Waste disposal is a problem these days, especially plastic waste. In the 70's Newari street cleaners did a good job with baskets and bison rib bones. I do not like posting photos like this one, but it is a part of reality today.

PLASTIC , its PROBLEM ,its REMEDY...

By discarding plastic thoughtlessly, especially fishing gear and packaging, people are accidentally causing the deaths of millions of mammals, birds, reptiles and fish every year.
THE PROBLEM OF PLASTIC
Since the development of plastic earlier this century, it has become a popular material used in a wide variety of ways.
Today plastic is used to make, or wrap around, many of the items we buy or use. The problem comes when we no longer want these items and how we dispose of them, particularly the throwaway plastic material used in wrapping or packaging. Plastics are used because they are easy and cheap to make and they can last a long time. Unfortunately these same useful qualities can make plastic a huge pollution problem. The cheapness means plastic gets discarded easily and its long life means it survives in the environment for long periods where it can do great harm. Because plastic does not decompose, and requires high energy ultra-violet light to break down, the amount of plastic waste in our oceans is steadily increasing.
Studies done locally show about 3 500 particles of plastic per square kilometre of sea off the southern African coast. Surveys of 50 South African beaches from the Eastern Cape to Cape Town show that in five years to 1989 plastic pollution has increased by 190%. More than 90% of the articles found on these beaches contained plastic. Plastic is now found on virtually all South African beaches, even the most remote, and researchers are now also finding plastic rubbish in Antarctic regions.
The plastic rubbish found on beaches near urban areas tends to originate from use on land, such as packaging material used to wrap around other goods. On remote rural beaches the rubbish tends to have come from ships, such as fishing equipment used in the fishing industry.


THE THREAT TO WILDLIFE
This plastic can affect marine wildlife in two important ways: by entangling creatures, and by being eaten.

Turtles: Turtles are particularly badly affected by plastic pollution, and all seven of the world's turtle species are already either endangered or threatened for a number of reasons. Turtles get entangled in fishing nets, and many sea turtles have been found dead with plastic bags in their stomachs. It is believed they mistake these floating semi-transparent bags for jellyfish and eat them. The turtles die from choking or from being unable to eat. One dead turtle found off Hawaii in the Pacific was found to have more than 1000 pieces of plastic in its stomach including part of a comb, a toy truck wheel and nylon rope.

Marine Mammals: There is great concern about the effect of plastic rubbish on marine mammals in particular, because many of these creatures are already under threat for a variety of other reasons e.g. whale populations have been decimated by uncontrolled hunting. A recent US report concluded that 100 000 marine mammals die each year in the world's oceans by eating or becoming entangled in plastic rubbish, and the position is worsening.When a marine mammal such as a Cape fur seal gets caught up in a large piece of plastic, it may simply drown, or become exhausted and die of starvation due to the greater effort needed to swim, or the plastic may kill slowly over a period of months or years as it bites into the animal causing wounds, loss of blood and/or severing of limbs.

"Ghost Nets": A large number of marine creatures become trapped and killed in "ghost nets". These are pieces of gill nets which have been lost by fishing vessels. Other pieces of fishing equipment such as lobster pots may also keep trapping creatures.

Marine Birds: World-wide, 75 marine bird species are known to eat plastic articles. This includes 36 species found off South Africa. A recent study of blue petrel chicks at South Africa's remote Marion Island showed that 90% of chicks examined had plastic in their stomachs apparently fed to them accidentally by their parents. South African seabirds are among the worst affected in the world. Plastics may remain in the stomachs, blocking digestion and possibly causing starvation. As particular species seem to be badly affected this may be a threat to whole populations of these birds.


CONSERVATION ACTION
The problem of plastic pollution is serious and requires further urgent study. Immediate action is also required such as :
Reduction of the amount of plastic used in packaging which is usually immediately thrown away. Re-use of plastics should be encouraged.
Plastic wrapping and bags should carry a warning label stating the dangers of plastic pollution, and shoppers should be encouraged to use their own bags, or recycled paper bags.


WHAT YOU CAN DO
Buy products with less Plastic packaging and tell store Personnel why you are doing so. Shoppers should use their own bags or recycled paper bags.

Support recycling schemes and promote support for one in your local area.

Fishermen throughout South Africa should not throw away waste line, net or plastic litter - this causes huge suffering and many deaths.

