Stewardship Tip Mar 3rd, 2009 – Plastic and Foam
Plastic bags and foam containers are convenient to use. They do, however, threaten our fisheries. Here are two tips to help you reduce the number of these products that you use.
Plastic Bags: Keep a set of reusable, cloth bags in your car. When you go to the supermarket, use reusable bags in place of disposables. Many markets sell reusable bags for a nominal price.
Foam containers: Keep a selection of reusable food containers, with lids, in you car (along with your reusable bags). When you have leftovers at a restaurant, take them home in the reusable container rather than the standard foam container that most restaurants offer.
Why it is important to the fish: Plastic bags can, and should, be recycled. However, In 2006, the EPA estimated that only 6% of plastic bags are. Foam containers, more accurately, expanded polystyrene (EPS), can be recycled as well. However, many curbside and local recyclers do not accept it. Plastic bags and EPS are not cradle to cradle products; they cannot be recycled over and over. Plastic bags are usually recycled into construction materials. EPS is usually recycled into packing material. Neither product is biodegradable.
Plastic bags and EPS containers are light in weight and can be easily blown from trash or recycling containers. They tend to break into smaller pieces and are often ingested by wildlife and fish. Both products will find their level; many end up in our watersheds. Indeed, plastics have accumulated in the ocean’s gyres; in the North Pacific Gyre, the Algalita Marine Research Foundation has documented that plastic debris outnumbers zooplankton by a ratio of 6 to 1.
Plastic bags and EPS containers have a useful life that is measured in minutes. Reusable bags and food containers are useful for many years. By switching to reusables, we keep debris out of our landfills, our watersheds, and, ultimately, our fish.
This week’s sponsor-partner: Foodsource
100% biodegradable, FoodSource lures are the only molded fishing lures made entirely of ingredients that fish can and want to eat. They are not plastic, so FoodSource lures do not pollute the environment. FoodSource offers baits for bass, panfish, catfish, saltwater species and pretty much anything else that swims.
Their partnership makes this week’s “Stewardship Tip” possible.
Rising demand for our weekly Stewardship Tip and a new partnership with Fly Cast America now makes the Stewardship Tip available in Spanish. Ahora, reciba el Stewardship Tip en español. Gentileza de Fly Cast America.
To read the weekly Stewardship Tip in Spanish, click here Simplemente haga click aquí si desea recibir el Stewardship tip en Español.
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