Tag: plastic

Urgent Steps Needed to Save Birds Now

Urgent Steps Needed to Save Birds Now

Many birds are experiencing major population declines and need our help more than ever. According to American Bird Conservancy, almost 3 billion – yes billion – adult breeding birds have been lost to the US and Canada. We’ve lost more than 1/4th of our birdlife just since 1970! 90% came from just 12 bird families, including sparrows, warblers, finches, and swallows. Why is this important? Bird declines are indicative of a broader crisis in the natural world including losses of insects, amphibians, and wildlife.

Habitat loss is the main cause of bird declines. Habitat degradation through fragmentation, invasive plants, or poor water quality is another major cause of losses. In this case, habitat doesn’t disappear outright but becomes less able to support birds, such as when habitat is fragmented, altered by invasive plants, or when water quality is compromised. Other significant threats to birds come from cats and other invasive species and exposure to pesticides and other toxins.

Many birds are killed through collisions with glass, industrial communications towers, and wind turbines. Steady burning lights on communication towers attract, confuse, and disorient birds at night and cause nearly 7 million bird collisions annually. A simple solution to reduce bird fatalities is by switching to flashing lights.

But what can you do as an individual to make a difference near term? Plenty! Take Action to Help Bring Birds Back.

Learn more about each of the actions below at American Bird Conservancy American Bird Conservancy has been a 4-star rated charity by Charity Navigator for 10 yrs https://abcbirds.org.

Sea Bins – Another tool for cleaning trash from our lakes and oceans

Sea Bins – Another tool for cleaning trash from our lakes and oceans

People have designed several ingenious ways to capture trash that is in our waterways. Of course, preventing it from getting there in the first place would be the best option but failing that, we need effective ways to remove it. A post from the World Economic Forum highlights Sea Bins. Each bin can capture 90,000 plastic bags a year.

That is a lot of plastic out of our waterways but it still is only a dent in the approximately 8 million tons of plastic that ends up in the ocean yearly. The Seabin Project, maker of the Sea Bins, is a cleantech startup trying to help solve the global problem of ocean plastic pollution. Their Sea Bins act like floating trash cans, collecting garbage, oil, fuel, and detergents. The idea is to skim floating debris from harbours before it enters the ocean.

Learn more: http://ow.ly/cBY550Lp86w

Simple Ideas – Big Results

Simple Ideas – Big Results

Nets over drainage outlets in Australia prevent plastic waste from entering bodies of water. Although the mesh holes are too large to capture microplastics which are becoming a major problem, the nets capture all types of debris that would otherwise be difficult to clean up once loose in a body of water. It also captures both floating trash and items that would sink.

Other countries have used many other simple techniques to capture and remove trash including floating barriers and autonomous drones that scoop up debris into a large sack.

While none of these ideas remove 100% of debris, they each make a significant dent in keeping our waterways clean.

Nets over drainage outlets in Australia prevent plastic waste from entering bodies of water.
Simple Steps to Save our Feathered Friends

Simple Steps to Save our Feathered Friends

1 in 8 bird species face extinction due to habitat loss. You can help protect them simply by hanging or giving birdhouses.

Photo by Jongsun Lee on Unsplash

How big is the problem? In just 50 years, there are 2.9 billion fewer birds! Loss of habitats can be from human land development or from natural causes such as the many hurricanes and fires over the last few years that have swept through areas and removed available shelter and food sources.

Consider donating bird houses or roosting pockets to local wildlife refuges or hang some to attract birds to your own yard.

Other powerful ways to encourage birds to thrive – avoid pesticides. Pesticides harm birds in many ways including direct contract and through contaminated food sources. Reduction of insect life through pesticides also reduces their numbers as an available food source.

Avoid single use plastics and increase recycling. Many bird species have been found to eat plastic and other trash, mistaking it for food. Birds, fish and other wildlife can become entangled on plastic bags, can loops and other plastic waste. Microplastics or plastic bits have been found everywhere – in our oceans, in animals, and in humans. Reducing plastic use helps all of us.

Photo by David Clode on Unsplash

Use your computer to make a small change today for free! For a short time, the GreaterGood Rainforest site will fund the equivalent of 21.7 square feet of protected habitat for each user who watches a short video to learn more about the issue. Click on the link above.

