THE PROBLEM:

Beaches, wetlands, and coastal waters are littered with plastic pollution - big and small, some as small as the period at the end of this sentence. some plastic pieces are even smaller.

Many forms of plastic today are made from fossil fuels: oil (petroleum) or natural gas, or a combination of both. Plastic is unique because it’s non-biodegradable and therefore sticks around for a long time (like up to 1,000 years or more). A lot longer than other forms of trash, such as paper or reusable cloth bags.

Plastic pollution continues to enter our coastal waters and the list of wild animals affected by plastic debris is growing to include not only sea turtles, whales and seabirds, but shellfish and planktonic fish.

Unfortunately, recycling by people is not the final answer. Only about 9 percent of all plastic waste generated has been recycled. Current rates of recycling alone is not enough to solve the plastics pollution crisis. Recycling needs to be carried out by the plastic industry as well and other related corporations that use plastic, including the beverage and food industry.

Plastic Kills Wildlife!

Way too many sea turtles, whales, and other marine mammals, and seabirds die each year from the ingestion or entanglement in plastic debris. Plastic can also entangle sharks too! 

Up to 85% of plastic pollution reaches the coast via storm drains (many storm drains are unfiltered), roadways, parking lots, construction zones, and other urban-suburban sources.

One Green Planet  suggests that as many as 50 percent of sea turtles within the last decade are ingesting plastic at an unprecedented rate, and dying because of it. Another study of the Loggerhead species of sea turtle found that 15 percent of young turtles examined had ingested such enormous quantities of plastic that their digestive system was obstructed.

One study found that hundreds of species of cetaceans (whales and dolphins) had been negatively impacted by plastic pollution in the past two decades. The obstructions often puncturing and tearing the stomach lining, leading to starvation and death. Marine Pollution Bulletin tells us that cetaceans are ingesting plastic debris at a rate as high as 31 percent, and in turn, 22 percent of those cetaceans were at an increased risk of death.

Fish eat plastic like teens eat fast food, researchers say

Creatures of all shapes and sizes have been found to have consumed micro-plastics, whether directly or indirectly.

Microplastics!

Microplastics are plastic particles measuring less than five millimetres (0.2 inches), about the size of a sesame seed.

We already know that plastic bags and bottles are a problem, but microplastics are even worse! They have disastrous consequences for aquatic life and human health, not to mention the tiny bits of plastic could remain in the water for 400 years or more!

Microplastics form through the wear and tear of larger pieces of plastic, including plastic bags, bottles, tires (synthetic rubber, made from a variant of plastic, makes up around 60% of the rubber used in tires), fishing line and gear, and other synthetic materials that have not been properly thrown away. Weathering, such as from waves, salt water, sunlight, or other physical stress, breaks the plastic into smaller pieces.

The constant washing of synthetic clothes or blankets can also release microplastics into the environment. Tiny synthetic fibers are loosened into the water from every wash. Large numbers of these tiny synthetic fibers slip undetected through water treatment plants and into rivers, estuaries and the ocean.

For example, washing one fleece jacket of 680 grams loses almost a million fibers at a time.

Currents carry microplastics and micro-beads into our coastal and marine waters. These tiny plastic particles can be harmful to fish, as they can become trapped in gills or digested to leave a fish feeling full even though there’s no nutrients in the digestive tract, causing a fish to starve to death. Drinking water supplies around the world and fish in our food chain have also been found to contain microplastics.

Once in the ocean, plastic pollution tends to accumulate in gyres, which are large systems of rotating ocean currents. There are five major gyres: two in the Atlantic Ocean, two in the Pacific Ocean and one in the Indian Ocean. In the Pacific Ocean, the North Pacific Gyre is home to the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”, a large area that is approximately the size of Texas with debris extending 20 feet (6 meters) down into the water column. It’s estimated that this “plastic island” contains 3.5 million tons of trash and could double in size in the next 5 years.

