Skip to main content

Some info, resources & solutions to the plastic crisis

Image
By
Hello Everyone,

Plastic was once a miracle material but now it is the enemy. And we are the last generations who can do anything about it. If we want future generations to experience the world in all its amazing beauty like we have: we have to make a difference. We have the power to change the world for the better or for the worst. There will always be people who don't care about the environment but we do and so we need to do what we think is right. So join the campaign and fight for a better future. For our planet to return to its natural way with incredible biodiversity and amazing ecosystems. We have to make a difference now because all around the world animals are suffocating, drowning, and dying because of humans. You may think it isn't your problem but ultimately you are human and humans make plastic.

Honestly, I can't believe that it has gotten to this point. We just have to change something because there is obviously something we aren't doing right.

You may or may not have heard about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. And I guess you don't want to know because to be honest, it is pretty depressing. The simple fact that it is made up of purely plastic and is 3 times the size of France is a shocking discovery. It's estimated (meaning it could be much more) size is about 1.6 million square kilometres. There are 5 other garbage patches, across the world. Although the Great Pacific garbage patch is the largest of them all. It does contain 46% fishing net and has a lot of fishing gear in it but also has consumer plastics mainly in the form of micro-plastics. It is estimated to contain 200 pieces of plastic per person. That is a lot because there are a lot of people in the world! Especially when that is just in that patch let alone the other patches and the rest of the ocean!

The patch is so big it is called Trash Island with its own currency and flag!

This is appalling and I really believe we can do something about it.
A scheme I really like is Refill. Why do you need a plastic bottle of water? It is much more expensive than simple tap water and if you think it is better for you then you have another thought coming because a recent study shows that it may contain plastic fibres from the bottle. If you are worried about the quality of your tap water you can cheaply buy a water purifier but you probably don't need one as the UK's tap water is one of the cleanest in the world. If you need to travel, buy a reusable metal bottle and download the refill app. it tells you where nearby places you can refill your bottle for free! It's a no-brainer! Surely no one needs a plastic bottle now. And if everyone in the UK did it, it would be 7.7 billion plastic bottles a year no longer thrown out!


An experiment was carried out as part of the program War On Plastic, which is available on BBC IPlayer. In the experiment, Hugh pulled a trolley of bottles of tap water around a town and when people bought it they said it was really nice and were shocked to find out it wasn't industrially processed water but water straight out the tap!

This proves that there really is no need for plastic bottles and that we can find alternatives.


I am going to tell you about an amazing book that might help you get to grips with going as plastic-free as you can. It emphasizes how small gestures can build up to something bigger than just you picking up a plastic bottle from outside your house and putting it in the bin, it focuses on the fact that that plastic bottle won't become poisonous micro-plastic in a Garbage Patch or the stomach of a seabird or even a not so good new home for a fish who then becomes trapped. I like to think about this idea in the form of a tree - the actions start small like a seed but grow big and the branches reach out to more and more people, and the tree grows taller and taller, each leaf an action.

The book is, of course, No. More. Plastic. by Martin Dorey: the founder of the #2minutesolution. I think his principle is great: if everyone spent 2 minutes picking up litter it would add up to make a huge difference. This book is really handy: it covers everything you need to know from different types of plastic to easy changes you can make in your home.  He talks about how important it is to protect the environment and what the worst offenders are as well as facts and statistics. This is a must-have book for every budding environmentalist who is determined to find a plastic-free path in life.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Unknown05/08/2020, 20:50

    Hello Elsie, Zoe and Freya. Thank you for your note about your blog. There are so many interesting ideas here. We would love to encourage hedgehogs into our garden. Sometimes a barn owl flies around near our house; it's lovely to watch as it criss-crosses the field looking for food. Good luck with your blog.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Zoƫ07/08/2020, 10:00

    Thank you! I hope you can get some hedgehog visitors! The barn owl sounds amazing. Thanks again, we really appreciate it!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Coral reefs

