Sooner or later, we're going to have to pay for our plastic

Credit cards have long offered the promise that you can “enjoy now, and pay later.” Paying with plastic can be convenient… but often, that first bill arrives just about the time that the novelty of our purchase has worn off. (This is called buyer’s remorse.) If we don’t pay that debt promptly, interest charges can make the real cost of our purchase wildly more expensive. It is a simple premise that most of us can relate to: Plastic = convenience, but sooner or later, you’re going to have to pay.

Credit cards are not the only kind of liability we’re creating with plastic. In earlier posts, I've shared some thoughts about the big problems created by light trash and litter. Among the most threatening elements in this group: Anything made of plastic or Styrofoam.

Now… if you work with a plastics company, or a soft drink bottler, or a retail store that still provides customers plastic bags… relax. I’m not "out to get you." I’m of the mind that “plastics don’t pollute… people do.” But you might want to pay attention to this conversation; my position will be that anyone who profits from the use of plastic should be complicit in solving the side effects of that use. (Click to enlarge this photo. If you see your logo, drop me a note.)

Plastic and other polymers are a good thing, on a number of levels. They’re lightweight, durable, and cheap. And above all, stuff made of plastic lasts a long, long time. But the attributes that make plastic wonderful are the same reasons it is so dastardly. Because it is lightweight, durable and cheap, we use it to make things that are literally designed to be thrown away on the day they are born (garbage bags, packaging). Because it is so inexpensive to make, we use it in an infinite variety of products and packaging—we produce a breathtaking volume of the stuff—ranging from fountain cups, to soft drink bottles, to shopping bags to… well, you get the drift. Finally, this multitude of products we produce—much of it meant to be tossed—is chemically constructed in such a way that it will last nearly forever. All of these factors have colluded to create a problem that needs attention.

I found a dramatic piece of writing about the life cycle of plastic, and how it impacts the life cycle of water and its’ inhabitants, at the web site for the Ocean Conservancy; click here to read it. More unsettling than that, I’ve recently studied some reports about a field of plastic and other trash, floating on the Pacific Ocean, which some researchers estimate to be larger than the surface area of the continental United States. I’m not making this stuff up: There are tons of reports out there about the islands of trash in the North Pacific Gyre, but a quick and easy explanation is offered in a 2004 report from CBS News. You can either read their report… or see this three-minute video.

The debt we have created with our use of plastic is coming due, and I intend to begin “making a few payments.” Certainly, we're far from perfect, but our family has begun to make smarter choices about our personal use of plastic. We’ve been recycling for years, but now, Julie has helped our family embrace the idea of canvass totes, so we use fewer plastic shopping bags. We have a water purifier and have greatly reduced our use of bottled water or soft drinks. Certainly, we're far from perfect. We're simply trying to reduce our use.

As far as our river restoration projects are concerned, we’ll continue to recover what trash we can from the water, and encourage others to do the same. But I’m also going to get more aggressive about studying this particular problem, and how it evolves from the manufacturer, to the retailer, to the consumer, and into the storm drains and waterways. I repeat this simple belief: Plastic is not a bad thing, when used responsibly and disposed of properly. But if you profit through its’ use, either as a consumer who enjoys convenience, or as a company who earns revenue through plastic products or packaging, it is reasonable to expect that you should participate in managing the consequences of that use. You’ll forgive me if I start making some noise about that.

Feel free to share your thoughts by sending us an email.

© 2008, 2009 Mike D. Anderson, Crystal, MN.

[Originally posted March 5, 2008.]

Sacking one source of pollution

On February 8, 2008, The New York Times had a story which served as a good example of the message I wanted to get across in a recent post. It explained that Ireland has levied a relatively high price on the continued use of plastic bags at retail stores. If you want a plastic bag to carry your groceries (or whatever) in, you can still have it. But each bag will cost you roughly 33 cents. They haven't outlawed the bags... they've just made using them more painful than not using them.

So more people are carrying more durable, re-usable, cloth bags. The cloth bags, with much lower impact on the environment, now also have less of an impact on one's wallet than continuing to use plastic bags. Click on this link to read the full story (no-cost subscription required). If the story becomes unavailable to you, drop me a note and I'll get you a copy.

Again: It is a matter of stakes. When doing the wrong thing becomes more expensive than doing the right thing, the right things will prevail.

© 2008, 2009, Mike D. Anderson, Crystal, MN.

[Originally published 2/4/08.]

We need to make it hurt

I'm no fan of big government. But reviewing some of the photos I took of the trash problem last fall, this simple thought resurfaces, which I know I have stated before:

The cost of doing the wrong thing should hurt more than the price of doing the right thing.

Throughout the state legislature, the counties, the municipalities; it should be very, very expensive to pull off the road near a spillway and toss an appliance out of a truck. There should be near-debilatating financial consequences for someone to pull over on a bridge and throw a tire into a river.

Enforcement would be difficult. But if the penalty were such that the fear of loss would far outweigh the convenience of doing the wrong thing... perhaps the outcome would be greater compliance of environmental law.

© 2008, 2009, Mike D. Anderson, Crystal, MN.

[Originally published January, 2008.]

Hiding under the snow...

This morning, there was a fresh blanket of snow in Minnesota. Even for someone who’s eager for spring thaw so I can get back on the water, it was a beautiful sight. The new flakes have a whitewashing effect… it leaves the place feeling clean, pure, serene.

But in many ways, this purity is only a cover-up. Within a couple of weeks, the snow will begin melting, and the drifts will begin to reveal all of the trash they’ve been hiding since last fall.

