Category: clean water

A Plastic Trashed Ocean

People have plastic trashed the world’s oceans. Our oceans hold 21,000 pieces of plastic for each person on Earth!  That is 170 trillion pieces of ocean plastic, unfortunately there is probably much more.

Creek near my home drains into the Mississippi River, and then into the Gulf of Mexico.

I live in the middle of the United States about as far away from an ocean as possible yet the plastic from my neighborhood can easily reach the Gulf of Mexico. A creek 5 blocks from my house runs into the Mississippi River which runs into the world’s oceans. A plastic bottle from Minneapolis finds an easy, but long journey into our oceans. Everywhere on Earth there are rivers and streams carrying plastic trash. Read more at: Oceans littered with 171 trillion plastic pieces – BBC News  

These rivers carrying plastic and other trash drain into the Gulf of Mexico.

What are some things you can do? 7 Solutions to Ocean Plastic Pollution – Oceanic Society  

1. Reduce Your Use of Single-Use Plastics 

START NOW! Wherever you live, the easiest and most direct way that you can get started is by reducing your own use of single-use plastics. Single-use plastics include plastic bags, water bottles, straws, cups, utensils, dry cleaning bags, take-out containers, and any other plastic items that are used once and then discarded. 

The best way to do this is by a) refusing any single-use plastics that you do not need (e.g. straws, plastic bags, takeout utensils, takeout containers), and b) purchasing, and carrying with you, reusable versions of those products, including reusable grocery bags, produce bags, bottles, utensils, coffee cups, and dry cleaning garment bags. And when you refuse single-use plastic items, help businesses by letting them know that you would like them to offer alternatives. More ideas here: 7 Solutions to Ocean Plastic Pollution – Oceanic Society  

How much plastic is in the ocean? — 5Gyres.org   

‘Unprecedented Levels’ of Plastics Entered World’s Oceans After 2005, Study Finds – EcoWatch 

Plastic Consumption Could Nearly Double by 2050 Without Ambitious UN Treaty – EcoWatch 

But there is good news about oceans also. Read about the historic ocean agreement: The Inside Story of ‘the Largest Conservation Agreement in the History of the World’ – EcoWatch 

Forever Chemicals are Everywhere

PFAS (forever chemicals) have been polluting our air, water and bodies for too long! They are made by 3M and Dupont

It is so sad that a company like 3M has been allowed to pollute our land, water and bodies for so long. People have died and suffered because of their negligence.

Last week the Minnesota Reformer released a yearlong investigation on 3Ms PFAS chemicals, and concluded 3M couldn’t survive as a company with all the litigation taking place against them.

3M must of come to the same conclusion that they needed to stop making PFAS or they wouldn’t survive. 3M Says It Will Stop Making and Using Forever Chemicals by End of 2025

There must be something in the water – Minnesota Reformer  

Toxic: 3M knew its chemicals were harmful decades ago, but didn’t tell the public, government – Minnesota Reformer   

3M contines to argue their chemicals are not harmful. The evidence shows a different story.  

3M — the Scotch tape company — is a huge producer of PFAS, which it began manufacturing in Minnesota in the 1950s. By the 1960s, that work was generating 4 million gallons of wet chemical waste each year. 3M disposed of that waste by dumping it in unlined pits in the ground, even after officials allegedly knew it was polluting the groundwater. 

Internal 3M documents show that company officials were warned repeatedly that the chemicals were toxic, and that they were accumulating in the environment and in blood samples from both humans and animals. Those conversations, which began in the 1950s and continued for nearly 50 years, included details about two internal studies — one on fish, another on monkeys — that had to be abandoned because the subjects kept dying after being exposed to the (purportedly nontoxic) chemicals. By 1983, 3M’s own scientists had concluded that concerns about its chemicals “give rise to legitimate questions about the persistence, accumulation potential, and ecotoxicity of fluorochemicals in the environment.” 

https://www.startribune.com/3m-end-manufacture-use-forever-chemicals-pfas-by-2025/600237425/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=politics&refresh=true
How about a dose of chemicals?

