Sometimes marine animals and seabirds mistake plastic floating in the water for food.  The U.K.’s Marine Conservation Society reports that more than a million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles die globally each year from eating or getting tangled up in plastics.  Close to home, a year-long study of Auckland’s stormwater discharges found that each day 28,000 pieces of litter, much of it plastic, ended up in the Waitematā Harbour. 

Lost in the vortex
Ever wonder where that plastic bag that flew away when you opened the car door went?  Or what happened to that plastic drink bottle you saw rolling down the street that landed in the storm drain?  A Greenpeace report in 2006, “Plastic Debris in the World’s Oceans”, may tell you the answer to some of those questions and it isn’t good news.

The report included information on an area in the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and California that’s a swirling vortex of rubbish.  In a strange natural phenomenon some of the rubbish that ends up in the ocean makes its way to this oceanic rubbish heap—that’s over 2.5 times the size of New Zealand--where researchers found everything from jandals to plastic nappies and fishing line. 

Ocean currents have carried some of the plastic items found in the vortex for thousands of kilometres.  The report states that 80 per cent of the debris found in the area initially came from land. 

To learn more about the report visit:
http://oceans.greenpeace.org/en/documents-reports/plastic_ocean_report

In the bag
Did you know that New Zealanders use over 22 million plastic bags each week?  How many plastic bags do you think you and your family get each week?  How could you reduce the number of plastic bags you use? 

Many people in New Zealand are working to reduce the number of plastic bags we consume.  For example, Collingwood became the first New Zealand town to become plastic shopping bag free in August 2006.  And a group of committed teens in Nelson have joined forces to reduce the number of plastic bags used in their community by 20 per cent. Known as the Green Teens, the group works under the premise that “plastic isn’t so fantastic” and has launched a public awareness campaign to encourage people in the community to shop with reusable bags.  

Across the Pacific people are working to reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in our oceans.  Vanuatu, Samoa, French Polynesia, Tuvalu and Papua New Guinea are all taking steps to ban or reduce light-weight single-use plastic bags from their countries.

Take the rubbish check-up at www.reducerubbish.govt.nz/problem/checkup-sheet.html to find out ways you can reduce the amount of rubbish you generate in your home. 

Estimate how many new plastic shopping bags you use in your household every week. Brainstorm on ways you can reduce that number (e.g. take re-useable bags to the store, say no to plastic bags at the check-out counter unless you really need it).  Develop a strategy for implementing your ideas.  Track your before and after uses.

Be part of the solution and get involved with beach clean ups and restoration projects in your area.  Photo courtesy Barbara Curtis, Department of Conservation

A deadly imitation
Whales and other marine life often mistake plastic bags for jellyfish.  Can you think of reasons why this might be?   The ocean current can cause bags to open and close in a way that looks like jellyfish swimming.  Can you think of other plastic items that might look like food to marine animals? 

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