That plastic bag you saw blowing down the street the other day may headed for Hawaii.
The Pacific Gyre, a giant island of plastic trash floating in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii, is estimated to be twice the size of Texas. It’s made up of six pack rings, bags and other throwaway plastics. And last week, the existence of another massive plastic island was confirmed – in the Atlantic Ocean.
The fact is, when we litter, a lot of that trash gets washed or blown out to sea, where it becomes concentrated by ocean currents into massive floating islands. Nearly 90% of this marine debris is plastic, the majority of which comes from – you got it – our communities. Not only does it affect our coasts and beaches, it has terrible consequences for wildlife. Untold numbers of seabirds, turtles, fish and whales have been hurt or died from eating or getting caught in the trash. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – these plastics are responsible for as many as 100,000 marine mammal deaths every year.
While these debris fields are far away and invisible to you and me, actions to address them are not out of our reach. Beach and shoreline clean-ups, while absolutely worthwhile, fail to stop the problem at its root. We need to shift from addressing the symptoms to preventing them. We need to find ways to eliminate, reduce, and recycle so much more of our single-use packaging. Last year’s expansion of the Bottle Bill was a positive step. As a result of the new law, millions more water bottles – a major contributor to plastic ocean debris – will be recycled each year. Likewise, I’m glad to see more people using reusable, rather than plastic shopping bags. Last year, we passed a new law requiring most large retail and grocery stores to collect and recycle plastic bags for their customers – a program I hope will significantly reduce New York’s share of the 100 billion plastic bags discarded across America each year . Another piece of the puzzle is product stewardship —an approach that would require manufacturers to collect the products or packaging they sell for recycling. This helps reduce waste by making manufacturers aware of, and responsible for, the costs and impacts of these things once they’ve been used.
No one approach can solve this problem, but we can all make a dent with our every day actions. Remember: reduce, reuse and recycle whenever possible. And next time you see a plastic bag blowing in the wind, reach out and grab it – it may be headed for Hawaii.
Pete Grannis
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