My #plasticsux Challenge Results

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Hey folks!

Time for a plastic confession. I’ve had this blog for 3 years now, am a staunch opponent of single-use plastics and yet…I’ve never done a “show your plastic trash” challenge. Weird, right? I find that weird.

Well, I was puttering around Instagram a couple of weeks ago and noticed a photo advertising something called the Keep a Breast Non-Toxic Revolution Plastic Sucks Challenge, to be held April 14-20. The goal? Try to go a week without using any new plastic. A pledge against plastic. Anyone who’s been on Beth Terry’s My Plastic-Free Life website knows exactly what I’m talking about.

Plastic, Instagrammed

Plastic, Instagrammed

Anyway, I went for it. It’s a new year, it’s springtime, why not jump into a challenge? I’m already maintaining a pretty plastic-free life as it is…could it really be so hard?

Turns out, it kind of was. When all was said and done, I had amassed 49 pieces of plastic in one week, the majority of which were grocery store receipts and produce stickers. Yucko!

But it’s not all bad news. The cool thing about a challenge like this is that it really gives you an idea of what you consume, how much, and how often. For instance, I discovered that I go to the grocery store way too much, and can totally cut back my visits (even though I love my co-op so, so much!). You start to see things a little differently, like, “Did I really need that bag of Skittles for that trip to the movies when I knew I was going to see Evil Dead?” or “Why am I buying a plastic box of spinach when I can find it in bulk just as easily?” Stuff like that. I know for me at least, it was a chance to slow down and take stock of the important things.

So, thanks to the Keep-A-Breast Non-Toxic-Revolution, I’ve attacked plastic with renewed zeal. No more receipts for this gal! :)

Anybody else want to take the challenge? After all, it IS Earth Month…

(How ’bout we make it Earth Year? All in favor say aye!)

The Photo Seen ‘Round the World

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The Internet is amazing. Need proof? Have a look at this photo:

This a cafeteria lunch tray. Full of plastic from 1 bird.

OK…what’s the big deal?

Last summer, while on Midway, fellow FWS volunteer Liz was walking through our usual albatross plots, checking to see who was still there. We banded a number of fledgling Laysan Albatross and continued to check their nest sites to see how long they took to fledge. Some died and some survived and took off. Anyway. This bird had long-since died by the time she found it, so she started poking around. Disclaimer: it might sound weird to say that we poke through dead birds, but you have to understand…on Midway, there’s plastic in all these birds and we always want to know how much and what kinds. So, when we see a dead bird…we poke. Hey, we’re scientists! ;-)

What she uncovered is what you see in the photo above. That small pile of brownish blobs down in the lower right-hand corner? Those are the only fragments of organic material we found in the bird (kukui nuts and pumice…things that actually belong in an albatross gut). Everything else on that tray was found in that bird. That baby bird.

Here’s where things get really, really nutso. Just sorting through the plastic (424 pieces in total) wouldn’t do. So, we posted it to Facebook and then just sort of…left it at that. A few people commented and some more “liked” it but nothing too unusual and then the attention died down, or so I thought. That was on July 25th.

Sixteen days later, on August 10, something weird happened and I didn’t notice for months. What happened was that somehow this photo was shared 112 times…which is about 112 times more than usual. What’s weirder still is that I honestly can’t explain how it happened. The social media machine just took over. I sifted through the people and organizations sharing the photo and they were all over the place and I mean all over. Across the US and other countries! People working for wildlife rehabilitation clinics, sales associates for real estate agencies, various bird and wildlife organizations and everybody in-between.

What’s even better is to read the comments stemming from this shared photo and realize that everybody has the same reaction: “Holy cow, what are we doing to our planet?” This was just amazing. Plastic is so not awesome but the fact that all these people were exposed to this issue and affected by it in the same way is incredible.

There are those that believe that social media is destroying human interaction, and there are those that think it’s bringing us all closer together. Sometimes I think it can be a little ridiculous but in cases like this one…I’m just really, really grateful. This is what social media is all about: sharing things that are important to us. Thank you, Internet. You are awesome. :)

Same plastic, preserved.

Same plastic, preserved.

Handmade Uniqueness

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DSC_0296

See this?

This is unique. This is beauty.

This photo perfectly illustrates why I love my Glass Dharma straws so very much. Each straw has its own personality. At first glance, they appear to look exactly the same. But take a closer look. Each one has its own teeny tiny, beautiful curves and rounded edges. I found myself zoning out one day, totally entranced by this. Strange? Maybe. But come on. Don’t you agree? They’re like little works of art, each one of ‘em.

