A thoughtless shopper

Saw a frightening piece of research the other day about plastic waste that is contaminating our oceans and other waterways.  Over 5 trillion pieces of plastic are circulating in our oceans, not to mentions immeasurable amounts of micro-fibres being absorbed by sea life.  Clean up Australia Day each year draws attention to the trash we leave behind in our creeks, rivers and along our highways.  And the state of the ocean where our Olympians will compete in sailing and canoeing at Rio is another wake up call.

Cleaning up Olympic venue at Rio

And of course we can't blame this on some convenient natural phenomenon like climate change. This is, purely and simply, uncaring human activity.

Now, I have five of those green re-usable shopping bags at home or in the car.  Yet I have to confess, out of laziness or thoughtlessness, I rarely use them.  So much easier to wander around hands-free and grab the free single-use plastic bags at the checkout. They end up in landfill, I guess, where maybe they help contaminate underground water?

Plastic packaging is another part of the problem about which we as individuals seem to be able to do less.  Glass bottles that can be recycled are pretty rare.  And just about every food item comes pre-packed in plastic of one sort or another.  Hopefully the scientists and manufacturers are seriously looking to bio-degradable materials these days?

This problem of plastic contamination is one we CAN solve, since it is purely a human activity.  But that depends on each person doing their bit. So I best shake the dust off my green re-usable and start toting them with me as I go grocery shopping.