In the Atlantic Ocean, the garbage patch sits hundreds of miles off the North American coast, covering a region between 22 and 38 degrees north latitude—roughly the distance from Cuba to Virginia. The Indian Ocean's garbage patch is centered roughly halfway between Africa and Australia. As with the Pacific garbage patch, plastic in both the Atlantic and Indian garbage patches can circulate in the ocean for years, posing health risks to fish, seabirds, sea turtles, and marine mammals that accidentally swallow or get entangled by the litter.

WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT PLASTIC POLLUTION?

14 Ways to Eliminate the Plastic Pollution Plague!

Plastic is part of our everyday life and for many people it seems inherently difficult to imagine a world without it. But we must find a way to start living in a society with less plastic and less dependency on plastic.

Below are some ideas on how to kick the plastic addiction!

1. Please support California’s strong laws and ballot initiatives that deal with plastic waste so they Might be duplicated in New Jersey and other states.

In 2021, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed five bills into law. The laws are aimed at supporting a circular economy within the state and reducing plastic waste:

1. SB 143 calls for “Truth in Labeling” for plastics and packaging - This bill tackles one of the biggest confusions in the industry. Traditionally, many products that are not recyclable were still labeled with the “chasing arrows” symbol we’ve all come to know and recognize as meaning “recyclable.” This has led to widespread confusion about and misunderstanding of the recycling system. Many non-recyclables with symbols are thrown into U.S. single-stream recycling, contaminating the entire batch and rendering it only fit for the landfill. Now, in California, those will no longer be allowed to use the recycling symbol.

2. AB 881 measures how much plastic actually gets recycled - It prohibits mixed plastic waste exports to other countries from being counted as “recycled” by the local and state governments for compliance purposes. This could help curb the illegal export of plastic waste from the U.S. to other countries that continues to today, confounding the U.N.’s Basel Convention.

3. AB 1201 updates labeling for compostable products - This bill requires anything labeled as “compostable” to break down in real-life composting conditions, bans toxic PFAS (“forever chemicals”) and requires manufacturers to ensure their chemicals don’t contaminate organic produce. These policies could greatly help protect vital pollinators such as bees.

4. AB 962 makes it easier for brewers and other beverage producers to create recyclable glass bottle systems - This reduces the need for single-use beverage containers. It is the first-ever effort to bring refillable beverage bottles into a state bottle deposit law.

5. AB 1276 reduces plastic foodware. Take-out customers are given single-use plastic foodware only upon request - By requiring restaurants to ASK FIRST before giving us utensils, napkins, straws, and condiment packets we don’t want or need, it stops the creation of instant waste.

In addition, The California Plastic Waste Reduction Regulations Initiative has qualified for the ballot in California in 2022. The ballot initiative would require the California Department of Resources, Recycling, and Recovery (CalRecycle), in consultation with other agencies, to adopt regulations that reduce the use of single-use plastic packaging and foodware, including:

• requiring producers to ensure that single-use plastic packaging and foodware is recyclable, reusable, refillable, or compostable by 2030;

• requiring producers to reduce or eliminate single-use plastic packaging or foodware that CalRecycle determines is unnecessary for product or food item delivery;

• requiring producers to reduce the amount of single-use plastic packaging and foodware sold in California by at least 25 percent by 2030;

• requiring producers to use recycled content and renewable materials in the production of single-use plastic packaging and foodware;

• establishing "mechanisms for convenient consumer access to recycling," including take-back programs and deposits;

• establishing and enforcing labeling standards to support the sorting of discarded single-use plastic packaging and foodware; and

• prohibiting food vendors from distributing expanded polystyrene food service containers.

The ballot initiative would also enact a fee, called the California Plastic Pollution Reduction Fee, on single-use plastic packaging and foodware. CalRecycle would determine the fee amount with a maximum amount of 1 cent per item of packaging or foodware. Beginning in 2030, the fee would be adjusted based on changes in the California Consumer Price Index. 

