The best thing is for you or your club to adopt a piece of water and keep it litter picked up.
I can’t change the world, but I can do something in my neighborhood, on my Creek , in my river.
@Overstreet said:
The best thing is for you or your club to adopt a piece of water and keep it litter picked up.I can’t change the world, but I can do something in my neighborhood, on my Creek , in my river.
Agreed. I can’t help them all, but I can help this one.
Thanks for the link, Andy. Made me wonder if there was a similar program for the Great Lakes. Found the Alliance for the Great Lakes and a scheduled beach clean-up on May 15. Conveniently at one of my launch sites. Will bring a trash bag, gloves, – and my kayak.
@castoff
It’s catching on: https://www.petoskeynews.com/news/local/petoskey-s-palette-bistro-going-green/article_8a238743-71de-570e-81f4-4ba380bca901.html
I love hearing these stories! Each one a small step for man, and a small step for the planet.
We ate breakfast at a popular restaurant with a regular loyal local clientele that is a good meetup point for our river cleanup yesterday. Brant met me there and got the only available table left open, and this was almost 9:30. As we were leaving he pointed out all the Styrofoam cups on the wall. As we paddled the river collecting trash we became aware how much nearly invisible pieces of Styrofoam cups were mixed in the debris in the log jams. On our shuttle ride back to his car he mention how from now on he would carry his own cup in to fill for takeout and as an alternative to the cups if served. I said maybe we need to suggest that Bill and Frans could reduce the cost of takeout coffee if their patrons bought their own cups… The next time I am there I intend to bring the idea up. I bet the majority of people are not aware of the magnitude of the problem.
Another idea that just came to me is to print a small letter of facts about waste plastics with several easy things that restaurants can do to help that don’t cost money. Let them know how important their actions could be to bringing about a greater consciousness of the problem, and perhaps drawing in people that want the change.
Another aspect of Michigan that is ahead of most other states, including (sadly) PA where I live, in that the majority of beverage cans in Michigan have a substantial cash deposit of 5 to 10 cents. Only 10 US states currently have “bottle bills” and apparently several of them are thinking of dropping them. This is disheartening. Having a mandatory deposit makes them worthwhile for most people to return (and all the major grocery stores have automated drop boxes in the entry vestibules where you simply insert the cans and bottles and get a printed out credit slip you can use for purchases or exchange for cash). And as for the slobs that can’t be bothered to return them, there are plenty of kids and even adults who will collect them when they are thrown out on the street (or riverbanks). There was a retired guy in my Grand Rapids neighborhood who rode around on an adult trike, year round, filling a large wire basket on the back with refundable containers – he told me he made $50 to $100 a week in his scavenging travels, enough to pay for most of his groceries. I hardly ever saw a can or bottle amongst trash on roads and trails there.
When I worked as a convenience store clerk here in PA back in my college days (early 1970’s) all of the glass soda bottles had deposits – 5 cents for 10 to 16 ounce bottles and 10 cents for the one liter and up. We also took them back and the soda companies themselves would pick them up once a week and compensate us, then the bottles were cleaned, sterilized and re-filled for sale again. Every once in a while a 6-pack of Coke would come through with what was clearly a very vintage model bottle. If we spotted one, we would pull it out and display it in the glass bakery case, inviting customers to bid on it – the old bottles are quite “collectible” and we often got $5 or even $10 for one of the oldies.
The growth of disposable beverage bottles, particularly bottled water, is a major contributor to the waste stream. Just think if we could get the drink makers to standardize their glass bottles, make them so that they could be re-used
Reusable bottles are probably just to.much labor cost.
Job creation opportunity! The true environmental cost of what we are doing to the planet isn’t being paid with what we are doing now.
Heineken had a great idea in 1963 with their “WOBO” or “WOrld BOttle” which was a modular design (think LEGO’s with nesting necks) that cold be mortared together to make panels for building walls. I’ve read that a major problem that has developed in the aftermath of natural disasters is the overwhelming trash stream that is created by bringing in bottled water. It occurred to me a few years ago when I heard about that issue that having all of those water bottles made in a design like this, of glass or of a strong plastic, would allow what was once waste to be incorporated as material for building temporary or permanent structures. Square bottles (with nesting necks) would also allow for more compact packaging when transport is problematic. I actually sketched out several ideas for such bottle designs and was set to approach a local glass bottle making company about testing some prototypes when I got distracted by other projects.
I believe there is an untapped market for making packaging itself a desirable end product that would also reduce the trash stream. An example of doing just this was in late nineteenth and early twentieth century America when the distributors of sacks of grain, animal feed and flour began to notice that the frugal housewives who bought their products were re-using the emptied cotton sacks for dishtowels and family clothing. The companies decided to encourage this by using colorful; printed calicos instead of plain white or unbleached fabric. Thousands of prints were developed and the companies realized that they could be a marketing bonus and that a customer who needed multiple pieces of the same print for a dress or coverlet would be more apt to buy more of their products than of a competitor’s. Last year I restored two bed quilts made of feed sack calicos by my own grandmothers during the 1920’s and passed them on to younger family members. So those “packaging” fabrics are still in use nearly 100 years later!
I recently switched to buying a brand of yogurt which (besides being really tasty) comes in small glass jars, the size of baby food containers, but with a peel off foil lid. The jars are great for mixing paints (wash out easily and repeatedly rather than staining or absorbing odors as plastic does) and can be used with votive candles. The company even sells reusable snap on plastic lids for them. I’m considering a suggestion to the company that they look into making the containers hexagonal and straight sided (they are now tapered). That way they would work just as well for packaging use but could also be reused by being mortared together into panels, like the WOBO.
https://inhabitat.com/heineken-wobo-the-brick-that-holds-beer/
https://blog.etsy.com/en/feed-sacks-a-sustainable-fabric-history/
Outstanding ideas! Thanks for posting this. I knew about feed sacks used for cloths in the past, and seem to have a vague memory of bottle bricks. I nominate you willowleaf for the food/drink, habitat, recycle, reuse upcycling award. Really a stellar idea to keep plastic out of the ocean and an added inherent economic plus. I can see an immediate use in disaster relief efforts.
So perhaps a photo resistant sturdy plastic that would snap together or slide into place to lock on all edges so they could make thin or thick walled structures. It would be a great way to provide drinking water/food containers, and insure a steady supply of building material rather than trash. They could even be filled with dirt if need be like sand bags. Some could be clear to let in light, and some could be different colors, or block sun light. They would have an intrinsic economic value, and could possibly be used to barter for goods.
Castoff, I had some of those same ideas in my sketchbook. Even softer plastic containers that linked together could be used as emergency mattresses in shelter situations.
There are folks who are doing great things with simple materials around the world – they don’t get near enough credit for it. From the simple foot-powered mechanical pumps that have greatly aided small farm irrigation in Africa to the clay-pot water filtration vessels that a ceramics artist that I know in the Pittsburgh area makes here and then takes to remote countries to teach their construction and utilization to make safe drinking water, there are a lot of people “lighting candles in the darkness”.
Luci Lights are a solar light developed for children to study by at night in parts of the world without power. Made of plastic however. Yes I try to keep up between having fun on the water and with family.
Luci Lights are neat – I bought one to use in my tent and also tie it to the deck of my kayak on night tours, have given them as gifts too. The model that phases to different color makes a calming nightlight for children. As you mention, the company provides them to schoolkids in underdeveloped areas, such a wonderful idea. Another company I am happy to support.