Out of the Gyre — A Resolution for 2009

Every ounce of plastic ever made is still on our planet. — Sailors for the Sea

In a 1998 survey, 89 percent of the litter observed floating on ocean surface
in the North Pacific was plastic. – United Nations Environment Program

Most Americans who bothered to make a resolution this year, probably vowed to lose weight. Me too. Yes, even though I am a puny 108 pounds, I hereby publicly vow to lose 10 pounds. Sounds excessive? No, actually it is most likely a too tiny percentage. I hope to reduce my plastic garbage this year by ten pounds. I have yet to figure out just how much ten pounds of plastic amounts to, but I bet, when measured against the mass of goods I buy, use, then simply toss (even into the recycling bin), that ten pounds is in fact a very modest reduction for a year. I may indeed be setting my goal too low.

About a month ago, I watched with a since of doom, a television program where a boat sailed into the South Pacific Gyre. A gyre is a place where the oceans great conveyors, propelled by the Coriolis effect, have corralled floating garbage into dense mats of plastic and other materials refusing to decay. As far as the eye could see, the sea surface was littered with everything from toothbrushes and bottle caps, to more exotic, tampon applicators and turkey basters. I have witnessed for myself, plastic jugs, Mylar balloons, tires, Styrofoam packaging, plastic bags and all other sorts of trash stubbornly bobbing miles away from any patch of land.

How did these things get ten miles offshore, much less hundreds of miles from land? Did they get thrown overboard by careless sailors. Maybe, but probably not. There is a more likely scenario; every time there is a good rain, coastal cities wash truck loads of junk that we have discarded into the oceans. This junk does not just go away. Litter can float around the watery earth for years. Even if the marine litter sinks and breaks apart, the plastic, however small, persists.

I am going to the grocery store in a few hours and I already know that choosing plastic-free or to even reducing the amount of plastic I bring home will be a challenge. Already I take my own bags, look for glass instead of plastic jars, buy detergent in boxes, choose vegetables that are not pre-packaged …

Not to beleaguer the point, but I already make an effort to avoid using plastic when I can. I buy no
bottled water. When buying things like yogurt, which are rarely seen in any container other than plastic,
I avoid individual serving packaging. So, what will I do to cut out ten ugly pounds that I can “lose” but will never really go away? I don’t know yet. But as I figure it out I will tell you as I discover little green things
I can do.

So, I hope in 2009, I will do my tiny ten-pound-part to keep the gyre from packing ever tighter with my plastic junk.

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