Free the Ocean LogoFree the Ocean is another website that supports plastic removal. Answer the daily trivia question and you’ll help remove one piece of plastic from the ocean. Help make an impact today.

Small steps have big payoffs in protecting wildlife. Take some today.

Only 9% of Plastic is Recycled

Only 9% of Plastic is Recycled

With statistics showing only 9% of plastic is recycled, more needs to be done. Recycling is an ideal method of keeping plastics out of landfills and eleswhere in the environment, but many other options are equally beneficial methods of reducing the amount of plastics in landfill or in the ocean.

The variety of plastic types includes a complex array of items that can and cannot be recycled, leaving the consumer the job of determining which to trash and which to recycle. Further complicating things is that some parts of a package may be recyclable while other parts are not. For example, often plastic bottles can be recycled, but their caps cannot. Including non-recyclable items can damage recycling equipment and increase the cost by requiring careful sorting. Many plastic containers contain food, liquids, or other contents that should be cleaned prior to recycling. Even labels can gum up recycling equipment. All of these factors increase the cost and effort required.

reusable water bottle
Photo by Kate Trifo on Unsplash

Reducing our reliance on single-use, disposable packaging can make an equal or larger impact than recycling. Multi-pack and bulk items can provide a better ratio of packaging to products and many companies are making efforts to reduce excess packaging. Other companies are testing alternatives to plastic as packaging materials, including plant-based materials that decompose more easily.

Choosing products packaged in glass or metal are another simple option. Glass and metal are much more efficiently recycled than plastics. Additionally, glass and metal containers can easily be cleaned, reused, and repurposed. Choosing a reusable water bottle over disposable plastic bottles can be a simple act, significantly reduce one of the biggest sources of plastic waste, and be a healthier choice by avoiding exposure to chemicals from cheap plastic bottles that can leach into the water.

Other simple choices include using real utensils rather than single serve plastic ones, grouping shipments to reduce packing, using your own bags when shopping, or buying secondhand. Small changes do make an impact.

Photo by Antoine GIRET on Unsplash

Free The Ocean Of Plastic

Free The Ocean Of Plastic

An estimated 18 billion pounds of plastic enters the ocean each year.

Let’s do something about it.

The state of our ocean effects every single one of us, whether we live in Ohio or Japan. Be a part of changing these statistics and help remove plastics and keep it out. Find out how you can limit your plastic footprint HERE. Free the Ocean takes the advertising dollars generated by you visiting their site and directly pay their cause partner as grants to fund removing plastic.

Simple Things YOU Can Do To Keep Plastic Out Of The Ocean

1 million plastic bags are used PER MINUTE.

Let’s reduce these #’s. Bring your own reusable shopping and produce bags to markets (in many grocery stores this will also save you from having to purchase a bag).

Be a good recycler.

Only 9% of recyclable plastics actually get recycled. So look up what your local waste center accepts and keep that in mind when buying products and throwing things away.

Bar soap > soap in a plastic bottle.

A lot of these tend to smell better anyways.

Stay away from those plastic water bottles.

Seriously. Invest in a reusable bottle, like the Free the Ocean stainless steel bottle, which will not only benefit the ocean but is cheaper in the long run (and keeps your beverages hot or cold). Once you’ve bought a reusable bottle, check out the handy app called Tap that can show you where you’ll find the closest water oasis to fill up. www.findtap.com

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Bio-Fences are an innovative use of trash to help resolve the trash problem

Bio-Fences are an innovative use of trash to help resolve the trash problem

by BJ Moore

Imagine a line of trash trucks dumping their loads into the ocean, a truckload each minute. Hard to imagine, yes, but that is the amount of trash landing in the ocean day in, day out. Guateamala is using plastic bottles and nets to create bio-fences to stretch across rivers to capture trash floating on the surface of the water. These bio-fences have helped reduce the amount of trash in the sea by 60% in the areas where used. These inexpensive measures along with people picking up trash from beaches and recycling can make a difference.

Every bit of plastic we can keep out or remove from the ocean is important, but large scale work still needs to be done. Annually, 100,000 sea mammels and nearly one million birds die from eating or becoming entangled in plastic. Almost 2/3rds of the world’s fish have ingested plastic, causing harm to the fish and bringing plastic and its chemicals into our food chain.

Learn more about plastic waste: https://wef.ch/2qYKCbI