Glass Dharma has been running an Earth Day event in some form or another for the past few years. This year, they’ve created a Planet Care pledge and so far, it’s been wildly successful. They are now well over their 1,000 straw pledge and the numbers keep going up. Seeing that momentum growing is totally inspiring and has helped fuel this post. Not only is their product just…awesome, but they have a message behind it and that message is catching on: Use less plastic. Take the Planet Care Pledge. Choose glass.

At some point in our history as a society and species, we got into this funk where everything had to be brand-new, clean…in other words, perfect. And, indeed, if you walk into any department store or super store (Wal*Mart, Target, Coscto, I’m lookin’ at you) everything is, at first glance, perfect. There are stacks and stacks of matching plates, piles of perfect pillows (have some alliteration while you read, please) and rows of matching glasses and stemware. What bothers me the most is glassware. I’m all about saving some $$ on household goods (this fact made ever more obvious after a recent major move) but perfect cheap glassware is a bunch of bologna.

Which is why Glass Dharma straws are amazing. Yes, each and every straw goes through a rigorous quality control process to ensure that each customer receives a superior product. And superior products we receive, in spades. My point is that with a product like these straws and with a company like Glass Dharma, it’s personal. A person physically handled and created the straws. They are truly handmade and great care went in to make them. That’s not something you’ll ever get from a set of Target glass tumblers, no matter how perfect they look.

That’s why, for this year’s World Water Day, for Earth Day and for Planet Care, I’ll be sipping my water, my smoothies, my juice…from my perfectly unique straws. Because seriously? Stacked up next to these beauties, plastic is totally boring. ;) DSC_0299

Sick. Twisted.

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Sometime in the not-too-distant past, I watched a clip from the documentary “Earthlings”. I never got to the whole movie, mostly because after watching the trailer, I had seen enough. I felt sick, disgusted, sad, angry, light-headed… it was pretty bad. I’m by no means a fanatic, but it’s hard not to get upset when you see animals being abused. Maybe it’s because we as a society shelter ourselves from seeing that stuff, so when we actually come face to face with the content in Earthlings and Food, Inc and all those other exposé documentaries, we squirm. It’s uncomfortable, seeing the truth.

Well, I hadn’t felt like that in a while. Then, Midway happened. And then…I saw this:

This video was uploaded to YouTube almost 3 years ago and you’ve probably already seen it. But in case you haven’t, feel free to take a gander. I won’t spoil it for you.

Done? Ok, cool. Now…what the f***? First of all, I’m just going to throw this out there…why didn’t the person filming stop the gull? All it takes is a good shout and running around like a crazy person to get a gull moving. But no…thanks to him, we get to witness 5 minutes of a Lesser Black-Backed Gull choke down our trash. This is seriously, seriously twisted stuff. I’m grossed out. Are you?

Deep breath. Stay positive. We’ve just watched something really terrible, made all the worse with the knowledge that this isn’t an uncommon occurrence. This happens a lot, all over the place. It’s not just albatross, or sea turtles, or whales. Plastic is everywhere. Time to do something about that. Why don’t we be proactive? Let’s not let the gull get that far in his munching. Instead of watching, take part. Pick up. Throw out. Refuse in the first place. Simple, simple little things. It’s so easy. Come on, people. This is getting a bit ridiculous.

Talkin’ Trash

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Back in January, when 2013 was still a brand new year, all shiny and fresh, I was driving to Pawling Central School, to give my first post-Midway talk about plastic. Readers of this blog will recall that in my last post, I wrote briefly about Skyping with a couple of 7th grade science classes from that very school, on the topic of the highly endangered Laysan Duck. Well, the teacher I had been working on that project with, along with my tech-loving aunt, thought it would be totally awesome if I gave a talk in person; surprise the kids, talk trash and have some cool giveaways. It was a perfect idea and so, with my brother as my trusty co-pilot and media man (thanks, Pat!) we were off with 15 pounds of Midway plastic in tow.

15lbs, enough to fill a bathtub.

15lbs, enough to fill a bathtub.

The target audience for this talk was middle school students, specifically 7th and 8th graders. For comparison, the last talk I gave before heading to Midway was in front of Seventh Generation staff members and their Board of Directors. So, as you can imagine, I had to tweak the presentation to fit the audience, which it turns out is actually a ton of fun; figuring out how to get the same message across but in a different way – so interesting!

My audience.

My audience.

I took the students through my SEA experience, senior capstone completion at UMaine and ended with the Midway craziness. All of the plastic I brought back with me was laid out for them to see and touch. Watching their faces when I held up various odds and ends (jars of bottle caps, plastic inhalers) was a grounding moment: the idea of plastic pollution becomes real when someone’s waving a jar of plastic at you found in the middle of nowhere…

Plastic Preserves, anyone?

Plastic Preserves, anyone?