Practice and promote proper disposal of plastics in your home and at the beach.

Always remember that litter generates litter.

Never dispose of plastics in the sewage system.

At the beach dispose of plastics and other litter in the bins provided.

If these facilities are inadequate, contact the local authority responsible and lodge a complaint.

Take your litter back home with you if there are no receptacles on the beach.

Pick up any plastic litter you may see on the beach or in rock pools in the vicinity in which you are sitting or walking.

Encourage young children to do likewise.

In the street never throw plastic or other litter out of your car or drop it on the pavement or in the gutter.

Set an example to others and encourage them to help.

Plastics are not themselves a problem.


They are useful and popular materials which can be produced with relatively little damage to the environment.

The problem is the excessive use of plastics in one-off applications together with careless disposal.

dpsgreengang

people are completely becoming unaware of the cause fo plastic.................. i have got an idea ...................we canb make aware the politicians about this and i hope with their help a lot can happen ............i know a website called as www.kidscall.info here we can write to the influensive people and raise our voice even high

Bangalore, Apr 02: City's schoolchildren will guard all entrance points of Lalbagh to check the bags of visitors and replace the plastic ones with cloth bags.The students will also perform street plays and even help in cleaning the garden. This initiative is a part of a month-long campaign undertaken by Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) and Department of Horticulture to make Lalbagh plastic-free."Though this is not the first initiative to prohibit the use of plastics inside Lalbagh we are hopeful that people would pay heed to children's advice," said H C Sharat Chandra, KSPCB chairman. There are only 20 guards to monitor the 240-acre Lalbagh.While around 3,000 visitors come to Lalbagh, the number increases to 8,000 on weekends and touches around 30,000 on special occasions. Since 2002, the authorities have made efforts to enforce 'No to plastic bags' campaign for Lalbagh, through various initiatives but have not been very successful.When asked what would be the next step if this programme too fails G S Vasanth Kumar, horticulture directorate, replied, "We will start fining visitors from April 15 onwards." The fine will start from Rs 50 to Rs 500.

Sukanya

Using Microbes To Eat Plastic Bags

A Canadian student has hacked nature and figured out a way to compress a 1,000 year process down to 3 months. As a science fair project, 16-year-old Daniel Burd used a special blend of microbes to speed up the decomposition of polyethelene plastic bags. The inspiration for the project was borne out of his frustration with the rapidly accumulating bags in his house. The process is very simple, has little waste product and is expected to scale up.

Industrial application should be easy, said Burd. “All you need is a fermenter . . . your growth medium, your microbes and your plastic bags.”

The inputs are cheap, maintaining the required temperature takes little energy because microbes produce heat as they work, and the only outputs are water and tiny levels of carbon dioxide — each microbe produces only 0.01 per cent of its own infinitesimal weight in carbon dioxide, said Burd.

“This is a huge, huge step forward . . . We’re using nature to solve a man-made problem.”

Australian school's waste minimization programme

I informed one of my acquaintances about our no plastic endeavour and she gave me this link of a school in australia who are up to this waste minimization programme
here's the link to it:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~westleem/recycling/index.html
Please do have a look at it
Maybe it might not help us in this project but i am sure that young environmentalists like us will always be interested in such ideas

Sukanya

Have a look at these poor innocent creatures suffering due to the plastic devil

Environmental Damage



The environmental damage caused by plastic bags is enormous. Plastic makes up 80% of the volume of litter on roads, parks, and beaches and makes up 90% of floating litter in the ocean (BEC). In every square mile of ocean there are over 46,000 pieces of plastic. This puts an enormous strain on the environment. The little pieces of plastic act as a sort of sponge for chemicals. They soak up a million fold greater concentration of such deadly compounds as PCBs and DDE (a breakdown product of the notorious insecticide DDT), than the surrounding seawater (Reusablebags.com). Marine life then eats these pieces and dies. It is estimated that over a 100,000 different birds, seals and whales die every year (Reusablebags.com). After the animal dies its carcass decomposes and the plastic is free to roam the ocean and kill again.

I have also posted a few pictures of those innocent looking animals who died due to improper disposal of plastic bags

The Carcas of an Albatross Filled with PlasticWhen plastic bags find their way into the ocean they kill endangered turtles. Plastic bags are injested by turtles who confuse them for jellyfish, their primary food source. The turtles then suffocate. Plastic bags wrap themselves around living coral and quickly kill them. This has become a huge problem for Australia, whose Great Barrier Reef is being threatened by little white bags of death. Plastic bags trap seals and sea lions, prevent whales from digesting and kill birds by the thousands.

