When looking at my email this morning I came upon this page about the “garbage patch” or “trash vortex” off the coast of Oregon.
In summary, there’s a ton of small bits of plastic debris floating in the ocean that comes from the plastic bags and other trash we throw away. It’s so small that fish mistake it for plankton, their food. It ends up killing many of them. If not, it could wind up poisoning them and us if we end up eating the fish.
Here’s a video from KQED’s Quest about this growing problem.
The email which linked to the Environment Oregon page calls attention to encourage our local representatives to ban all plastic bags, mostly found in food stores. When I lived in SF, they did this and I didn’t noticed it one bit. That’s because since 2004 I’ve been using a large tote bag from LL Bean.
I always have my huge LL Bean tote bag when food shopping. I freaking love that thing! It’s HUGE. I’ve been using it since 2004 and it’s super sturdy. I can’t tell you how many times people have stopped to ask me about the bag or just to comment on how huge it is.
I also have another, smaller bag, the kind you see sold next to the checkout lines in the food stores.
Just to be clear, I don’t have any stake in LL Bean. I mention their bag because I love it and I think whether or not our governments can act to save the oceans, we don’t have to wait for them. We can act now by using reusable bags instead of plastic.
© 2010, Reid Bryant Kimball. All rights reserved.
Tags: environment, food shopping, Health, ll bean, oceans, tote bags