The Ocean Conservancy, which organizes an annual International Coastal Clean-Up, has published its results in the 2012 Trash Index. You’re not imagining it: as the global population swells, tankers continue to leak oil, and plastic water bottles continue to be our favorite way to drink tap water, the world’s beaches are getting dirtier.
Nearly 600,000 volunteers worked in multiple countries to pick up and record the over nine million pounds of trash listed in this report. Check out their trashy findings, download a helpful pocket guide to recycling and if you’re inclined, donate to help their efforts. And for the love of all things oceanic, if you smoke, find a better place than the ocean or ground to throw your cigarette butts (the number one piece of trash found on beaches)!
Image: Ocean Conservancy
Why Don't Americans Recycle?
“Because it doesn’t make a difference” strangely absent.
The river Thames in London eats 40 tonnes of rubbish a year! Reason #1756 to reuse, reduce and recycle!
Awesome re-use here. I bet you could find an old rake at many a yard sale. Also makes a great scarf or jewelry hook too. via ReNest.
Business cards, but better
A brilliant and adorable re-use of old fabric scraps, for the crafty ones out there…
I actually have three different business cards- two for work and one for myself. I spoke about my want to make new cards at the beginning of the year, and so I got them made.
I kept the card simple because I had big plans for the other side. Successful plans!
I’ll post a how-to shortly.
Plastic Call-to-Arms: Reduce, Reuse, Reform
Click above to read on…
We have a complicated relationship with plastic, despite its omnipresence in our consumer culture. Associated with the cheap and mass-produced, plastic is synonymous with disposability. The very qualities that have made it so perfect for mass production—its protean nature and ability to be reliably molded with heat and pressure into an astonishing variety of shapes and sizes—contribute to our perception of the material as utterly synthetic and machine-made.
The word plastic is also used to describe someone who is inauthentic. If all of that, coupled with the enormous heaps of trash piling up on our planet, weren’t unsettling enough, we also have cause to be concerned about the health effects of plastics.
NYC e-Waste Collections
Looking to get rid of old computers, cell phones, routers, etc? Check out the collections through the link. NYC area only.
Save the nation $190,000, and buy your congressperson a water bottle
via GOOD
…The House spent a grand total of $190,000 on bottled water last year… Look at old pictures of Congressional hearings and you will see lovely pitchers of water and nice glasses for both congresspeople and witnesses. More recent pictures feature mostly bottled water (though the pitchers occasionally still make an appearance).
So, in the interest both of symbolic deficit reduction and, more importantly, the environment: I am proposing a new initiative: Buy Your Congressperson a Water Bottle.
To find your congressperson’s address, go to this House site. You will need the extra four digits of your zip code, which you can get here.
Congresspeople can accept gifts under $50, so may I suggest any of these simple and cheap options?
Here is a sample note, if you would like to copy and paste it into your Amazon gift:
Dear Elected Representative: I live in your district and was shocked to discover that the House spent $190,000 on bottled water last year. Please accept this gift in the hopes that it helps you to stop this bad habit.
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