A baby seal caught in a plastic bagDespite what some economist tell you, you can not put a price on the environment. Many of these animals have existence values that are immesurable. If people realized the destruction that is done to the environment or the amount of animals that die from their over consumption of plastic bags, I'm sure they would switch to a reusable bag.Not only do we need to limit people's consumption of plastic bags but also we need to make sure that the bags that are consumed are recycled and not merely littered into the streets.

Did you know??

1.A person’s use of a plastic check-out bag can be counted in minutes – however long it takes to get from the shops to their homes. Plastic bags however, can take between 15 and 1000 years to break down in the environment.

2.In the marine environment plastic bag litter is lethal, killing many birds, whales, seals and turtles every year. After an animal is killed by plastic bags its body decomposes and the plastic is released back into the environment where it can kill again.

3.A Bryde's whale died on a Cairns beach after ingesting 6 square metres of plastic - including plastic bags. Such obstructions in animals can cause severe pain, distress and death.
On land, plastic bag litter can block drains and trap birds. They also kill livestock. One farmer near Mudgee NSW, carried out an autopsy on a dead calf and found 8 plastic bags in its stomach. The loss of this calf cost the farmer around $500.

4.Plastic bags are not free to consumers – they are actually adding an estimated $100 million a year grocery bills.

5.At least 80 million plastic bags end up as litter on our beaches, streets and parks. Local and State Governments spend over $200 million a year picking up litter.

6.Not all litter is deliberate. 47% of wind borne litter escaping from landfills is plastic – much of this is plastic bags.

7.Only 5% of the world's plastic bags are currently being recycled, despite recycling facilities being available at major supermarkets around the world.

8.Since March 2002, Ireland has reduced its plastic check-out bag usage by 90% and in April 2003 Coles Bay in Tasmania successfully banned plastic check-out bags in all their retail stores. In the first twelve months, Coles Bay stopped the use of 350,000 plastic check-out bags.

SHOCKING ISN'T IT????
AND YOU STILL WANT TO USE PLASTIC BAGS??????

WE ALL WIN WHEN WE GET RID OF PLASTIC BAGS...

Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Senator Ian Campbell, launches the No Plastic Bags website and asks shoppers to refuse one plastic bag a day until the end of the year.

Plastic bag use reduced by 34%
In Australia, the major supermarket chains recently recorded a 34% reduction in the number of plastic bags handed out since 2002. This means plastic bag use in supermarkets has been slashed by 1.5 billion bags!


This isn't the end of the road for the major supermarkets though. They have made an agreement with the Australian Government and state and territory governments to cut plastic bag use by 50% by the end of 2005.


Supermarkets only account for half of all lightweight plastic carry bags issued. The other half come from retailers such as newsagents, pharmacies, corner and convenience stores, hardware stores, bakeries, greengrocers and take-aways. To stop plastic carry bags from littering our waterways and harming our wildlife, all bag-issuing retailers must take action.


Around the world
Countries around the world are taking action to reduce plastic bag use. Bosnia, Ireland, Kenya, Bangladesh and a growing number of American cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento are among many places that have committed to reducing plastic bag use or getting rid of them altogether.


Most recently, the western Indian state of Maharashtra banned the manufacture, sale and use of all types of plastic bags after they choked the drainage systems during recent monsoon rains and caused extensive flooding across the state.

© 2005 No Plastic Bags

Students hope their bags do a 'world of good' for animals

*Fifth graders will be selling canvas bags they helped decorate while supplies last. The proceeds will benefit the World Wildlife Fund.

The roughly two dozen members of the New Albany fifth-grade student council are improving the world's environment -- one canvas bag at a time.

With the help of their classmates, the elementary leaders have ordered 400 canvas bags and colorfully decorated them. The students plan to donate the money they raise from the sales -- already more than $500 -- to the World Wildlife Fund to help protect endangered animals.

"There's usually one big fundraiser a year," said fifth-grade teacher Peter Barnes of the student council project. "Last year they raised $7,000 for schools in Uganda. This year it's a little more environmentally driven."

