Day 3 (and week one...)

Sadly today was soooo busy I only got one photo today, a fork hanging out in my apartment complex parking lot. I saw many plastic bags flying around while driving but was unable to stop to take pictures.

Starting last Sunday I decided to try and keep track of my plastic consumption (as suggested by Beth Terry of Fakeplasticfish.com) for a month. I will keep all the disposable plastic I consume during the week and at the end of the week I will take photos of it and keep track of what sort of packaging it was. It will be embarrassing to show the world all the plastic I consume and throw away :( but the whole point is that hopefully each week we will see less and less plastic in my photos! It is a learning process. This past week I just did my normal thing and didn't go out of my way to try and reduce my plastic consumption because I wanted a base starting line. So last week's plastic inventory...I'd say 95% of it was from food packaging and 5 % of it was from sample sized packages of cat food. I ran out of cat food and had to borrow some of those samples from work, which made a lot of plastic waste :( Here are the pictures from last week of my plastic waste :(

Detailed break down:

only 1 piece of plastic was from something healthy :/ (the green beans)

1 starbucks cup and straw and 1 starbucks lid

6 sample size cat food bags

1 piece of plastic from a girt recieved

half the plastic was from junk food :/

1 birth control thingy
-sadly the only thing recyclable about of all that is the starbucks cup

Looking at it, it almost seems like it's not that much but lets see what that pile of plastic looks like at the end of the month! :/

I'd like to say this next Sunday there will be less plastic in my photos but sadly, it's been such a hectic and stressful week that I fear there will actually be more plastic :( We shall see!

breaking routine

I often times have to go to Starbucks to study (with 6 cats at home and FB it's hard for me to get any school work done at home lol). So where to study? First thing that comes to mind is the iconic symbol of the Starbucks logo. It's often the first place people think of when they think of coffee. I usually have to order cold drinks (the warm ones make me sleepy, making it hard to study) but did you know that, even if you bring your own mug to Starbucks, they still use a plastic disposable cup to measure! How absurd! Everytime I go to starbucks I get upset that I have to use a disposable plastic cup. It never accured to me to seek out another coffee shop that doesn't do that! I've been planning on writing a letter to Starbucks asking them to stop doing that (They can use measuring cups to measure!) If they don't change, I will start a petition! but in the mean time I will start going to another coffee shop that doesn't wait plastic!

We need to step back and look at our habits closely and see if there are things that can be easily changed. Often times there are simple solutions.

Like when we are forced :P to go to a fast food restuarant and we eat in...do we really need a lid on our drink? It's been drilled into us from an early age...you get your cup, you fill it with ice, then fill it with the beverage of your choice, you put the lid on and then insert the straw. But we really don't need that lid if we're just sitting at a table. And do we really need a straw?

It can be quite simple to refuse dispoable plastic. Are you willing to refuse disposable plastic? If so you can take a pledge at plasticpollutioncoalition.org. http://plasticpollutioncoalition.org/act/pledge/

substituting plastic

Does it make sense that we throw our trash into a plastic trash bag? Looking for an alternative? Try BioBags! They're made out of GMO free corn. They are 100% biodegradable/compostable! They are slightly (ok, a lot more lol) than trash bags but if you factor in the externalized cost of regular plastic bags then the BioBags are way cheaper! And if more people were to switch to BioBags they would eventually go down in price! Let me know your thoughts!

Day 2

Today's pictures, sadly, are of a squirrel eating plastic :( (I think there was food in the plastic and he was trying to get at the food but it looked like he was eating the plastic too). I only had my camera phone and was unable to zoom in closer so the photos aren't the best quality but hopefully you can see the squirrel and plastic. And unfortunately the squirrel ran up the tree before I could get him to drop the plastic. I tried throwing sticks at him but he just ran up higher. I'm pretty sure students who saw me throwing sticks and the squirrel probably thought I was partaking in some sort of animal cruelty lol. I hope the squirrel ends up being ok and not getting a stomach full of plastic :(

Day 1

When deciding to create this blog I did not even think about the fact that I would come across many pieces of plastic pollution every day (I must have been optimistic about us humans :P) Hopefully the blog does not get too bogged down with pictures. Today I have 4 pictures today. I saw so much plastic trash while driving, especially plastic shopping bags stuck in trees that I wish I could have taken pictures of.

Here's the first photo of the day

I wasn't even out side my apartment more than 3 minutes before spotting my first piece of plastic trash :( (pictured above)

This second picture was trash that landed right outside our door at work.

These last 3 photos were all taken within 10 feet of each other.

My Halloween Costume

For Halloween I dressed up as The Pacific Ocean: The Ocean of Death!  Here's a picture of part of my costume :P

Some of the plastic things on me that cause problems in the environment, kill animals and cause humans problems were: plastic lighters, starbucks straw and lid, plastic from envelopes, candy wrappers, bottle caps, and plastic bags.  Two things that you can't really see well in this photo that I donned that night was a bird and a seal with plastic around their necks.

The Beginning

So this is the beginning....I hope to take a picture every day of plastic trash in the environment.  I am terrible at blogging, very forgetful and super hectic but I hope to be able to keep up with this blog and post the pictures on a regular basis! And even if I miss a few pictures here and there, its the intention that counts :P

I hope to bring awareness to the issue, inspire, and show others what they can do to help.

I'd like to thank a few people/organizations that have been an inspiration to me and a motivation :
Beth Terry at FakePlasticFish , The Plastic Pollution Coalition at plasticpollutioncoalition.org , everyone who spoke at the garbage patch TED event yesterday and the Bag Monster at http://www.bagmonster.com.  There have been many other's who have inspired me but those are some of the main ones.  Thank you for doing what you do, leading the way and inspiring us all!