Tag Archives: trash

Beachy Clean

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On October 4th I took part in a beach cleanup on Folley Beach with my sorority Sigma Kappa. We decided to do extra philanthropy work and clean up parts of Folley beach and also use it as a way to get closer with our sisters. It was a super cool experience but also made me kind of sad how neglected our local beaches are. It was clear that they are not cleaned and taken care of as often as they should be. When we went I saw all kinds of litter, masks, plastic and glass bottles, paper plates, bottle caps, and all other sorts of miscellaneous plastic items. I also noticed that on the actual beach there were not as many trash cans as I had anticipated or am used to seeing. (growing up on the jersey shore had made me accustomed to seeing that) Although Folley beach is beautiful and was more maintenance than some other beaches I have come across it still shocked me that so many people thought little about just holding onto their trash or just holding out for a trashcan.

(From Sigma Kappa CofC Instagram)

I grew up on the Jersey shore and like its stereotype, many places on the shoreline are trashed. They can be gross, crowded, and full of litter. But they still are managed by some people and I feel like they need to be more proactive the way they are down south. from what I have seen, people down here care more about what the beaches look like and the experience you have when you are at the beaches as well as the amount of litter you see(although there are fewer wastebaskets and other places for recycling) Down here the beaches, though some still have plastic scattered around them, are far less trashed than the ones further north. It makes me think why this is? Is it the fast pace culture of being near large cities? Is it the fact “beach life” isn’t as prevalent as it is down here? What it is for sure I cannot say. However, I would like to see a better system both up north and down south with ways to deal with people’s trash on our beaches.

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Hopefully one day we are able to keep our beaches and our oceans clean! I know from this whole experience it really made me think about how each and every little piece of plastic can affect the environment but especially clog up our beaches. Overall it’s clear that we need a new system to help out environment keep clean and stop people from littering and frankly destroying our beautiful beaches.  I hope to continue to do beach clean-ups and get more people to participate in them as well. Until next time I will continue to be proactive and pick up trash when I see it and attempt to keep beaches and everywhere in our community clean one piece at a time. It all starts with you and me!

Plastic Ties

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I don’t want to sound like someone that has no hope for the planet, but plastic is inevitable.  Plastic is everywhere, and if you look up from your computer right now and take a look around, I’m sure you will be able to spot at least 5 items of plastic.  Even your computer contains plastic in some way.
I try to be as environmentally cautious as possible, but after logging all the plastic I touch in a day, I was truly shocked. I had 74 items, mostly synthetic but reusable, luckily.  Things like Tupperware, the handle to my dorm washing machine, tv remote, and the rubber is the soles of my shoes are all items that will last for an extended period of time.  Some items just aren’t able to be reused or recycled though.  In the bag of trash I collected throughout the day there was 5 items: 2 food wrappers, a paper cup (containing a plastic lining inside), a gatorade bottle cap, and a dryer sheet. I even collected this plastic trash in a bag made out of plastic, ironic right?
Trash collected throughout my day. Food wrappers, cup, dryer sheet, gatorade cap
I think this image fairly represents how much plastic I dispose of in a single day.  This amount of trash may seem small in scale of the whole earth, but imagine if every person on the planet collected this much trash in one day, for 365 days a year throughout their whole lifetime. That’s a lot of trash.
One main thing I have learned about my lifestyle over the past few weeks is the food industry needs a revolution when it comes to packaging.  4 out of 5 things in this picture are related to food and drinks, and were simply disposed of at the end of my day on Sunday.  There was no way to recycle or reuse these items.  I wanted a snack, and had to sacrifice the planet to enjoy the food I love.

Beth Terry states “Guilt is not encouraged”, but when thinking about it, maybe guilt should be motivating.  No single person has a way to get rid of all the plastic on the planet, but you hold the power to minimize the plastic in your every day to day life.  I think being able to see my waste from just one day just laid out on my dorm room carpet quickly made me realize that I have the power to leave a lasting impact on the Earth, and whether it’s a good or bad impact is up to me. When walking into a grocery store, I will begin to examine what I buy more carefully.  More cardboard and glass; less single use plastic and packaging in general.

I am lucky to attend a college that has a big focus on sustainability and contains recycling bins at almost every corner I turn, but what about the people that don’t have access to this? One thing I think is important about wanted to make an impact is increasing the accessibility and convince of recycling.  Many people don’t have the facilities to recycle items at, and I think this is a big drawback when it comes to an individual’s efforts to reduce their plastic footprint.  How much work and far would you be willing to go to make sure one plastic water bottle ends up at a recycling plant and not your local landfill?

Can This Be Reused?

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After being assigned to collect every piece of “single use” plastic, I thought it would be easy to make a concise list of everything that is plastic in my day-to-day life. For the first Outside of Class Journal Entry, I was able to list about 40 non-synthetic materials that I touched throughout one Saturday, and I came prepared to talk about it in class. After sitting and listening to my classmates discuss all the items they wrote, I realized that a lot more things are plastic than I thought… From light switches to shower curtains to the fabric sewn in my chair, it seemed almost everything around me was coated in the material or was plastic itself. After coming home and recounting, the list was not about 40 items, it was a lot more than that. I was nervous to collect all my single-use plastic throughout one day, but I knew that once I could physically see it all, I would be able to decide what is necessary and what is not.

After collecting all the items, I laid them out and looked at the various materials that composed the disposable mess. Some of it was thin, some was hard and sturdy, some was soft, while others felt sharp. I came to realize that plastic has so many forms and finishes, and that you can touch something that may look like wood or metal, and it is really just plastic (both definitions).

I also noticed that most of the disposable plastic that I used throughout the day was for food purposes, like cups, storage containers, water bottles, utensils, etc. Even though a lot of the materials pictured above are compostable, they are still deemed “single use”. Because of this, cups that are in perfectly good condition get thrown away even though they definitely could be used again, and probably a third time too.

Most of the food that uses single-use containers cannot be reused again because it is often destroyed after opening. For example, the popcorn bag cannot be reused because it is covered in grease and it is broken after opening. The fruit snack bag will not serve any other purpose than being a container for fruit snacks, so why would someone want to keep that? No wonder so much plastic is thrown away… It is just SO unnecessary.

The last group of disposable plastics I looked at was medical/other. This contained ziplock bags, q-tips, bandaids, and probe covers for my plastic thermometer. These items were a mix of necessary and unnecessary items, as there are few replacements for plastic medical equipment. Items such as the ziplock bags (they are not actually ziplock brand, I am just using the name to describe them) are unnecessary because there are alternatives in place such as glass storage. These storage bags are made from plant material and are compostable, which is why I bought them. It didn’t feel right to attend a school so close to the ocean and use so much unnecessary plastic… yet here I am, overusing plastic.

This assignment was a good representation of how much plastic I use on a daily basis, because I did not plan to collect plastic the day I did this assignment. I was planning on doing it during the weekend, which would have reflected a smaller amount of plastic as I do not go out as much on the weekends. I know it is not worth it to feel guilty, because from here on I can only be better about how much plastic I use. I know that from now on, I will think about my ability to reuse “single-use” items. Next time you use a pack of cutlery or a plastic straw, think to yourself, does this really need to be thrown away or can I maybe use it one more time?