Floating Island of Plastic Twice the Size of Texas

Can you believe it? Wow. I stumbled upon this fact while online at Domino Magazine. Domino magazine is about shopping for the home - but hip stuff of course. Anyways, I was looking up what stores I should go to while I am in NY and I ran across this article.

"PLASTIC OCEAN" is the caption on all 5 pages of the article. If you don't want to see photos of animals affected by plastic don't go past page 1. I remember when I was young seeing the picture of the seagull with the plastic 6-pack ring around it's neck or body - and I think that taught America to cut their plastic rings from their six-packs. Maybe we need to see horrible pictures of this disgusting floating island of plastic to realize that we need to slow down our use of plastic goods because recycling is apparently not enough.

Recently I've made an attempt. I was an offender of massive bottled water use. I don't like tap water even though I have some of the best in the country. So I purchased bottled water every week when I went to the grocery store. So 2 months ago I decided to start water cooler service in my home. If you look in my 500 sq ft studio into my small kitchen you will see a water cooler exactly like the one at work. I drink out of glasses while at home and a Nalgene bottle when on the go. The water service is about $25 a month. I rent the dispenser and the 5 gallon jugs are under $9 each. I get two a month, but it might be too much for me and Snickers (he refuses to drink tap water too).

Another step I've taken is trying not to use plastic bags from the grocery store. Lindsey and I went to Fred Meyer the other Sunday and I told her to not laugh at my bad that I brought to fill up with groceries. I used my Louis Vuitton dog carrier as a grocery bag...don't tell Snickers, he might not like that. But I need to get as much use as possible out of that super deluxe bag. I have a big zip up plastic bag that I got from Bloomindale's in SF last October that I intended to use for grocery shopping, but I can't find it in all of my junk, or else I would use it.

A memory that comes to my mind is when I was in high school...in Mr. Zenker's class when we were watching The Graduate. A scene that Mr. Zenker insisted was of great significance was when an man older than the graduate said "Plastics". That was all the man wanted to tell him. I just thought "ok, great, the future is plastics and maybe the graduate should stop drifting and get a job in the plastics industry". From what I remember I think my teacher said this "PLASTICS" thing was monumental to the 60's. I guess it was big, and that is when it really took off...women were even wearing the plastic pop it beads as normal jewelry. Are you kidding me? I had a hard enough time playing with those as a little girl. It was for "fun", not for real.

What it all comes down to is the nasty island of plastic 2x the size of Texas gets me sick to my stomach enough that I am going to be hypersensitive about my future plastic use. I'm sure you'll think the same way, unless of course you were alive in the 60's and think plastics are incredible.