Waste in our Waterways Panel Discussion Thursday, February 10
Please join a distinguished panel for a discussion of trash in our waterways, and hear about the success of Washington, DC in enacting a small fee on disposable bags. After finding that a significant percentage of the trash floating in the Anacostia River was plastic bags, the Council of the District of Columbia took decisive action to limit the source of that pollution.
Thursday, February 10, 11:30AM – 2 PM
House Office Building, Room 142
6 Bladen Street
Annapolis, MD
At the conclusion of a Q/A session with our distinguished panel, supporters will be sticking around to view Oceans of Plastic, a film about the mounting danger of single use plastics in our waterways and oceans.
The Panel will feature:
MD Delegate Al Carr (District 18)
The lead sponsor of the Bag Bill in the MD House of Representatives
DC Council Member Tommy Wells (Ward 6)
The lead proponent of the successful DC Bag Bill
Chestertown Mayor Margo Bailey
A community leader working to ban plastic bags in her municipality to protect the Chester River
Andrew Harris
A researcher from MD who is developing an ocean sampler to measure the concentration of plastic particles in the North Pacific Trash Gyre
The Panel will be facilitated by Brent Bolin
The Director of Advocacy for The Anacostia Watershed Society
For more information please visit: www.TrashFreeMaryland.org
Monday, January 31, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Panel/Film POSTPONED
Apologies for the late notice...
Due to last night's weather, several of our panelists are unable to make it to Annapolis today, and we are working to reschedule the panel and film event. Check back here for more details.
In the meantime, please take two minutes to contact your legislators to ask their support for this bill. You can send a quick e-mail here.
Due to last night's weather, several of our panelists are unable to make it to Annapolis today, and we are working to reschedule the panel and film event. Check back here for more details.
In the meantime, please take two minutes to contact your legislators to ask their support for this bill. You can send a quick e-mail here.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Exploring the alternatives
By Barb Krupiarz, Sierra Club
Estimates of plastic bag usage across the globe are between 500 billion and 1 trillion each year. With the conservative estimate, that is still almost 1 million bags used per minute. The US EPA estimates that less than 5% are recycled each year. Even if some bags are reused, the worldwide litter problem from plastic bags is still immense. And, the cost of these “free” bags to retailers is over $4 billion each year – another cost tacked on to the consumer.
So, what are the alternatives? Some say to recycle more. But, at 1 million bags used per minute, can we keep up with that rate for recycling? The American Chemistry Council sites the plastic lumber manufacturer, Trex, as the largest recycler of plastic bags in the U.S. with 1.5 billion bags recycled every year and making up 10% of their product. The problem is that U.S. consumers use 100 billion bags per year and the fact remains that plastics are a major cause of ocean pollution. In 2006, the U.N. estimated that oceans have 46,000 pieces of plastic in them for every square mile.
What about switching to biodegradable, cornstarch-based bags? There are several problems with this alternative. The first is that the cost to manufacture these bags is currently much higher than the cost of conventional plastic bags. These bags are made from roughly 5% starch, but also a petroleum-based polyester and don't really degrade in a home compost bins or landfills. Finally, these bags cannot be recycled with ordinary bags and contaminate the recycling stream.
What about recyclable paper instead? While paper recycling is readily available, paper bag manufacturing still requires large amounts of natural resources and causes a significant amount of pollution.
The debate about plastic vs. paper still goes on today, but the bottom line is that the best solution eliminating disposable bags that have a life span of 12 minutes and replacing them with reusable bags.
Estimates of plastic bag usage across the globe are between 500 billion and 1 trillion each year. With the conservative estimate, that is still almost 1 million bags used per minute. The US EPA estimates that less than 5% are recycled each year. Even if some bags are reused, the worldwide litter problem from plastic bags is still immense. And, the cost of these “free” bags to retailers is over $4 billion each year – another cost tacked on to the consumer.
So, what are the alternatives? Some say to recycle more. But, at 1 million bags used per minute, can we keep up with that rate for recycling? The American Chemistry Council sites the plastic lumber manufacturer, Trex, as the largest recycler of plastic bags in the U.S. with 1.5 billion bags recycled every year and making up 10% of their product. The problem is that U.S. consumers use 100 billion bags per year and the fact remains that plastics are a major cause of ocean pollution. In 2006, the U.N. estimated that oceans have 46,000 pieces of plastic in them for every square mile.
What about switching to biodegradable, cornstarch-based bags? There are several problems with this alternative. The first is that the cost to manufacture these bags is currently much higher than the cost of conventional plastic bags. These bags are made from roughly 5% starch, but also a petroleum-based polyester and don't really degrade in a home compost bins or landfills. Finally, these bags cannot be recycled with ordinary bags and contaminate the recycling stream.
What about recyclable paper instead? While paper recycling is readily available, paper bag manufacturing still requires large amounts of natural resources and causes a significant amount of pollution.
The debate about plastic vs. paper still goes on today, but the bottom line is that the best solution eliminating disposable bags that have a life span of 12 minutes and replacing them with reusable bags.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
There's "marine debris," and then there's just trash
Students at NorthBay Adventure Camp are learning a lot about trash in our water. Even ice doesn't keep them from cleaning up the Chesapeake beach along the camp. Check out this video the kids made:
Marine Debris (1/6/11) from NorthBay Media on Vimeo.
Monday, January 10, 2011
What do cleanup volunteers find?
At a summer cleanup of the Back River, it was "lots of plastic bags," plus cans, cups, and other food packaging.
Video by the Back River Restoration Committee.
Video by the Back River Restoration Committee.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)