Guest Speakers
November 2, 2009
While rifling flickr for nasty plastic photos, (see my plastic visual world map for details), I come across people documenting and commenting on the ever increasing amounts of plastic pollution. Blogged from there is this weeks Guest Speaker
It’s been a while since I’ve done a rant about littering. Seems like that’s reason enough to revisit the subject. If only because I feel better after venting …
When you walk and pick up litter on a daily basis, you start to see patterns or cycles in this miserable business. Sunday morning seems to always result in the largest amount of stuff to be dealt with. Presume that’s because of all those so&so’s who have something like Saturday Night Fever and as a side-effect are prone to leave a trail of trash wherever they go. Perhaps it’s bar hopping, perhaps just cruising here and there to avoid going home, who knows.
Whatever. Anyway, above is a typical assortment of what we come across while walking through our neighborhood and immediate surrounding areas for about an hour, covering a couple miles or so in the process. We do tend to walk a bit farther on Sunday mornings, but that’s not enough to explain the larger quantity of litter. After MUCH observation, the Saturday night after-effect thing is unmistakeable.
Afterthought: When I was first getting religion about this business of fighting litter, the main motivator was wanting to keep the neighborhood from looking trashy. Yes, it was pretty much a bourgeois thing — promoting respectability, responsible behavior and all that. Lately, another and more significant motivator has entered the picture. Specifically, seeing what eventually happens to all this plastic trash. A lot of it ends up going into the waterways, where it may very well snag in the underbrush and be part of the growing visual pollution problem one sees in previously “natural” areas. But a lot of it also keeps on going until it reaches the oceans and moves on the vast ocean currents. One horrendous result is the vast pool of plastic debris which has built up in the north central part of the Pacific. If you haven’t seen news reports on this subject, here’s one primer:
www.ecocycle.org/askeco-cycle/2005/1028.cfm
Uploaded by ghb624 on 20 Jan 08, 11.56AM PST.
New Kid On The Blog
October 18, 2009
web links
July 25, 2009
Latest links – I like these blogs
Plastic Refuseniks
All these sites have been and still are really useful
UK
- No Plastic Livejournal community
- Fantastic No Plastic (finished)
- Plastic and Physics (finished)
- BBC’s A Month Without Plastic (finished)
- Plastic is Fantastic
Canada
- Living Plastic Free (year three)
Tunisia
America
Envirowoman is amazing – not only has she given up all plastic all at once – she keeps all the plastic she has used in her living room. Yes I know. And theres hardly any of it. How does she do it?
Beth over at Fake Plastic Fish monitors her weekly plastic consumption and has a good set of links.
www.lifelessplastic.blogspot.com- more on giving up plastic
Trying to make cheese and killing big pigs – this is hardcore stuff. Im still with the biobags and letting the local butcher do the ham slicing www.avoidingplastic.blogspot.co
Leonardo Di Capreo – yes the filmstar- is campaigning against plastic- you can sign his pledge here <
Dirty Beaches and Plastic Soup
The surf rider foundation have had enough of bobbing about in a sea of bottles – see their Rise Above Plastics Petition
The Junk Raft – these guys are sailing round the world on a boat made of rubbish to raise awareness of plastic in the sea
Ban The Plastic Baggers
This UK site is committed to seeing the back of the nastly plastic bag – take a look – they are really great
The all American bag monster is daft but really gets the mesage accross.
Eco blogs
For all things green and wonderful
Try Make Wealth History – a U.K. based site about important issues
Zero Waste
Cutting garbage back to the bone
My Zero Waste in England
The Rubbish Diet also homegrown
pig pen doing it in New Zealand – makes her own noodles
Zero waste America is a worthy if rather ugly site about yes you guessed it..
365 days of trash is the story of one man and his bin and a year of throwing nothing away – the resources are American the sentiment global.
planet trash is fighting rubbish wherever it is to be found.
Garbloggers
Those that write about garbage…
Everyday trash is one of my favourites full of facts, trash art and great photos.
Well through her exceptional blog I was introduced to a Miz Ruby Reusable of yet another fine garblogging site and Olympia Dumpster Divers though because the link button has decided to stop working you will have to find them yourselves.
Well I have dug and delved through the masses of rubbish they have accumulated and here is a small sample of their inspiring wares.
Junk To Funk – the recycled fashion show
http://www.junktofunk.org/index.iml/call_to_artists
http://www.crackedpots.org/gallery1.cfm
Bagfree Bahrain
April 26, 2009
bloggers in Bahrain are campaigning to go plastic bag free – link here
plastic free bloggers
January 23, 2009
for an uber list of green bloggers check out everyday trash – her links are big.
Or follow this tortuous link from here to ET to the fake plastic fish post to dedicated to those giving up plastic.
One small quibble – these bloggers are mostly American. Ive not got anything against them there folk specially not in these obama early days but wheres the rest of the world. Plastic is a global problem so come on – well everyone else really.
Them surf boys keep the plastic pressure up with their rise above plastics website
Belgium Links
November 1, 2008
news of a Belgium plastic is rubbish blogger has come to my attention thanks to his jolly kind shout out – sadly I cant read his blog because it is in well to be honest I am not quite sure what language but the pictures are easy enough to understand – have a look
For other plastic free blogs check out my web links
Zero Wasters
August 12, 2008
These people are reducing the waste they produce to zero – can it be done? Check out the links to find out.
My Zero Waste in England
The Rubbish Diet also homegrown
pig pen doing it in Newzealand
Zero waste America is a worthy if rather ugly site about yes you guessed it.
No impact Man has been linked by MWH I havnt had time to check it myself but I trust Jeremy and his super site so here it is.
For more on plastic awareness campaigns and more plastic refuseniks click here
The BBC Plastic Free Blog
August 11, 2008
Hurrah hooray – plastic free living is being tried by the BBC – or rather more accurately Christine Jeavans. She has decided to give up plastic for a month and is writing daily bulletins – see the BBC blog for more.
It feels all heart warming to see that my blog is amongst those listed on her blog roll.
I also spied some other other familiar faces including Fake plastic fish and a life less plastic (both of whom have been featured in these pages.)
However some are new to me and they make for great reading
Many of them deal with waste. Since giving up plastic I have become a lot more rubbish aware. Indeed my own campaign began when I realised how much plastic rubbish I created – lots. My plastic boycott has raised all kinds of incidental issues from composting to recycling – I have only touched on them but the waste reducers have really developed them.
For some really useful and well written information try
My Zero Waste
The Rubbish Diet
Another great waste reducers site can be found here in the pig pen
For more on plastic awareness campaigns and more plastic refuseniks click here
Leonardi di Caprio
May 20, 2008
Pam knew she had suceeded when even film stars gave up plastic. What surgery? Dont be silly … packaging.
