Plastic. It’s ubiquitous, and but someway invisible. Whose downside is it anyway? Yours? Mine? Theirs?
Plastic stresses me out, and but I’m grateful for it; it has helped save one in every of my kids’s lives and makes my life simpler and safer in numerous methods. It’s almost unattainable to keep away from and actually by no means goes away; plastic can break down into tiny items — the dreaded microplastics — however it by no means biodegrades. Thus, it’s in all places, even in our our bodies.
The dimensions of the plastic downside turned obvious to me 15 years in the past whereas visiting Bali. I bear in mind being disgusted by the quantity of plastic strewn throughout the island’s southern seashores; it tangled round your legs within the water. It was disturbing. Perhaps that’s why it bothered me a lot to search out plastic bottles and caps within the sand and washing up onshore at Miramar seaside when the Miramar Resort first opened. It felt like Bali in Santa Barbara. The supply of the issue was single use plastic bottles supplied to all resort friends on the seaside and throughout the resort property. A brand new supply of plastic was flooding my hometown seaside. Thankfully, when requested for change, the Miramar crew swiftly transitioned all the property away from plastic bottles; friends are actually supplied aluminum bottles of water. Is it an ideal repair? No. However not less than aluminum is very recyclable (and simpler to identify in sand). Plastic, as we all know, by no means goes away.
Fifteen years later, I discover myself again in Bali with our 4 younger children. We’re at the moment on a distant seaside on the Northwest coast and all the pieces about it’s stunning; enormous: highly effective waves in crystalline water, black volcanic sand rimmed in palms so far as you may see. However all my children are speaking about is plastic. In the event you look intently, bottle caps, toothbrushes, and tiny take-away baggage speckle the seaside. Nearer to the middle of the island the place we live, 4 days of heavy, tropical rain washed a lot plastic downstream {that a} plastic bottle dam has fashioned. It’s unattainable to overlook. Plastic is a big downside right here.
What if Santa Barbara’s beloved footpaths had been noticed with plastic like a Balinese seaside? A bottle cap right here, a ziplock there. What if each time it rained, our creeks turned damned with plastic? Is that what we have to see the issue at house?
Widespread, significant group efforts in Bali are working to scale back plastic consumption right here. Communities frequently set up trash pick-up walks, clients demand biodegradable packaging from companies, intelligent packages reuse and remake plastic into helpful objects. However eliminating the supply of plastic looks like the one actual method to remedy the issue. The Miramar didn’t ask friends to cease utilizing or recycle their plastic bottles; they took them away.
In Bali, I’m confronted with what occurs when plastic consumption is left unchecked. In Santa Barbara, we are able to stop what has occurred right here. We are able to name for manageable plastic bans in our group as Goleta has performed at its farmer’s market. Let’s not wait till we are able to see it on our seashores and in our streams; let’s cease the stream now. Let’s ditch plastic Santa Barbara.
Three easy methods to start out ditching plastic.
• Deliver your personal bag . . . in all places.
• Retailer and transport meals in reusable containers.
• Purchase boxed merchandise as an alternative of bottled.