The story does not end here. these chemicals exist everywhere. Who is responsible for cleaning them up? Who is responsible for the medical bills of the people and children with health issues from these chemicals? Clean-up of chemicals

https://digital.sierramagazine.org/publication/?i=770798&article_id=4400495&view=articleBrowser
https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/4-november-december/material-world/pfas-are-everywhere-we-need-systems-change-fix?suppress=true&utm_source=greenlife&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

A Plastic Treaty Needed

The first round of negotiations on a global treaty to halt plastic pollution has ended in a split on whether goals and efforts should be global and mandatory, or voluntary and country-led.

More than 2,000 delegates from 160 countries met in Uruguay for the first of a planned five sessions of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC), a UN negotiating body aimed at crafting the first legally binding agreement by the end of 2024.

The world desperately need a plastics treaty and it will be a long process to agree to something. The chemical industry that produces plastic plans to make more and more plastic, and controlling a strong industry is difficult! They argue recycling is the answer, but they have done a terrible job making plastic recyclable and safe for the public. Recycling is not the answer, less than 9 percent has been recycled since plastic’s creation. 

If there is one thing you do for your health, don’t drink bottled water!

Plastic particles are in our organs and blood streams. Plastic particles are in our babies when they are born. Plastic contains lots of toxics, I would avoid eating and drinking from plastic containers! 

Macroplastics like bags and bottles, and microplastics like fibers from synthetic clothing—is a planetary catastrophe of the highest order, and one that’s getting exponentially worse. Humanity is now churning out a trillion pounds of plastic a year, and that’ll double by 2045. The Planet Desperately Needs That UN Plastics Treaty | WIRED   

Plastic is not Recyclable

Buy Nothing Day

Use your power as a consumer to create a better world!

Today is Buy Nothing Day, it is a day to turn our back on the awful obsession with consumerism we have in the United States. The things we purchase put stress on all our resources, water, air, time, energy, and landfills. All the stuff we buy contributes to the climate crisis! Do you really need more junk? Give thanks for what you have and all the people in your life. Be grateful for our beautiful planet, and for all you have. Instead of shopping spend your day outdoors or spend time doing something creative. Instead of shopping for happiness take deep breaths and do something you love. All the state parks in my state are free today, and I’m off for a long walk!

From Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day, household waste increases by more than 25%. Added food waste, shopping bags, packaging, wrapping paper, bows and ribbons all adds up to an additional 1 million tons a week to our landfills. (Source: EPA) 

The Story of Stuff – Story of Stuff  

The Story of Stuff

 A consumer is powerful. The choices we make, and what we purchase changes marketing and products, and as consumers we can make a big difference by the choices we make.  These choices can make a positive change on the environment creating a more sustainable world. 

  • Heighten your awareness of packaging and waste, choosing products with minimal or no wasteful plastic packaging. 
  • Always shop with reusable bags. 
  • Never purchase products with glitter or Styrofoam. They can’t be recycled and are harmful to wildlife.
  • Shop reuse stores. Some of my favorite clothes and items come from consignment stores. 
  • Shop bulk items. 
  • Shop in bulkBuying in bulk is a good way to manage food waste, and plastic waste. Bring your own bags or containers. 
  • Shop retailers that pay living wages and are local over big box stores. 
  •  Buy nothing and reuse what you have! 
  •  Purchase items that will last instead of cheap junk. 
  •  Avoid all single-use plastic 
  • Make your own choices and be creative, don’t be owned by corporations like Apple, Target, Amazon etc. 
Black Friday: seven things to do instead of buying stuff

Recycle or Landfill?

It is America Recycles Day. Is it a joke or is it real?

Producers of plastic need to be held responsible for the environmental disaster they have created! What do all those recycling numbers (1-7) mean?

Are we living in a fantasy world about recycling? For many years I have been so hopeful and happy as recycling has become the norm, but now new studies show it is not as wonderful as we had hoped. Only 5 to 9 percent of plastic produced has ever been recycled. The fact is, a lot of plastic packaging, even with those silly 1-7 numbers, is NOT recyclable! Companies and plastic producers **greenwash by claiming to recycle more than they do, and they greenwash by claiming their product is recyclable.

