Beach Trading Blog

We know that most of our customers here at Beach Trading are ocean lovers who care about our environment, but many people don’t know that there is a HUGE area of the Pacific Ocean filled with plastic debris. It’s called the Pacific Garbage Patch and is now the size of TEXAS, (and growing).

Out in the absolute middle of the Pacific Ocean you won’t find pristine, clear water… what you will find is garbage, mostly made up of plastic, (since it doesn’t biodegrade). The currents of the Pacific Ocean create what is called a ‘gyre’. The currents form a kind of giant toilet bowl, swirling around in a circle sucking in and collecting all the garbage and debris we humans put into the ocean, (and eventually our own bodies).

According to Webster’s a gyre is:
A spiral; a vortex.
• Geography a circular pattern of currents in an ocean basin : the central North Pacific gyre.

Water samples taken from the gyre show that there is over 7x more plastic than plankton, (yes the stuff that fish eat and then we eat)!!!

Toxins derived from plastics are showing up in our bloodstreams and breast milk… we’ not only polluting and killing our environment with plastics, we’re polluting and killing ourselves with them- CRAZY!!

Who’s idea was it to take something made to last forever and use it for packaging and carrying disposable and single-use items???

What can you do? Simple: reduce, reuse and recycle, (although our recycling capabilities for this stuff are pretty much maxed out so really reduce and reuse are the keys).

Here are a few simple things you can do and if everybody did them they could make a HUGE difference:

1. Take cloth bags to the market, (or carry the 2 items you just bought sans bag – c’mon you can make it!).
2. Don’t accept the straws most restaurants automatically bring you when you order a drink.
3. Take your tupperware for take-out. The clerk will look at you funny at first but after a couple of times it’s no big deal, (plus you usually get bigger portions for no additional cost!).
4. Don’t get a lid on your drinks if you don’t need one. How many times have you been at Starbucks and watched someone walk up to the condiments, take of their lid, throw it in the trash and put their cream and sugar in their coffee!
5. Ask your waiter for aluminum foil to take home your leftovers.
6. Wear one of our rash guard shirts so you’ll use less sunscreen and the plastic bottles it comes in.

Another thing you can do is SPREAD THE WORD! Most people don’t know that we’re poisoning ourselves and our environment with plastic, so let them know!

Want to learn more? Watch and learn…

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/470