The plastics issue has been gaining ground lately, there have been a number of documentaries detailing the plastic soup running hundred of miles swirling around the Pacific Ocean. One of the most interesting facts that I learned recently: PLASTIC NEVER DIES, every piece of polyethylene plastic manaufactured since the 1930's when it was first made is still around!! So these statistics:
- Number of plastic bags used worldwide each year: 4,000,000,000,000 to 5,000,000,000,000.
- Amount of oil used annually to produce plastic bags: 17,200,000,000 to 21,500,000,000 gallons.
- Number of plastic bags used by Americans each year: 110,000,000,000.
- Amount of plastic bags recycled in the United States in 2006: 2%.
- Amount of plastic used worldwide every year just to bottle water: 1,500,000 to 2,700,000 tons.
- Number of plastic water bottles sold in the United States in 1997: 4,000,000,000
- Nearly eight out of every 10 bottles will end up in a landfill.
So what to do. Using reusable grocery bags is the easiest way to start and I was stoked to see MR. Special, a grocery store in Aguada selling these bags for $.99 Maybe we will see some changes that already afoot in the states come to the island. I ran across a great website that uses guerilla tactics to raise awareness of the problem of single-use plastic bottles and containers, http://guardiansofthepacific.org/. They have downloadable stickers that they urge you to glue onto vending machines and anywhere plastic bottles are sold. A great way for kids to stick it to the man and stick up for a great cause.
With the bottled water boom kicking into high gear 10 years ago, plastic usage has surged and these ubiquitous bottles have not only contibuted more than their share to the pollution of the oceans, but manufacturing these bottles also creates problems:
- Producing the bottles for American consumption required the equivalent of more than 17 million barrels of oil, not including the energy for transportation
- Bottling water produced more than 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide
- It took 3 liters of water to produce 1 liter of bottled water
- (http://www.pacinst.org/topics/water_and_sustainability/bottled_water/bottled_water_and_energy.html)
We have a filter on our refrigerator that we change every 6 months and we both have reusable water bottles to take with us. The Brita Filtered Water Pitcher is also a great way to filter tap water rather than buy bottled. Also buying milk and juice in cardboard or glass containers will cut back plastic manufacturing. It's not that hard to really make a significant decrease in your plastic consumption and I think if people know the problems and the easy solutions, it will get done. The key is to spread the word!
Read more at Suite101: History of Plastic: Facts, Stats, and Recycling Information: The Story of Plastic: Discovery, Invention, and Practical Use http://manufacture-engineering.suite101.com/article.cfm/history-of-plastic-discovery-invention-and-practical-use#ixzz0o6V8MKSu
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Puerto Rico plastic use is a big piss-off point for me. With a tiny 4 oz coffee why do they give you a lid, stir stick, and too much sugar that gets thrown out when you are obviously eating there? Why all the plastic forks in plastic bags with wads of napkins no one can humanly use? Why so much styrofoam? Why all the ^%&^% plastic bottles of water? Every one here is so cheap you would think they could have a real plate somewhere. What about SAMS club where they just throw a hundred bags in your cart (most of which are left in the carts and blow around the parking lot, into the road and then the ocean)? Why do they only wrap 2 things in each bag at the supermercado? This is not an elitist thing - you would think that islanders living so close to the water where water is so precious (we have seen lots of trash deep inside caves hours under ground - just thrown into the rivers apparently) would think about it a little more than the land locked mainlanders...apparently not. If you don't have much, you would think you would take care of what you do have and not just throw shit around and dump it outside your house or on the road or out the car window, my god. Don't get me started about all the $^%$^ mini plastic cups
ReplyDeleteOh here we go again Jeff bitching and complainig about Puerto Rico.At least i have to give Stefan credit since the birth of Sidney he doesnt complain that much and have look his stay in new housein a positive way the last few months.Its a surprise to me belive that he choose Rincon over Ohau North Shore as his residence.I guess some people never learn and prefer to live a miserable life
ReplyDeleteRelax and have a drink out of your teeny tiny plastic cup and just kick it out your front door...good thing the big bad gringos are here to pick up after you! Oh, and not Jeff comments...this time the evil Katrina (both comments) I know tossing trash is "cultural" but maybe you can progress a little bit?
