Plastic in the ocean PT2

When I wrote my previous entry on the sky campaign to reduce plastic going into the worlds seas and oceans I didn't expect to be returning so quickly but a story today on the link below made me think and pick it back up again.
http://news.sky.com/story/sick-whale-found-to-have-30-plastic-bags-blocking-its-stomach-10754077

Whale dies with 30 plastic bags in it's stomach By Thomas Moore, Health and Science Correspondent, Sky News

 In brief the whale had repeatedly beached prior to death and at post-mortem it was found that the whale had swallowed 30 plus plastic bags. Again this got me thinking about our plastic usage. Now the sky story does hold some provocative details such as English writing on some of the bags and the fact that a whale has died as a direct result, tragically I do not believe for a second that this is the first instance and I agree with the journalist for including this detail.
   It was no very long ago, less than 2 years, that the UK was up in arms at the suggestion that we should pay 5 pence for a plastic bag. the uproar was amazing when you consider the other issues of the day. I am really pleased to see that this charge has actually lead to a reducing in plastic bag litter on our beaches. So the charge seems to have had the desired effect in reducing the increase.
   It's not often that i hold McDonald's up as a good example (and we probably should for their community sponsorships, Ronald McDonald house etc etc) but I remember one of my first visits to a McDonald in the 1980's in Tamworth town centre with one of my neighbours and his mother Pauline. Whilst passing the wrapped burgers around the table Pauline exclaimed "look at all this paper, the Americans must have a lot of litter". Now 30+ years later i am remembering that statement and thinking "yes but paper doesn't last in the ocean as long as plastic, even waxed paper breaks down"
    Maybe just maybe many of our answers have been staring at us for years? my last blog on this referred to battery/electric milk floats and washable glass bottles, now i am talking paper bags for takeaway and hey why not supermarkets like the Americans. Sustainable forestry and recycling techniques are improving all the time so maybe we should have more food or shopping packaged in paper. I'm happy to buy fruit on a market in a paper bag why cant i select loose fruit and veg in a supermarket and weight it into a paper bag or just like the accusations from the self check out tills we are more obsessed that everyone is a shoplifter and trying to scam the machine or hide something in an opaque paper bag that we must use clear plastic.

     Right hold on I've just had another rant come into my head.

Who's idea was it to start putting eggs  in thin plastic trays/boxes/cartons that lock together so well its an art to open them without  firing a ballistic egg in some direction. Not only are these difficult to open especially using one had during baking etc but they also do not protect the egg from anything stronger than a light breeze and as mentioned throughout this subject they do not break down in the environment. although my eggs do in these awful packets. Just use traditional card egg boxes and stop ruining my eggs through neglectful packaging. 

The bottom line is we need to do something about the plastic we use and simply recycling is not going to be enough we need a fundamental shift away from plastics. I haven't gone into any of the arguments about use of petrochemicals and the origins of plastics that's a whole section on its own and supports many countries in its trade.



So my suggestions so far
Electric milk floats
Bring back glass milk bottles
Start using paper food packaging where possible.

http://jeremysnewsthoughts.blogspot.com/2017/01/plastics-in-ocean-skys-ocean-rescue.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34346309

Update !!!! 6th February 2017

Ooh just been thinking about this issue.

Why the **** does my toilet roll, kitchen roll and other paper products come packaged in plastic!!
Come on that's just taking the biscuit!!!!

Plastics in the ocean, Sky's Ocean Rescue Campaign

Last week saw Sky launch its campaign to reduce the amount of plastics washing into the oceans of the world. I will not repeat the info that sky has but i have posted the link below.

http://news.sky.com/video/why-should-you-take-part-in-sky-ocean-rescue-10740487

It was not too long ago I was thinking of the plastic bottle as a saviour in the world of litter picking an street cleansing, thy generally don't break up like a glass bottle and are less dangerous to collect etc, but this campaign has made me stop and think. In Tamworth for over a decade now we have collected plastic bottles in blue boxes or bins and sold on this recyclate to be spun and made into the fashionable fleeces worn on a cold day, we did this by the container load and the council generated a nice income. But this is clearly not the whole solution. not every bottle is recycled.

The sky campaign raises some interesting solutions such as bottle return deposits etc and this got me thinking. No one is reinventing the wheel here, there was always a deposit on glass bottles in the past and then in another true sense of recycling for a purpose and not recycling for the sake recycling we used to have glass milk bottles. I believe milk bottles are no longer make?
So following this thought I looked for a milk man in my area, apparently there are some but they come around in diesel powered chassis cabs! hold on what happened to the milk floats of the 1970's powered by batteries, remember the electric milk floats. So we used to have washable sterile reusable bottles moved around under nice clean electric vehicles and now in the 21st century we are producing more plastic in a decade than the whole of the 20th century and running milk floats on fossil fuels.