We ended the morning with a raffle of various awesome plastic-free products: Glass Dharma straws (woot woot!), Lunchskins sandwich bags, stainless steel water bottles, To-Go Ware utensil kits and even some defunct Laysan Duck bird bands! It was so fun and the kids really got into it, which made me happy. They seemed to understand that they can make a difference by doing little things and that by having a bamboo fork and glass straws, they can very easily offset their plastic footprint. I was totally inspired by their enthusiasm and it gave me renewed excitement to do this again and again and again…well, you get the idea.

I want people to know about this issue and know that it’s not all doom and gloom. I want people to understand why it’s important to care about albatross dying in the Pacific from our plastic trash and to bring that connection full circle. I realize that we live in a time of global economies and a constant demand for stuff, stuff and more stuff…but if we can start to figure out how to rework that model so we’re not trashing the planet, we’d all be better off.

The purpose of this post was not only to recount my fantastic experience in southern NY, but to start a conversation. For anyone reading this blog who thinks they know of an audience that would gravitate towards this issue, I say, it’s time to talk trash. Let’s figure out a way to make this subject more approachable to all audiences and stop the madness. Finding trash in animals and knowing it’s ending up in our food supply is getting kind of old, quite frankly, and I’m ready to move past waste. Who’s with me?

He's in...are you?

He’s in…are you?

8 Crazy Months

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Flying into the new Year!

Flying into the new Year!

Hello, blogging world!

You might have noticed, upon closer inspection of this blog link, that things look a little different around here. Your eyes haven’t fooled you. Welcome to the year 2013, 7 In the Ocean! There have been a ton of changes happening in my life: personal, financial, work-related and I thought, “Can’t stop here! Must update blog!” So, here it is. It’s still in process and the theme will probably be changing again soon, but for now, voila!

So, changes! What’s going on? If you’ve been following any one of the myriad of social networks I’m currently into, you probably saw me traipsing across various tropical islands last summer and fall. It was a crazy time. I spent 4 amazing, glorious, unforgettable (I could go on) months on Midway Atoll, working as a volunteer for the US Fish & Wildlife System. There, I met 3 amazing ladies and a whole bunch of other crazy awesome people. Friendships were made, adventures were had and lots of laughter ensued. It was, to sum up: life-altering.

While on Midway, I spent a solid week or so panicking about what my future held and what the heck I was going to do after it was over. Turns out, I didn’t really have to worry: ducks saved me! In October, I flew to the Big Island of Hawaii and spent the next two months working for the US Geological Survey analyzing data I helped collect while on Midway for their endangered Laysan Duck monitoring project. It was a great opportunity to see the back-end of research projects and gave me a newfound appreciation for data collection and processing. I also learned the importance of neat handwriting. Come on people, just write legibly!

One of the coolest things that happened on the Big Island, aside from living in Volcanoes National Park and seeing an active volcanic crater every day ;-) , was getting to talk to 7th grade students thousands of miles away about the Laysan Duck. Thanks to the power of Skype and my awesome aunt, I was able to teach two 7th grade science classes from Pawling Central School (located in south-eastern New York State) all about the duck and the conservation efforts going on to help save the species from extinction. The experience was unreal. For them, it was a chance to see a young person in the field, doing some pretty neat research. For me, it was just totally gratifying to see middle schoolers so amped about ducks and science! I had students thanking me for waking up so early to teach them, asking me what it was like to be a marine biologist (!!!!) and even received some awesome poems and songs about the duck. Amazing.

The good stuff just kept coming. After being away for almost 6 months, I finally headed back home in mid-December. Christmas and New Years were amazing and totally flew by. Then…I was doing something that I’ve actually dreamed about since being on Midway. I got to talk to people about my Midway experience. And not just any people either. Four days into 2013, I was traveling down to Pawling, NY where I got to talk to the entire 7th grade class of Pawling Middle School about how I came to be interested in plastic pollution research. The very same kids I Skyped with and more! They were curious, interested and asked some really good questions. That day was the moment I realized, “This is awesome and I want to do more of it.”

So…that pretty much brings us up to speed. Oh yeah, there is that whole bit about me moving to Maine and starting work at this place, for this organization, which is so incredible. To sum up: lots of changes have happened, life lessons have been learned (some good, some not so good), but all in all…8 months of crazy adds up to a pretty great time.

So, what’s in store for this wonderful, fresh new year? Well, more blog posts, I promise! Maybe a Facebook page? Talking about Midway whenever possible (shameless self-promotion: I have props, scads of photos and stories. If you want to hear the stories, see the props and photos or just talk trash, let me know!). Next up in the Midway lecture series: a plastics and albatross-themed lesson for a group of Cub Scouts that I’ll be giving this spring. Challenge accepted. :-)