ReplyDeleteJeff and Katrina if you have found Puerto Rico so bad,disgusting and dirty why you guys havent move to Duvall.Same thing i ask Stefan and Summer if things are so terrible here in PR from internet, medical service ,groceries stores why do they still live in Rincon. By the way as far as i read in both blogs you guys make the choice in comming here and nobody force one last question why dont you guys move if things are awful here
ReplyDeleteBy the way Jeff and Katrina i dont believe that you guys clean caves from garbage that people suppose throw who knows from GRINGO charter boats i guess. BUT i dont even belive you guys go diving and clean dirty Seattle coast,your hometown, guess what i believe there is more garbage per square mile in Seattle coast than all Puerto Rico .By the way go to New Orleans with Surfrider Foundation from Rincon to clean Gulf of Mexico coast from that oil spill and leave Isla del Encanto alone
ReplyDeleteReinaldo, you need to realize that we who have chosen to move here have done so because we love the island and the people here. That doesn't mean it can't be improved and it doesn't mean that Puerto Rico will always be beautiful. The use of so much plastic and the problem of trash is a universal problem, the sooner you stop being just Puerto Rican and become a citizen of the world you may want to join is in raising awareness of the problem.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking a bottle tax (the "return for 5 cents" thing) would work really well here. In California it made a huge difference and as a kid I remember collecting cans and glass bottles for candy money. Fortuno actually proposed it for plastic I think. The packaging problem is huge everywhere, but much more in-you-face here - in Seattle all the packaging is removed before you get things where as here you get it all and unbelievably they don't take old appliances from you when you get a new one. To our horror the dump (which is FREE...so why put garbage in your truck and then dump it in a field) just pushed our old refrigerator off our truck without removing the freon. Does the EPA not exist here? Puerto Rico is a Mad Max kind of place.
ReplyDeleteJames let me tell you one thing .Benn Puertorrican,Gringo,Cuban doesnt have to do anything with agree or disagree regarding things of environment issues.Another thiing i never back down regarding my comments.People bashing where they live specially in Rincon are lucky they dont know Cuqui(she works at EL COQUI newspaper)longtime local resident she have face guys complaining about Rincon and PR.That woman is straight foward and tell same thing i write but she tell you in your face and with no remorse.She tell like this if you dont like where you live just leave and stop whining ,what are you gonna gain with that,believe me before Jeff and Stefan she had said same statement to some other people before.Only thing i said is this PR not gonna change for you,you have to adapt to PR its your choice
ReplyDeleteWell, seems Ernie Alvarez, the Puerto Rican paddleboarder who is circling the island is doing something to change PR. Either you're part of the solution or your part of the problem.
ReplyDeleteBest thing is to ignore perrosucio (REINALDO LUGO). He lives and works on the mainland where the GRINGOS tolerate his pre-school English even though he hates the GRINGOS. He likes to push the buttons of mainlander bloggers in many ways, including the use of the derogatory GRINGO word. He is definitely part of the problem. He has written that he defends dog fighting and cock fighting as cultural. As a Puerto Rican, I know the type. He is one of a minority of Puerto Ricans who practice animal abuse and foul their own land. He also believes no one is supposed to write about any negative observations in PR. It's not enough to dedicate 90% of blogs to the beauty and pleasures of PR-- if you write anything negative, he'll tell you to move to Hawaii or back where you came from. Very original. Even though he lives in the US, apparently he's not familiar with Constitutional rights. Do not take this man seriously. -- The Evil Fran
ReplyDeleteLOL Fran FYI im living in Guaynabo now.Since when the word GRINGO is derogatory. I said that word when i was in vacation in Rincon and nobody was upset .Next time i will use W.A.S.P word that is not a derogatory word. Believe me Fran nobody takes anything serious in a blog like i said this is like Facebook, just a little fun, nobody gets killed or upset for sspeaking your mind on a blog.By the still nobody have answer me this question for my W.A.S.P readers if Puerto Rico is so bad and awful by W.A.S.P residents keep bashing and complainig specially in a blog and dont move still waiting for an answer
ReplyDeleteFran, I loved your comment, I can't stand his negativity in all of the blogs. He is too ignorant to bother with...que pena que el es de puerto rico.
ReplyDeleteEverybody if you want to read an excelent blog, go and read BORICUA LIVING IN TEXAS.Excellent topics and no bashing where this lady live ,which couples from Seattle and San Diego,learn from this lady. By the way i was born in Canal Zone in Panama
ReplyDelete