May be we should go old school and reintroduce reusable bottles and newer high tech batteries.

On a different note my initial reaction was to consider a trip to the beach to do a litter pick of plastic bottles before they drift out fill with water and sink.. . then I stopped and thought hold on all rivers and as in Nemo "all drains lead to the ocean" its our local parks rivers and streams that need cleansing before they end up in the sea.

So to conclude have a look at the Sky campaign lets all support it in any way we can whether in thought or deed,


I did find the below Youtube video interesting, its not going to solve the problem but it gives you something to do.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqGaRqjWICU

75% of us are micro criminals and petty theives

http://news.sky.com/story/three-out-of-four-britons-are-micro-criminals-poll-10629227

Is a micro criminal like a micro pig, at first they are small and make little impact but then they grow into huge pigs?

I am keen to find out what local results would be to the yougov and sky story ? Have you committed any of the crimes below? (remember commenting on my blog is moderated for language and hate but it is anonymous)

• :: Paid someone cash-in-hand knowing so it costs less, knowing they won't pay tax - 43%
• :: Illegally streamed TV programmes, films or music - 28%
• :: Illegally downloaded TV programmes, films or music - 25%
• :: Avoided paying for a fare on public transport - 24%
• :: Said your food order was to take away rather than eat-in because it's cheaper - 22%
• :: Lied about your age/situation to get a cheaper deal - 19%
• :: Taken a plastic bag at a supermarket without paying for it - 17%
• :: Lied about your child's age to get a cheaper deal  - 16%
• :: Refilled your drink without paying extra - 16%
• :: Eaten loose fruit / pick n' mix at a shop without paying for it - 12%
• :: Put a product through a self-service till for less than it should actually cost - 9%

Now I've asked the question and hopefully you've answered I'm going to get opinionated and judgemental. I have looked at the list and can say 8 of which I definitely haven't done, as for the other 3 I'd say its a grey area ;)

All of the above crimes have in this article been looked at a minor or petty or "micro"and they way they are discussed is as if they are victimless crimes. But stop for a second!! One person takes one sweet from the Pic'n'mix and before you know it Home Bargains has replaced Woolworth on our high streets. wow it was only one aniseed ball.

 Ok I jest but the point I am getting at here is the small end of the wedge in terms of petty theft, the area of concern for me is how society handles this and what does it lead to? what 'crimes' are 'acceptable' to some parts of society as they are perceived as victimless or at least the huge numbers of people involved for the small amounts taken they can be justified.

What is it that makes these things ok?

I wonder if the below is a list of justification

well its cheaper for me, they get to save some taxation and being caught is unlikely
I'm not taking anything away from anyone, its not like stealing a car. everybody is doing it 
the bus/train is going that way anyway it's not like a taxi driver is not getting paid loads of other people have already paid, I can retrospectively pay for a ticket. My child is too young to enjoy this and will sleep through it, they are only little it won't cost this attraction anything if my little 5 year old goes in as a 4 year old. 

So if these micro crimes are "ok" then what about the next step. Oh its only a little benefit fraud my neighbours get benefits and if I lay it on thick I could have a slice of that free money.
Right now we get to some business. 
For me the tone of the article justifies taking something from someone else without permission and suggests that as these crimes re so prevalent they are ok. being able to get away with something due to its impact is a slippery slope and as I've suggested can lead to other things becoming acceptable in some parts of society. Benefit fraud or as I call it the theft of our taxes is prevalent and costs a fortune to police yet very few would be concerned enough to report someone they knew were committing this crime. reporting benefit fraud is one of those things you only do to someone you don't like as people hide behind the "its not my business". I think there are also other barriers such as the need for evidence or the potential pressure of having to be a witness, 

At risk of going off on a rant about a different issue for a minute there. 

We all know the above crimes happen and its up to us to police ourselves and resist the temptation. I am disappointed that this article does not promote this or a sense of guilt.  The tone of the article is for me jovial and almost promotional. 

Recently I was talking to a Sikh guy and we were discussing terrorism relating to religion he had a simple out look, he said "first I have to be a good human being,  if I cant be a good human I can never be a religious man"

Lets resist temptation with these "micro-crimes" and remember victimless or not our actions determine what sort of human being we are.