Plastic Island How our throwaway culture is turning paradise into a graveyard

[Liberal_in_LA]

Plastic Island
How our throwaway culture is turning paradise into a graveyard

By Nick Paton Walsh, Ingrid Formanek, Jackson Loo and Mark Phillips


Midway Atoll, North Pacific Ocean (CNN) -- The distance from humanity yawns out in front of you when you stand on the pale sands of this tiny Pacific island.

Midway Atoll is just about the furthest piece of land from civilization and its constant engine whir, data and jostle.

Standing on the island's remote shoreline brings a calm and humility -- until you look down at your feet.

On the beach lies a motorcycle helmet, a mannequin's head, an umbrella handle, and a flip-flop. They didn't fall from a plane or off a ship, and there aren't any civilians living here who could have left them behind.

They were washed in with the tide, most likely from China or the US, thousands of miles away -- part of an enormous plastic garbage patch, spinning in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, which you probably contribute to. And these are just the bits of it we can see.

http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2016/12/world/midway-plastic-island/

[Agschmid]

1. I use a glass water bottle everyday, I don't buy plastic bottles.

I live in Cambridge, MA and we've banned single use plastic bags.

We are doing a part in most ways I wish more people would join in.

[HAB911]

2. We all do what we can do, but the truth is...........

we are eating and drinking plastic and poisoning ourselves every day

http://news.sky.com/story/plastic-chemicals-from-ocean-in-food-chain-10512759

[Drifter]

3. Hemp can be the answer

Or at least part of the answer.
Plastic made from hemp is bio-degradable

Cheers
Drifter

[JudyM]

4. The linked article SHOULD ABSOLUTELY BE READ BY EVERY DUer.

All of us are contributing to the problem that we comfortably close our eyes to.