Creations litter-bugs I call us. If you analysed that fish you ate for dinner yesterday you would find you had eaten plastic. If you analysed that plastic bottle you drank from yesterday, yep you drank plastic. Go to any beach anywhere in the world no matter how remote and you will find it full of plastic. Some beaches are so full of plastic rubbish that they are almost impossible to walk on.
It’s not only the oceans of course. Take a walk in the countryside and you will find plastic. Loads of it. In the fields. In the rivers and streams. Even in the trees. Yes, we have turned Earth into a gigantic garbage dump.
Having almost completed the ruination of our beautiful Earth we have now turned to space exploration. A relatively new thing for mankind but, and here I go again, you would not believe the amount of rubbish, a lot of it plastic, there is floating around in space. Stuff we have sent up there and then when its usefulness has expired we have simply discarded. I believe that one solution put forward to deal with space rubbish is to send up spacecraft equipped to clean it up. Effectively, space rubbish trucks. Well, I hope they do a better job than the ones on Earth!
When I go for a walk and pick up someone else’s litter I am aware of just what a feeble gesture this is but what should I do, leave it there so that finally in a thousand years’ time it may have disappeared?
I don’t want to be all doom and gloom, but I cannot just ignore what is happening. There are many of us who care about the health of our planet but sadly there are many more who do not. The plastic is a problem but mainly it is those who insist on using it in their everyday lives who have made it worse.
Correct me if I am wrong but surely not so long ago there was no such thing as plastic? I remember paper bags and glass bottles. Where did it all go so badly wrong? Why? Humans that’s why. I hang my head and plead guilty to my part in it.
I was talking about this the other day. Plastic was not used for containers. For instance milk came in glass bottles Then we began to put milk in waxed cardboard cartons. Then came the plastic. Plastic is a good thing if we recycle it. It can be cleaned, melted down, and re-used over and over. I admit to using plastic bottles for my drinking water. Our water is undrinkable. I have a huge bin that I put used plastic in and they collect it every other week. We can do it if we are all careful. And thank you for picking up the trash careless people leave.
ReplyDeleteGreat post John. I often ask myself why are there no litter bins in the countryside or next to the beaches? I think biodegrade able plastic would get rid of a lot of pollution too and why is everything wrapped in plastic? I have even seen organic vegetables flown in from Israel and wrapped in plastic.
ReplyDeleteI remember as a youngster being shown something known as plastic and which would take over the world. I didn't believe it then but I do now. recycling is the only answer, I'm afraid.
ReplyDeleteMoney is at the root of it all. It's probably cheaper to churn out plastic than glass etc. I dispair at the state of things today and get so upset about it. What can we do? not a lot because the big boys will always win and money talks.
ReplyDeleteI am watching people around here clearing the gardens and paving or decking going down, no wonder there aren't any birds or butterflies etc, there's no bloody plants.
See what you've done, you've got me all het up. lol
Briony
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