By
Hello! We would love to introduce you to the topic of coral reefs and especially coral reef bleaching, as it is a greatly ignored but certainly significant topic. Have fun! 5 coral reef facts 1. The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure on the planet and is 2300 km long! 2. Less than 0.1% of the world's ocean surface is covered in coral reefs. 3. At least 25% of all marine animals live there. 4. Coral reefs are often known as the rainforests of the ocean. 5. In 1 square kilometre of coral reef, up to 35 tons of fish can be 'produced'. The 5 biggest coral reefs in the world 1. Great Barrier Reef (near Australia) 2. Red Sea Coral Reef (near Egypt, Israel and Djibouti) 3. New Caledonia Reef (Pacific Ocean near New Caledonia) 4. The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef (near Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras) 5. Florida Reef (Atlantic Ocean/Gulf of Mexico near Florida) What is coral? Coral is actually made up of small anim...
Post a Comment
Read more

Photo Essay || Iceland Series (part 1)

By
Hi Everyone! I recently went on a school trip to Iceland! It was such an incredible experience (and I'm going to sound cheesy now) but it was also incredible to do it with some of my closest friends! I saw so many incredible things and learnt so much, so I couldn't resist sharing a little Iceland mini series of posts, all about Iceland, both my experiences there and what I saw, but also the way it uses geothermal energy, and the animals, natural landforms and plants that are there. Today I'm sharing some photos of my trip. These are all photos I have taken, and are also the highlights so please bear that in mind as you browse these! I hope it is interesting and inspires you to book a trip to Iceland! The blue lagoon <33 landscapes.... Lost little farmhouses a...
Post a Comment
Read more

18.10.20 Animal Of The Week: Sloth

By
Hello, Sorry this didn't come out on Sunday as planned but this week's animal of the week is the sloth because the twentieth of October is Sloth Day.  Habitat The sloth resides in Central and South America. It lives in the rainforests there and occasionally drops into the water for a bathe as, believe it or not, they are actually excellent swimmers! Diet Sloths eat leaves, twigs and buds which they find in the rainforest. As they don't have incisors they smack their lips together to make leaves more digestible. Sloths can survive on relatively little food as it takes a while for them to digest it. Sleep and Speed When you think of a sloth, you probably think of this slow, sleepy creature. They actually sleep for about 15 hours a day! Sloths have an extremely low metabolic rate (what basic calories your body needs to survive), which means they move at a slow pace through the trees. On average, sloths travel 40 yards per day ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The life of ... an emperor penguin

By
Hello, Today, we're looking at the fascinating lives of emperor penguins. These incredible creatures have adapted to survive in the extreme conditions of Antarctica, and in this post, we'll explore their incredible lives. In late May to early June just before the Antarctic winter sets in, female emperor penguins lay a single egg. They then leave the colony and go on a two month hunt. The male rests the egg on his feet and covers it with warm, feathered skin called the brood pouch. He will eat nothing for these two months. The chick hatches in August and the female returned to take over. She has spent two months feeding and now regurgitates some food for the newly-hatched chick. The male leaves to feed himself as he has been living off his fat reserves for the past two months. The female keeps the chick in her brood pouch until the sea ice close to the breeding site breaks up as the temperatures warm. The chick is now strong eno...
Post a Comment
Read more

March Top Tips // 10 little things you can avoid in daily life

By Anonymous
Welcome to the Top Tips this month! We'll be talking about 10 things you can avoid using in everyday life. We know it's a really simple topic, but it can actually make quite a difference. The avoidable stuff will be things many use because they look nice or taste nice or similar, but aren't actually necessary. We will also write a couple of facts on these things, and give ideas on how you could substitute them if possible. Many might be very obvious, but think about it, do you actually not use them? Have fun! Chewing Gum Most people would not be surprised when told that lots of chewing gum have synthetic colouring and flavouring. However, most people would be surprised when told that chewing gum is largely made of plastic. What the companies call the "gum base" is plastic and partly made of the same stuff plastic bags are made of. The gum contains microplastics that, if you spit your gum on the ground often tend to get into the oce...
Post a Comment
Read more

