Open Blog- 1

This semester I did a recycling project with Patterson where the residents recycled their plastic bags. We recycled over 2,000 bags throughout the entire building. We recycled by giving them to the local homeless shelter so eventually they would end up in the trash. We could have sent them to the local Bi-Lo or Food Lion to be sent to a recycling area but the homeless shelter is always in need of plastic bags. I am still kind of uncertain about that. It is definitely good that we sent the bags to somewhere they were needed but I wish we could have ensured they would be recycled afterwards. BUT it would impossible and irrational to ask dozens of homeless people to travel to the local Bi-Lo. This particularly stuck in my mind because I have taken several classes both marine and environmental science that focus on plastic pollution in the ocean for a least a little while. The sheer size of it is horrifying. The Pacific garbage patch is the size of the United States (http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/the-worlds-rubbish-dump-a-tip-that-stretches-from-hawaii-to-japan-778016.html). My little sister called to ask me some questions about it and I was surprised to learn that most people haven’t heard of it. A giant garage patch (to be fair it isn’t visible, the plastic is in small pieces, and under quite a bit of water) with 100 million tons of flotsam is mostly unknown. Humans are changing so much of the environment but we see so little. I cant wait to see a documentary coming out in late 2013 called Midway: Message from the Gyre. So sad but looks so good. It is called Midway. Message from the Gyre. It is about the Island of Midway  and its population of albatrosses. Although it is 2000 miles from the nearest continent, the adult albatrosses pick up pounds of plastic and feed it to their young. The adults can throw up the plastic but the chicks can't. The chicks eat the plastic, die, and their carcasses decay around it. It is haunting. I tried to link the video to this but I couldn't so I'll post the link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbqJ6FLfaJc