Don't take too much comfort from your recycling bin.

I found this video to be very disturbing. As a big supporter of recycling, it made me realize that instead of remaining comforted by the "warm and fuzzy" feeling of taking my blue bin to the curb, I need to focus on decreasing my consumption and demand for plastic products. Recycling may keep a small percentage of items from floating in the Pacific Ocean, but it does not guarantee any less of a negative environmental impact in the long run. Unfortunately for most companies, financial shortcuts don't usually fall well below genuine environmental concern on a list of priorities, so the only way to guarantee that the plastic bottle you threw in the recycling bin won't end up in the ocean or a landfill in China is to never purchase it in the first place.

What does plastic taste like?

If you have consumed tuna, mahi mahi, sardines, shrimp, calamari, octopus, chicken, beef, pork, corn, grains, etc., any ocean creature or organism that has been fed fish/fish meal, you are also consuming plastic that may be up to 50+ years old.

Unfortunately, plastic doesn't biodegrade, it photodegrades. This means when exposed to the sun, it breaks down into smaller and smaller toxic pieces which contaminates the soil and waterways as well as entering the food chain when animals accidentally or even intentionally ingest it.

This plastic can also act as a chemical sponge soaking up and concentrating hundreds of nasty toxins which then enter the food chain with a devastating impact on marine life, birds, and eventually returning back to us in new deadly forms. Plastic Resin Pellets ("nurdles") absorb and concentrate toxins such as PCB & DDE up to ONE MILLION times their level in ambient sea water.

So asking what plastic tastes like may sound like a silly question, but it's an important one when you realize that most food products have been highly impacted by our wasteful ways.

So where is "away"?

When you think about vacation destinations such as Tahiti, Africa, India, Romania, Thailand, the Seychelles and even the Pacific Ocean in general, chances are the images that come to mind look very similar to these:





Pristine, untouched locations are the images that are presented to us by travel companies and commercials. How would your opinion change if you were planning a trip to these locations:




Unfortunately, as our population grows and corporations look for cheaper and cheaper options to increase profitability, plastic has become the most widely used material for single serving items. Yogurt containers, straws, water bottles, shopping bags, to-go cups, spoons, forks, knives, water glasses to accompany water dispensers, diapers, milk jugs, egg cartons, gum packages, sandwich bags, saran wrap, tupperware, garbage bags, dog poop bags, yard clipping bags, straw covers, condoms, cigarette pack wrapping, toy and tool packaging, chip bags, and the list goes on and on and on...... It's safe to assume that 75% of plastic is designated for a single use, and then it goes right into the garbage. It would be great if our garbage cans were black holes or vaporizers that could make anything disappear, but this is not the case. The general public seems to think "away" means "gone forever" when they use the phrase "throw it away". In reality, we're all contributing to a global crisis involving plastic pollution. We're reaching a threshold where all of a sudden, "away" isn't quite as far or permanent as we all assumed. Plastic never biodegrades, and its stubborn presence is making our planet very ill. Our land, water, animals and families are feeling the effect of years of living with an out-of-sight, out-of-mind philosophy, and this is something we can no longer afford.