There has been a lot of talk recently about the large amount of single use plastic that is ending up in landfills and worse, in the ocean.  They say the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” (terrible name) is now the size of France, yes, the country of France.  Cities, counties, states, provinces, and even some countries are starting to pass laws banning things like plastic grocery bags, drinking straws, and many other single use items.  If you have been just slightly connected over the last few years, all of that is not breaking news to you.  My take on this plastic and garbage problem is possibly a little different.  I feel like we are blaming the bag when we should be blaming the carrier of the bag.  We humans created the bag.  We created the technology to mass produce the bag, the straw, the toothpaste cap, the water bottle, but failed to think long term.  We have also trained our future generations to think of these items as “throw away” trash.  All I have to do is throw it “away” and it is now out of sight and out of mind.  Where exactly is ‘away”?  Do you know?  Seems to me, “away” is the middle of the ocean.

Driving in to work this morning I found myself behind a guy who’s definition of “away” seems to be “out the car window”.  A steady stream of trash was being tossed out his window as I followed.  It looked like the plastic wrappers that help preserve doughnuts or bear claws, possibly some other form of junk food.  I guess he didn’t want the wrappers in his car once he finished and instead of taking the items to a trash receptacle it was just as easy to just throw it out the window, throw it away.  Are we now that lazy that we don’t think about the long term?  Do we not care what our neighborhood looks like?  Do we not care about our neighbors that will eventually have to pick that trash up for you?  Has society learned to be so wasteful and lazy that we no longer hold each other accountable for things like this?  Look, some of these items have been developed so we can enjoy food and drink items keeping them from spoiling.  Straws keep lipstick and cold sores off the edge of cups and glasses.  Pick up the bear claw, change your mind, put it back, no harm done.  It seems to be the follow through some of us are missing.  Now we (humans) are all running around trying to figure out how to clean up the mess we created over the last 50 years.  I still haven’t heard of any real solutions for the single use plastics still being consumed on a daily basis.  All it takes is the sight of one homeless guy taking a shower in the public water fountain and I am at 7-11 buying a plastic bottle of water.  So, here we are, problem identified, solution is what?

Coincidentally, this guy threw the trash out of his car while sitting at a stoplight where the Los Angeles County Landfill sits across the street.  As “advanced” as our society supposedly is, you would think things like this would not be a problem.  In the 70’s there was a television commercial of a Native American man looking over a landscape with trash all over it, he turned to the camera with a tear sliding down his face.  That commercial is 40 years old.  Lazy or careless?  You decide.

#suituptocleanup #5minbeachcleanup #StopSucking #ReduceResuseRecycle