What about recycling paper, metal and glass? Are these recyclables? Paper, metal, and glass are valuable to recyclers, and do have a new life when recycled. Paper, glass and metal all have markets for their recycled material and can be recycled over and over.

Plastic is another issue. Markets for plastic are scarce. Also, plastic is loaded with harmful chemicals, and after being recycled the toxics become more concentrated. Even though the plastic chemical industry says they are recycling their products, the reality is very different. It makes me very sad, but I’m afraid the recycling of plastic is becoming a myth

“There’s a long history of corporations, and especially plastic makers, touting their products as recyclable to prevent regulation and public backlash. Many plastic items in the grocery store have a set of three arrows forming a triangle with a number in the middle—but it’s not a recycling symbol. It’s a resin stamp indicating roughly the type of plastic it is. The petrochemical industry created it to make consumers think the item is recyclable.” Greenpeace Report: ‘Most Plastic Is Just Not Recyclable’

Landfill or recycle: Working to recycle is still better than sending the packaging to the landfill. The plastic will sit in the landfill 5oo or longer years, where at least with recycling there is a chance, maybe someday, it will be turned into something new. Officials where I live claim collected plastic is turned into decking, siding, and lawn chairs. I still hope that is the case!

As a society we need to hold the producers of plastic accountable to create a product that can be recycled, a product that doesn’t contain toxic chemicals. Producers of plastic need to be held accountable for their product’s end of life.

Please recycle as much as you can, but also reduce the plastic that you use and plastic. Our planet and your health will be better for it! Thank you.

**What is Greenwashing? Pretending to be greener than in reality you are.

TerraCycle Collects Plastic Waste. Does It Really Get Recycled?

(bloomberg.com)   Greenpeace report finds most plastic goes to landfills as production ramps up : NPR

Plastic is not Recyclable

If plastic were a country, it would be the fifth largest emitter of greenhouse gases. Plastic is stuffed with harmful chemicals, and even though we are told it is recyclable this report shows how plastic recycling is NOT working!

Greenpeace report finds most plastic goes to landfills as production ramps up : NPR 

Greenpeace Report: ‘Most Plastic Is Just Not Recyclable’

“More plastic is being produced, and an even smaller percentage of it is being recycled,” says Lisa Ramsden, senior plastic campaigner for Greenpeace USA. “The crisis just gets worse and worse, and without drastic change will continue to worsen as the industry plans to triple plastic production by 2050.”  

Coca Cola produces 3 million tons of plastic packaging a year – equivalent to 200,000 bottles a minute. That needs to change.

How about a dose of chemicals?

World Clean up Week!

Everyday work for a waste-free world

https://www.worldcleanupday.org/

World Cleanup Day is the world’s largest one-day civic action engaging more than 191 countries to tackle the global waste crisis.
World Cleanup Day is not just about cleanups. It’s a strong and unique movement that shares the dream of a waste-free world.
Join World Cleanup Day on 17th September 2022!

World Cleanup Day: A Glimpse to the Past as We Head Into the Future

100 Things You Can Do to Save the Planet | Sierra Club 

17 Ridiculously Easy Things You Can Do To Help Save The Earth Every Day | HuffPost Impact

EcoWatch  10 Things You Can Do to Help Save the Earth | HowStuffWorks

Wow, An Attractive Healthy Lawn

“Every person on earth bears responsibility for good earth stewardship” Pope Francis

Northern Pearly Eye

How did we ever get sold on the fact that a green monoculture of a turf lawn was a good thing everyone wanted to copy? I love walking in green spaces, but should a green space have more variety than being just like everyone else trying to be like everyone else. Has our climate crisis brough us to a time we question the feasibility of maintaining something that harms instead of adding a positive to our environment?

What is my problem with a turf grass lawn?

First it takes lots of water to keep it green and needs poisonous chemicals. We have been in a drought, and homeowners are watering the sidewalk and the street trying to keep their lawns green. A weed free lawn requires lots of chemicals which run down the street into the storm drains and then into our lakes and streams where they stimulate the growth of algae. See the evidence on ponds and lakes covered with algae muck which can be fatal to dogs and wildlife. Muck covered lakes is not a natural happening!