Eleven-year-old Natalie Wotring said the idea for the canvas bag sale came from a growing concern about pollution and its threat toward unprotected creatures.

According to recycling facts provided to them, Natalie said, out of 500 billion plastic bags, only 3 percent of them are recyclable.

"People are plowing land for a place to put all of the plastic bags," Natalie said. "They'll start killing animals soon enough."

With the help of resident "nature guy" Bill Resch, the council produced a short skit for the fourth- and fifth-grade classes.

"It had an earth, and a narrator," said 11-year-old Emily Oldenquist. "The earth was having a nice day, and then four polluters came who had plastic bags."

Barnes said he and Resch researched and gathered samples of canvas bags that could be used for the fundraiser.

Using money from a grant held by Resch, the bags were ordered from ecobags.com.

"They're big, sturdy, with long handles," Barnes said, which are handy for trips to grocery or department stores.

The student council held a design contest to pick five winning submissions which would be ironed onto the blank bags.

"It had to be something with the environment," said 12-year-old Rachel Williams.

Williams' design was actually chosen as one of the winners. It depicts the district's 2-5 school, with figures holding hands in a circle around the building.

"I got the idea from one my t-shirts," Rachel said. "The shirt has a globe and people holding hands, and I changed it to the school."

Other winning designs included a nature scene complete with pond and frog, a smiling earth, and the familiar recycling arrows symbol.

Using fabric, crayons and markers, the students decorated the prints, and classroom parents helped iron on the designs.

The bags went on sale May 16 for the fourth- and fifth-grades.

For every 10 bags sold in a classroom, those students will be able to adopt an endangered animal.

Barnes said some classrooms will have multiple adoptees in the future.

All but 50 bags have been sold, at a price of $2.50. The sale will continue until the bags are all sold.

Students in Canada doing what the DPS Green Gang wants to do

Here’s an inspirational story from The Fergus-Elora News in Canada, where local students petitioned their town council to ban plastic bags from their city. It’s a little easier for them in a smaller town of 700 residents, but one day I am hoping that all the wonderful youngsters involved with the anti-plastic bag movement in Ahmedabad can also make a presentation to the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation on the subject of how much harm plastic bags are doing, and also to the State Government to consider banning plastic bags all over Gujarat.

It’s tough to predict what the result may be, but sometimes that’s all you need to do. Try.

The starting point of course is to first convince the DPS school management to ban plastic bags from the school!

Read this wonderful story by Francis Baker from The Fergus-Elora News.

Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 -Students petition for ban on plastic bags -By Francis Baker, May 20th, 2008

Protecting the environment is on the minds of local high school students.

Sarah Hennekens, a Grade 10 student in the environment group at Centre Wellington District High School, presented two petitions to township council on environmental issues last week.

The first, signed by 298 students, asks council to support expanding the Greenbelt into Erin, Puslinch and Guelph-Eramosa. The second, signed by 254 students, asks the township to ban plastic bags.

With only a short time to circulate the petitions, Hennekens got 20 per cent of the student body to sign — and she said with more time, she’s sure she would have got about 90 per cent participation.

“These voices are the future of the community,” she said. “I’d like to ask you to consider taking action.”

Only one municipality in Canada — a township in Manitoba with 700 people — has banned plastic bags, she said. Centre Wellington could lead the field by not waiting for the federal or provincial government to move.

“Plastic bags are a huge problem in this world, and Canada hasn’t done much about it,” she said. “Let’s not wait — let’s take action ourselves.”

There are 500 billion plastic bags in use around the world — about one million are used every minute, Hennekens said. Besides cluttering the planet for the next thousand years, they’re also filling up landfills and causing thousands of animal deaths each year, she said.

The Greenbelt petition calls on council to support expanding the Greenbelt as the only effective way to protect environmentally sensitive land in the area.

Ward 3 councillor Robert Foster thanked Hennekens for her presentation, saying it’s very refreshing to see young people interested in advocating for issues like this.

Mayor Joanne Ross-Zuj said she would take the two petitions to Wellington County council, which is dealing with both issues. Because municipalities have to work together to look at expanding the Greenbelt, the county would be an ideal place for that petition, she said.

Ross-Zuj said the county’s solid waste services committee was meeting the next day — and she would present the plastic bag petition there. “These are two wonderful initiatives,” she said. “It’s great to see at the high school that you’re concerned about this.”