All of the Above regulations would take Much of the burden off of the consumer and back to the organism who created our plastic Pollution plague problem - the plastic industry & Other Corporations That Use Plastic.

2. Make manufactures of plastics take responsibility for their product!

The ultimate solution to our global plastic problem is for companies to take responsibility for the plastics they produce.

Let’s face it, it’s not ethical (and it really shouldn’t be legal as well) for a company to produce a product — especially a disposable, single-use product — and to sell it within a city, community or town that doesn't have the true capacity or ability to deal with the proper disposal of that item so it doesn’t pollute or cause human health issues!! But that’s exactly what is happening in many coastal cities, towns and communities. Soda companies, candy companies, fast-food snack companies, personal care companies, and other industries are making a profit by selling something they know by now is truly harmful to both the natural and social environments.

Makers of plastic packaging should be required to find innovative ways to design packaging that can be more fully recovered for recycling or reuse. Companies of plastic products should at least help cover the costs required to keep plastic out of our environment.

What Can You Do? Tell plastic manufactures to take responsibility for their products, or better yet don’t purchase their polluting products. What you purchase has power! If enough people boycott a product, companies tend to change their ways or face becoming quickly irrelevant in the marketplace.

What can government leaders do today? Impose a non-recycled plastic packaging waste tax to be paid by manufacturing companies. The tax would go into effect if any plastic package was made with less than 100 percent recycled plastic. Processors of plastic packaging will be encouraged to make more rational decisions regarding packaging designs to use more recycled plastic or less packaging; and to help eliminate those that process nonrecyclable goods. This tax will help to mobilize companies to implement the concept of a circular economy and to help increase plastic recycling or create innovative non-plastic designs for packaging.

Until the day comes when plastic producing companies take responsibility for their product, join volunteers with Save Coastal Wildlife or other organizations to take part in coastal clean-ups to help remove trash deposited by thoughtless people and companies!

3. New Jersey Needs a Bottle Bill

One of the best ways to promote recycling is with a "bottle bill.” The term “bottle bill” is actually another way of saying “container deposit law.” A container deposit law requires a minimum refundable deposit on beer, soft drink and other beverage containers in order to ensure a high rate of recycling or reuse.

 The benefits of a bottle bill system are many and include:

• A high rate of recycling for beverage containers: 58 - 95%  

• It helps to produce clean recycled materials for manufacturing

• It creates jobs and new businesses that can’t be outsourced overseas

• It helps to shift end of life costs for used beverage containers to producers responsible for the waste.

4. Make Recycling Easier, Better and More Cost Effective!

Although New Jersey’s state average for recycling is around 34 percent, which is about equal with the national average of around 35 percent, this rate is still way too low!

Recycling in New Jersey and in the United States has suffered in recent years as China and other countries around the world have refused or limited the foreign waste they accept. But instead of complaining, we should focus on creating new markets and items, such as building materials and furniture, and even plastic recycling bins, to be sold. If you support recycling, then you should purchase most of your items made out of recycled products. This will help reduce waste and the financial stress on many New Jersey’s cities and towns, which now spend lots of money to pay tipping fees to put what should be recycled into a landfill. 

We also need to make recycling easier and more user friendly. Information should be available everywhere on where a person can find a recycling bin to discard their trash.  Make sure recycling, trash and composting bins are placed in the most convenient locations everywhere. 

Make it easy for a person to understand all acceptable materials and what items to recycle. This should be standard around the State of New Jersey. 

5. STOP USING PLASTIC BOTTLES

Discontinue purchasing plastic bottles. Instead, purchase a sustainable, reusable bottle.

1. If you must purchase a plastic bottle, recycle it after use. Plastic bottles are one of the few pieces of plastic materials that are the easiest to recycle, except for the bottle caps.

