Recycling Plastics

Plastic causes a lot of harm to our environment. Putting laws in place can be the first step in reducing the amount of pollution we cause, and set us on the right track.

[estiqatsi]

[letsreducereuserecyclething-blog]

What happens to the bottles when we’re done? Bottle deposit laws can help get the cycle back on the right track! 

[letsreducereuserecyclething-blog]

Recycling is a great way to help keep our earth clean, but don't forget to find ways to reuse those plastic products as well. There are lots of ways to keep them out of our landfills so be creative! here are 7 ways to reuse your plastic grocery bags:https://www.installitdirect.com/blog/7-unique-ways-to-keep-plastic-grocery-bags-out-of-landfills/ 

[letsreducereuserecyclething-blog]

Reduce!

Plastics are used in many products, and sometimes you may not even notice that you’re throwing in the trash to be sent to a landfill where it will stay. There a many tips to reduce you’re plastic consumptions like investing in reusable containers or even giving up gum! read more tips here: http://www.greeneducationfoundation.org/nationalgreenweeksub/waste-reduction-tips/tips-to-use-less-plastic.html

[letsreducereuserecyclething-blog]

We as humans are at the top of the food chain. To ensure out health, we need to ensure that our food sources remain healthy as well. In an article titled New Link in the Food Chain? Marine Plastic Pollution and Seafood Safety Nate Seltenrich writes, in the article linked below, that microplastic in our ocean are thought to be food by microorganisms. When these organisms eat the plastic, it can enter the food chain at a low level, in move up to our own diner plates. Enforcing recycling laws can help keep that plastic out of the ocean and in turn, out of our own bodies.

https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/123-a34/

[npr]

Guess What's Showing Up In Our Shellfish? One Word: Plastics

Scientists predict that plastic in the ocean will eventually outweigh the fish there. Where is it all coming from? And is it making our food unsafe? Researchers are trying to find the answers.

“When you eat clams and oysters, you’re eating plastics as well,” says shellfish biologist Sarah Dudas.

In 2016, she and her students at Vancouver Island University planted thousands of clams and oysters across coastal British Columbia and let them soak in the sand and saltwater of the Strait of Georgia. Three months later, they dissolved hundreds of them with chemicals, filtered out the biodegradable matter and looked at the remaining material under a microscope. Inside this Pacific Northwest culinary staple, they found a rainbow of little plastic particles.

[nowthisnews]

A Tasty Solution 

Saltwater Brewery created an answer to floating plastic six pack rings harming the ocean environment and its creatures. Their rings are edible and made from wheat and barley leftover from the beer making process. It’s a great way for the brewery to cut back on waste product and provides a snack for fish and other sea dwelling animals. If more companies recycled like this maybe we could cut down on the amount of garbage polluting our waters daily.

Kudos, Saltwater Brewery.

[letsreducereuserecyclething-blog]

Most of the plastic that doesn’t get recycled ends up here in one of the many garbage patches that have formed in the ocean. https://www.h2odistributors.com/pages/info/info-pacific-garbage-patch.asp

[letsreducereuserecyclething-blog]

Studies show that bottle deposit laws can help increase the percent of bottles recycled, but the bottles aren't the only plastics putting our oceans at risk. Remember to read the labels of your soaps and shower gels as well, there is a lot more you can do to help our environment than you think

[txchnologist]

Will a Marine Plastic Harvester Shrink the World’s Giant Floating Garbage Patches?

These gifs show the latest concept from a project called The Ocean Cleanup to retrieve some of the millions of tons of plastic waste choking the world’s oceans. 

The idea is to deploy long floating barriers at mid-ocean gyres that naturally collect garbage shed by land and ships. The booms would be set up so that the motion of ocean currents would do the work to corral plastics in concentrated areas, where a solar-powered collection platform would extract the waste for recycling.

The group, which is led by 20-year-old founder Boyan Slat and includes volunteer oceanography and engineering specialists, estimates it will cost a little less than $5 per kilogram to remove the garbage. They have already completed a proof-of-concept project demonstrating their design and conducted a feasibility study, in which they estimate that each garbage patch that has developed in the world’s five major gyres could be reduced by half within 10 years. The people behind The Ocean Cleanup hope to launch a coastal pilot study sometime in 2016 and to start full-scale operations in late 2019. Learn more and see a video below.

Keep reading

[letsreducereuserecyclething-blog]

Burning Plastics: Friend or Foe

Burning plastics can be a great source of energy, but are the benefits outweighing the potential harms? When plastics are burned they release chlorine and some heavy metals into our environment. The compounds created from these emissions can result in health problems in both wildlife and humans. The source of energy might seem beneficial but is it worth the potential risk of cancer? Read more in Is Combustion of Plastics Desirable below.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/27857061

[ecogreenlove]

Skip the straw!

🍹 

Head to read the article: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-40002668

[letsreducereuserecyclething-blog]

Taxes are another way to help get human recycling habits on the right track. Plastic straws are an easy product to cut from your waste production. If you don't want to give straws up, try investing in a reusable metal one! 

[wherehaveyoubeard]

[sailourseas-blog]

Ecover are going to start collecting plastic pollution in the sea so that it can be recycled into new packaging! An excellent start on the path to reducing marine plastic pollution - but how can we prevent it from ending up in the ocean in the first place? Use less? 

[ecogreenlove]

What type of Recycler are you? [Quiz]

What type of Recycler are you? [Quiz] | ecogreenlove via @mattressonline #recycling #recycle #greenliving #greensolutions

Recycling – It’s worth it! We simply don’t have the room on Earth to keep burying rubbish. Recycling is essential to our future. It’s also faster and more cost effective than sourcing materials to make new products from. Reusing materials saves a huge amount of energy, which in turn benefits the planet and its ecosystems on the whole.

Recycling Facts:

Recycling 6 tea bags creates enough energy to…

View On WordPress

[letsreducereuserecyclething-blog]

There is a lot to learn about recycling. Take this quiz and see what you know, and learn something new!

[letsreducereuserecyclething-blog]

Here are some of the ways that plastic is getting cleaned up from the oceans. These plans aren't fool proof, so how can we keep it from getting to those garbage patches in the first place? Placing stricter laws on recycling, such as bottle deposit laws, is one way to help stop the problem in its tracks. 

[letsreducereuserecyclething-blog]

Studies show that economic incentives tend to have a greater effect on how people recycle over social norms. For example, seeing your neighbor put out a recycling bin is not necessarily going to inspire you. However, studies show that about 87% of people recycle their plastic bottles in states that have laws vs 53% in states without these laws. Read more in Promoting Recycling: Private Values, Social Norms, and Economic Incentives by W. Kip Viscusi, Joel Huber, and Jason Bell.