A monoculture turf grass lawn has no benefit to pollinators. Pollinators love flowers free of chemicals and plants that are native to the area. They also like color and fragrance. The best is native plants have deep roots and can survive without much water.

Deep rooted native plants

You can create a friendly yard by just not mowing it, but I recommend thinking about a happy bee lawn. Bee lawns composed of various low growing plants don’t require chemicals and are not toxic to humans and pets. Also children can run and play on them just like turf grass. The butterflies and bees love diversity, scent and color. Some of my favorites are native violets and barren wild strawberries, both are very easy to grow and can be mowed a few times a summer. See the link below on bee lawns. Some people like non-native clover and creeping Charlie.

Violets are great for bee lawns.

Start with a small section of your yard, mow it short and work in some seeds (violets, strawberry, clover, creeping thyme, heal all) with a rake or hoe, and keep moist until you get some new sprouts. Find seeds at https://www.prairiemoon.com/

https://www.startribune.com/why-you-should-leave-your-garden-messy-in-the-fall/600207408/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=best_of

Nature’s Best Hope: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=doug+tallamy+videos&view=detail&mid=AB8B87BD969B5366B02BAB8B87BD969B5366B02B&FORM=VIRE by Doug Tallamy

How to save the planet starting with your yard: https://slate.com/podcasts/how-to/2022/08/how-to-save-the-planet-with-native-plants?fbclid=IwAR37nC8uiu9P6EoaXAF1Edm16g3zjKTCdx8zm1vH1JaZQdw0G9kQBqUgvK0

Plant Flowers Loved by Bees and Butterflies

Mowing lawns as the climate warms (startribune.com) 

Endangered migrants come in all shapes and species (startribune.com)

https://www.pennlive.com/life/2022/08/bee-lawns-a-lazy-mower-way-to-help-pollinators.html

Everyday appreciating our beautiful earth, and working for healthy communities through less chemicals, less waste, And more fun!

PFAS “forever chemicals”

Clean water and air are important to our survival!

“Air, water and plastic pollution is a chronic challenge. Microplastics have been found worldwide, and the risk to human health is an open question.

New research as Stockholm University suggests that rainwater isn’t safe to drink anywhere on Earth, due to the presence of PFAS or forever chemicals found in food packaging, electronics, cosmetics and cookware.”  Paul Douglas, Meteorologist

Read about PFAS in our water here Most Rainwater on Earth Contains PFAS Exceeding Safe Levels, Study Finds – EcoWatch

When we don’t regulate what corporations and business can dump into our water and soil this is what we end up with.

More reading about PFAS:

https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-proposes-designating-certain-pfas-chemicals-hazardous-substances-under-superfund

Forever Chemicals, Plastic Waste – The World As Industry’s Toilet – CleanTechnica

PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ are everywhere. Here’s what you should know about them | MPR News

Massachusetts Sues 15 Companies Over PFAS Contamination – EcoWatch

3,240 Potentially Harmful Chemicals Found in Food Packaging – EcoWatch

20 Million Acres of U.S. Cropland May Be Contaminated by PFAS ‘Forever Chemicals’ – EcoWatch

What Can You Do About It? from Earth 911

While the EPA, state/local agencies, and the environmental industry at-large work to eliminate PFAS exposure risk, there are a few simple steps anyone can take to reduce exposure to these harmful chemicals.

  1. Start with awareness. Become aware of PFAS, the potential risk of chemical exposure, and spread the news. Reading this article is a good place to start.
  2. Research your local water utility to learn if the water supply has been sampled for PFAS. If they are detected, ask what is being done about it. Most water utilities provide periodic reports on water quality and can be found through the tap water database tool published by the Environmental Working Group.
  3. Look for PFAS-free alternatives in your consumer purchases. Inquire about everyday consumer products that may contain PFAS, including food wrappers, cosmetics, dental floss, and weather-resistant clothing. Look for safer alternatives. Although you will likely not be at significant risk by continuing to wear your PFAS-treated shoes and boots, the continued manufacturing usage of PFAS leads to the contamination of groundwater and drinking water, and the risk of health effects.
  4. I would add: Reduce the plastic you use for food storage, and the plastic you purchase. Also, don’t use non-stick pans.