Global Baggage
I found this great post from Discover Magazine yesterday about a kid who found plastic-eating bacteria (yum) and thought it should be shared. Of course, the problem isn’t fully solved but it’s definitely a start. What a great idea, to utilize an existing organism to solve the plastic bag pollution of the world. Ever hear of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? It’s bigger than the size of Texas. Birds, apparently, are known to feed their young plastic as food and of course, it results in their death. It’s filled with plastic bags, ship generated pollutants, and other fantastic amounts of trash. The plastic is the kicker though….
On Nantucket, the local Stop & Stop (our grocery store here, or one of a few at least) does not supply plastic bags. In fact, I can’t think of anything besides take-out in restaurants that provide plastic bags to clients. Most of the local shops use paper bags as well. Sure, plastic can come in handy when covering your head from the rain, or wrapping up stinky sneakers, or even collecting trash, but overall, the use of plastic on the island is a lot slimmer than I’ve ever seen off island.