1. Ban plastic bottles within your household, school or workplace.

2. Find a reusable, sustainable, eco-friendly alternative for many household items such as shampoo and beverage containers.

   WE KNOW IT ISN’T EASY, BUT PLEASE GIVE IT A TRY!

6. STOP USING PLASTIC BAGS

Many plastic bags are just used once, maybe twice if you line your trash cans with them. Yet, it takes anywhere from 400 to 1,000 years for plastic bags to degrade. And even then the nasty chemicals used to make that plastic bag are not truly gone from the environment.

The goal should be to use a reusable tote bag, preferably made out of organic material (avoid those bags made from nylon or polyester because they're also made from plastic) or a reusable container. Make sure to wash them often to keep clean if possible.

Good News New Jersey! On Wednesday, November 4, 2020, Governor Phil Murphy signed S864, which prohibits the use of single-use plastic and paper bags in all stores and food service businesses statewide.

Starting May 2022, both plastic and paper single-use bags, as well as disposable food containers and cups made out of polystyrene foam, will be banned. Paper bags require resources and energy to produce, contributing to pollution. Moving forward, the focus throughout the state will be on using reusable bags. The following products will be exempt for an additional two years after May 2022:  

• Disposable, long-handled polystyrene foam soda spoons when required and used for thick drinks;

• Portion cups of two ounces or less, if used for hot foods or foods requiring lids;

• Meat and fish trays for raw or butchered meat, including poultry, or fish that is sold from a refrigerator or similar retail appliance;

• Any food product pre-packaged by the manufacturer with a polystyrene foam food service product; and

• Any other polystyrene foam food service product as determined necessary by Department of Environmental Protection.

Under the new law, food service businesses will be allowed to provide single-use plastic straws only upon request starting November 2021. Read more at NJ.com

7. STOP USING PLASTIC STRAWS

This one is really easy to do. It’s as simple as asking not to get a straw with your beverage.

But don’t stop there! If possible, please work with your government leaders to ban plastic straws in your town or city, or at least work with the owner(s) of your favorite restaurant/bar to ban plastic straws, if it hasn't been done already.

We use over 500 million straws every day in America, and most of those pesky plastic straws end up in our estuaries and coastal waters, polluting the water and killing coastal life. We want to encourage people to stop using plastic straws for good. If we don’t act now, by the year 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish.

8. STOP MICRO-PLASTICS

Plastic is everywhere, sometimes even on your face or in your mouth. Trillions of little microplastic particles circulate through the world’s oceans, from the Antarctic to the Arctic, both near to the surface and in the deep sea.

Much of the plastic that’s polluting our coastal waters is known as microplastics, small plastic pieces less than five millimeters long resulting from the breakdown of consumer products, such as plastic bottles and containers, and industrial waste.

Micro-plastics are around from the breakdown of plastics that we used once and threw away over 50 years ago. Make sure to use less plastic and always properly dispose of your plastics.

9. REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE YOUR TRASH

It’s true! Everything you need to know, you learned as a child, including how to manage your waste. Reduce, reuse and recycle - reduce waste, reuse stuff as much as possible and finally, if you can’t reuse it anymore, recycle.

Absolutely, you can help the coastal environment by simply practicing the three R's of waste management that you learned in school: 

For example:

• Buy products with less packaging

• Do without disposables. 

• Stop junk mail and paper billing

• Save and reuse packing materials

• Buy and donate used clothing

• Purchase reusable products

• Shop for recycled products

• Take advantage of your local recycling center

• Recycle old electronics

• Turn old materials into art. Follow the example of famous eco-artist, and recycling master - Lisa Bagwell

• Check out One Green Planet’s 10 Home Items You Can Reuse Over and Over Again and also check out Mother Nature Network’s 50 ways to reuse your garbage.

