Em I the only one bothered by this..?

[Morbid Angel]

Currently on vocation in Hawaii, and this is what I keep finding on any beach I go to. I am not really a pollution advocate but, this is insane, there is just so much plastic in the water its brutal. Lots of fragments, white, red, blue, etc, some are really small...

[jasonhuang1115]

man...I am saddened seeing this....

[^Lele^]

Horrible, makes me very angry.
I guess we can assume it doesn't exist so long as the currents sweep the thrash on other shores than our own.
It'll bite us harder than we'll be able to recover from.

[glorybound]

Yes, very sad. Some unregulated factory probably. Anyway, enjoy the VACA.

[Morbid Angel]

Yeah I watched documentaries how oceans are becoming a plastic soup, where they dragged a net over the ocean surface for some kilometers and found so many plastic pieces it was disturbing. But you know how documentaries are they some times tend to sway the facts a bit. But seeing this first hand, I live in Vancouver, its the same there. Even the lake I live by has various plastic debris on the shore...

[Ihno]

Its everywehre. I'm from a german island and its the same there.
And this is olny the visible polution.
You can't see the chemicals, nuclear waste, antibiotics and so on and so on.
I for myself dont eat fish anymore. Also because its dying out pretty quickly.
The Human is a natural disaster...

[Franx]

Not to worry, in a couple hundred million years, it will all be degraded...

[Morbid Angel]

Ihno its a valid point. They tested fish from coast of Seattle and found it had more then 90 drugs in it, like prescription drugs, even cocaine...

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle...nd-its-salmon/

[rivoli]

you're definitely not the only one to be bothered or concerned, fortunately there are a growing number of people who are. and yes, you don't need to be an activist to see how wrong it is.

[super gnu]

you are not the only one.

http://www.chrisjordan.com/gallery/m...000668%2016x21

[OPEN_RANGE]

One of the best things you can do is to limit your personal buying of plastic as much as you can and diligently send to recycle whatever plastic can be recycled inyiur area. Where I am we can only recycle plastics types 1 and 2. Buy stuff in cans first, then glass, plastic last. Do not buy plastic one use water bottles.

Also plastic grocery bags are very insidious they catch the wind and blow away (into the ocean). They are being banned in some municipalities. Use reusable shopping bags. European countries seem ahead of the USA on this and other environmental,fronts. Try to vote with your wallet and personal usage.

there are some horrifying documentaries if you want to get more info. Search for ? bag it?? movie and also a movie about albatrosses on an island. The plastic they eat and then feed to the hatchlings, insanely disturbing.

[rivoli]

European countries seem ahead of the USA on this and other environmental,fronts.

yep, the eu is gradually curbing the number of plastic bags used by people in member states. and it seems to be tackling the problem aggressively in recent years.
in italy and france, for example, plastic bags have already been banned and it's mandatory for supermarkets or stores in general to only use biodegradable ones.
of course your approach is the most sensible one, small changes in one's habit can have quite an impact.

[^Lele^]

Both are needed: strong regulatory change has to take place too, and people at large will have to want to enact it.
It also cannot be a case of legislation only, as for the width and breadth of communications today, the NIMBY attitude still goes strong across a number of cultures, and that's where the individual's choices, and the Politics (capital P. nothing to do with parties) one enacts with friends, can make a big difference (f.e. showing mates it is indeed possible, and without added stress or -OMG!- suffering).
In other words, law and culture have to both change, imo.

[OPEN_RANGE]

Plastic bags have been banned here in Telluride, CO and in many other western ski resorts and also other communities in California.

From Telluride mountain film. I know the film makers:
http://www.bagitmovie.com/

another movie about this that showed at Telluride Mountain Film last year. Telluride based camera crew. warning the albatross stuff is pretty disturbing:
https://vimeo.com/25563376

[Morbid Angel]

Yeah its all valid points. But USA is still number one or at the top of the list for pollution in the world, while not having largest population in the world. While I use glass and reusable bags for containers, then I see a family show up at the beach with McDonald's plastic packaging etc. The issue is that as a consumer only a small number of people will do reusable, majority of people do not know or care. Fundamentally the plastic production has to end at the factory. As long as the single use plastic is being made and available to consumer, people will use it.