How much do you know about extinction? | quiz

By
Hi Everyone! Welcome back to the blog! This week is our last monthly quiz! We'd love to hear which one was your favourite in the comments! We also have a quick online survey for what our monthly post should be next year. We really appreciate any feedback and this is the best way for you to tell us what you want to see us post about and share! From a monthly challenge to an environmental book of the month - we just want to know what you think! šŸ‚ click here to vote! So, how much do you know about extinction? You may know some from our " animals you don't know are on the edge of extinction " series, or from the news as extinction is such a buzzword. All of these facts are from reliable sources such as National Geographic, as well as the statistics being cross checked with other websites. 1. How many years ago was the most recent mass extinction? a) 44 million b) 55 million c) 66 million 2. How many species could be threatened ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ozone layer

By
Hi everyone, What even is ozone? And the ozone layer? Where does the hole in the ozone layer come from and what does it mean? Is it dangerous? What can be done? Often the ozone-talk can be complicated and confusing, keeping an overview is hard and understanding all the problems always difficult. Let us break it down a bit for you: What is the ozone layer? We'll start with the basics: The ozone layer is part of the stratosphere, which is the second layer of the Earth's atmosphere, between 10 and 50 km above the Earth's surface and made up of protective gases. One of these protective gases is ozone. There is not much ozone in the atmosphere, only 0.3 molecule of ozone per 1 million molecules of air. This is because ozone is chemically unstable and only forms when ultra violet radiation (UV light) hits oxygen and breaks the bonds between the atoms. It fact it is so unstable that even when it has formed, it breaks down again relatively quickly. This leads to ozone turning back ...
Post a Comment
Read more

December Factfile

By
Hello, The fact file vote has come to an end and we have a winner. This year, we will be doing top tips. These will come out at the beginning of the month. These tips are, at the same time, challenges. We hope you will enjoy, and apply them! News Good news New hope for coral reefs A coral reef in India has been restored to health- the proof being in the noises the fish have been making. Many of these strange sounds have never been recorded before. This is amazing, especially considering that the reef has been devastated by blast fishing, where explosives are used to stun or kill everything in the area. Although the corals are being restored, scientists want to know if the animals are also returning and in what numbers. The Guardian states that  'Sound is vital for reef survival, because almost all of its inhabitants, from corals to crustaceans to fish, produce offspring that spend the early part of their lives in the open oceans, before us...
Post a Comment
Read more

Marine heatwaves - an ever growing threat?

By
Hi everyone, So today we're talking about marine heatwaves. We all know about normal heatwaves, they come almost every summer and are either a blessing or a curse depending on where you live. But today we're talking about marine heatwaves. They are increasing rapidly and have become a commonly mentioned topic. There are multiple definitions of marine heatwaves. Generally, they are considered a period of time with unusually high temperatures. Exactly how high and for how long changes depending on which definition you choose. The most common one definition is when the temperature is over the 90th percentile of the area's average seasonal temperature for at least 5 days in a row. For anyone who doesn't know what a percentile is, if you take a test and are at the 90th percentile then it means you are better than 90% of the people who took that test. So in our context, the temperature has to be higher than 90% of the seasonal temperatu...
Post a Comment
Read more

4 tips for eco-eating

By
Hi everyone, Today we are going to be sharing some tips for making sure that what you are eating is environmentally friendly. 1. Check for Palm Oil As you can probably tell from past posts, we are strongly against using palm oil . Palm oil is often used in food products, so by quickly glancing over the ingredients list on the product's packaging, you can make sure that no rainforest has been cut down to make it. For instance, we would recommend buying "McVites Digestive light" instead of the classic version as it was specifically designed to not contain palm oil. 2. Shop Locally The shops in your local area will probably get their produce from local sources, so by buying your food from them will ensure that no CO2 has been produced from shipping, as well as supporting the local community. Some shops have recently started to serve dry ingredients (such as flour and sugar) in paper bags or in your own containers, which leads onto... ...
Post a Comment
Read more