• More information about reduce, reuse and recycling in the United States can be found from the US EPA

10. Instead of a Plastic Costume, Make your Own Homemade Halloween Costume

Create a bold eco-friendly statement this Halloween or for an upcoming costume party with a homemade costume using recycled, upcycled and environmentally-friendly materials! According to the National Retail Federation, Americans spent over $9 billon on Halloween goods in 2018, with an individual spending an average of $86.79.

Curb your consumerism this year for shiny new plastic costumes and stop contributing to an ever-growing post-holiday waste pile. Make your own costume out of things you have lying around the house or out of things you can find at your local thrift shop.

Need help, there are many awesome websites (seriously, just type in homemade costume in any search engine) to help you repurpose materials that would normally be discarded. Have fun with friends and family to create an amazing costume that best defines who you are. 

In addition, here is a comprehensive guide on 7 ways to celebrate Halloween with your dog on, Your Dog Advisor website. It is completely free and you can find it here: https://yourdogadvisor.com/celebrate-halloween-with-dog/

11. STOP CHEWING PLASTIC GUM

Stop chewing plastic! Gum was originally made from tree sap called chicle, a natural rubber. But soon after World War II, corporations realized that synthetic rubber (polyethylene and polyvinyl acetate) was cheaper and easier to get, and began to replace the natural rubber (chicle) in most gums.

Nowadays, people are chewing on a mix of plastic and synthetic rubber, and other nasty ingredients, such as aspartame and BHT (Butylated hydroxytoluene), both known carcinogens. You may also be chewing on toxic plastic — polyvinyl acetate is manufactured using vinyl acetate, a chemical shown to cause tumors in lab rats.

Modern day synthetic chewing gum is actually one of the most health threatening “foods” available to the public and awful for the environment in manufacturing and disposal. Instead, chew on organic or natural gum that comes in paper boxes, and skip the plastic gum and its plastic packaging.

12. EAT REAL or WHOLE FOODS

When is the last time you had a real meal (not fast food) with family or friends? If you are like most people in our current society, it was a long, long time ago. Sadly, many people don’t sit down to eat meals of real or whole foods (like vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, and legumes) with family and friends. Instead snacking alone on highly processed food appears to be replacing meals for a significant part of the population. The fact that many people are opting to grab something on the go instead of sitting down to enjoy a meal of real food with family or friends is detrimental to both a person’s health, society, and to the environment.

In America the most popular snack choice is chips – either potato or tortilla. Many chips contain dangerous trans-fats, and are loaded with refined sodium, and sometimes even sugar. For health reasons, we should eat whole, organic, and nutritious foods—fruit, veggies, whole grains, nuts, legumes, eggs, meat and fish (if you eat them)—and avoid processed junk foods.

From an environmental standpoint, all of these processed snack bags, plastic packaging, and plastic bottles are polluting our natural world. One of the best things you can do to prevent pollution is to eat a slow, sit-down meal at either a restaurant that cooks healthy local and/or organic foods, or better yet, learn to cook and become familiar with ingredients and where you food really comes from.

13. STOP USING PLASTIC SNACK BAGS!

Not only are chips inside a snack bag often bad for your health, but the shiny lining in snack bags is often aluminum or a special mixed plastic. Since recycling factories cannot separate the plastic outer layer from the aluminum inner layer, these mixed-material bags generally cannot be recycled.

Fortunately, the solution to the problem is easy. Either stop snacking or use your own reusable snack bag or container.

14. Don’t Overfill a Trash Can!

Thar-She-Blows! Waste management can be very challenging during windy weather. Make sure to always dispose of your trash in a container that is not full or even better yet in one that has a lid or a cover. Make sure that all your trash fits in a garbage can and that the lid is closed tight. If a garbage can is overfilled or if the lid is up, the wind may blow litter down the street and into the water.

It would be really nice if all coastal communities had trash cans with lids or covers so litter would not overflow, fly around or blow out of cans on breezy days. If you live in a coastal community, please make sure all your public trash cans have lids or covers.