Often, we focus on the dumping of large, conspicuous debris, such as tires, appliances, car parts, etc. But some of the greatest harm done to our rivers comes from the trash which is (often unconsciously) allowed into the environment. Any one of these items or incidents might seem innocuous enough. Soda pop cans and water bottles, coffee cups and cigarette butts, plastic shopping bags and other assorted litter. Some of it is left in the shopping cart at a discount store parking lot, and some of it spills out of convenience store garbage can that has waited too long to be emptied.

But watersheds working the way they do, sooner or later, a great deal of this trash is being flushed into the river, even though the origin of the litter might be miles and miles away. The wind or rain carries it from the street or parking lot into a nearby storm sewer. (Or, some people actually toss trash into the grate of a street sewer, thinking it is some kind of a magical garbage disposal; “out of sight, out of mind” strikes again!) But the sewer system acts as a direct conduit… sending not just street water, but all that it carries, directly into the river.

Trash tossed into the street anywhere within the Mississippi River watershed is eventually headed to the Gulf of Mexico. West of the continental divide, it’s headed for the Pacific Ocean, and to the east, it’s floating into the Atlantic. Other destinations? Hudson’s Bay, the Great Lakes, or any of a million smaller lakes, ponds and shorelines where debris will be captured until it is either cleaned up, or decompose.

But that might take a while. According to American Rivers.org, your basic plastic bottle will take roughly 430 years to decompose completely. An aluminum can will take anywhere from 200 to 500 years to deteriorate. A disposable diaper, 550 years.

It has not taken very much survey work to understand the extent of the trash problem, flowing into our rivers. It is an issue that deserves greater thought and attention; something it will receive here at DisposeOfProperly.com, as well as our sister site, CleanUpTheRiver.com. If you have thoughts to share on the topic, drop me an email.

The fresh snow outside my window this morning looks wonderful. But as the parking lot snow piles and roadside drifts begin to melt away this spring, a lot of previously hidden trash will again be revealed. April showers will wash it all “out of sight,” but make no mistake: The trash does not disappear… it only finds somewhere else to go.

© 2008, 2009, Mike D. Anderson, Crystal, MN.

[Originally posted 3/5/08.]

Pollution: Anything but "isolated."

In June, 2008, a story in USA Today asserted that flooding of the Mississippi River would create "isolated risk" of pollution.

Pardon?

Think of the contaminants which find their way into our waterways on any given day... without the added pressure of Mother Nature flushing-out our river basins to absorb anything within reach. Propane and fuel oil tanks. Fertilizers from crop lands. Fecies from feed lots. Isolated? The reporter that calls flooding along the Ol' Miss an "isoliated pollution risk" should volunteer to take a glass from the river and drink it. We'll see how isolated he/she feels within the 24 hours that follow.

There was great tragedy along the Mississippi River during the flood of 2008, just as there was back in 1993. People are losing homes, farms, livelihoods. I feel for their loss (I've experienced the agony of loss as the victim of flooding).

But that having been said, the flood of 2008 serves as a reminder that anything which resides within a flood plain stands to impact the river... and any land, habitat or city that waits downstream.

© 2008, 2009, Mike D. Anderson, Crystal, MN.

[Originally posted June 24, 2008.]

Environmental illiteracy

On July 29, 2008, The New York Times ran a story today that discussed the lack of recycling in select cities across the U.S. The inaction speaks for itself. Read the story by clicking here, and you'll see why I have nothing to add.

-Mike

[This story was originally posted on 7/29/08.]

The intentions of this site

Cleaning-up a river doesn’t sound too complicated, does it? Grab a few garbage bags, walk a mile or two of shoreline, and before you know it… the river is back to its’ original, beautiful condition, right? Sometimes, cleaning up a river can be that easy… kind of fun, in fact.

Other times, the problem can be more daunting.

Over the past two years, my wife and I have hundreds of miles of river navigation; some of it by canoe, and the rest of it by kayak. We’ve learned that different waterways can have dramatically different needs, in terms of their clean-up needs. Some of those needs are quite simple, where a walking trash collection event would help get things back on track. For other rivers, the shoreline is navigable only by small vessel (canoe or kayak), due to both water depth and obstructions (both natural and man-made).

Beyond the problems that exist, we are learning more than you might imagine about the causes which precipitate waterway pollution. That is why this site exists, as a companion to CleanUpTheRiver.com.

At CleanUpTheRiver.com, we’ve focused on individual efforts and group clean-up events. We have encouraged people to adopt their own parcels of river or participate in existing clean-up programs. We’ve explained how someone in a kayak can use GPS technology and digital photos to survey problem areas, and then gather the human and equipment resources needed to effectively clear a shoreline. We’ve share stories of progress and failure. And we've offered photos and stories from the most beautiful rivers, streams and backwaters that Minnesota and Wisconsin have to offer. (Memories and images are the reward of a well-protected waterway.)

DisposeOfProperly.com will serve a different purpose. This site is intended to be a place where we can talk prevention, legislation and communication. We’ll do our best to share ideas... and publicize the efforts of businesses, clubs and other community groups who are working hard to help restore a river, or prevent their pollution in the first place.

Or, when the parties have failed, we might ask some questions, too.

If you’re a solo kayak lover, part of a canoeing duo, someone who loves hiking a remote trail or walking along a waterside park... drop me an email to share your stories, your ideas, or your take on what should come next.

© 2008, 2009 Mike D. Anderson, Crystal, MN.

[Originally published 1/1/08.]