The Green Diaries

I only just heard about what is called "The Great Garbage Patch" this week. It's a massive floating dump in the Pacific made up of plastic that collects and malingers, growing daily and destroying sea life in its path. It's the size of 2 Texases (some say 2 continental North Americas) as of now (2008).  A heaving mass of junk stuck in the Pacific gyre, a system of currents that provide the right conditions to magnetise all of the plastic debris chucked into the Pacific from land and ships. So how is it I have only heard about it now? I keep up on environmental news, I always read the NYTimes science sections, National Geographic, eco blogs - the types of publications that should be covering this type of thing. After all, the great garbage patch is massive: physically, environmentally and symbolically. And scientists have been studying it for years, so why the lack of coverage, and action to get rid of it? Maybe because it's hidden - the parameters of the great gar...

After months of talking about it, and an official government stance in this year's budget that plastic shopping bags should be charged for, Marks & Spencer's has officially started charging 5p for every plastic shopping bag customers use.  It may be just one store for now, but it means a few million people a day will be deterred from getting a bag for a single sandwich or a soda, which happens all of the time. Prior to the charge coming into effect on May 6, every time I bought my lunch at an M&S it seemed like everyone is front of me was getting a plastic bag for the tiniest of purchases.  I support a full ban on plastic shopping bags altogether, until they make them non petroleum based and completely bio-degradable. They aren't necessary and they leave a terrible legacy. 13 billion a year used in the UK alone, just sitting in landfill for the next thousand years. And if they aren't around people will be forced to use their owns bags, boxes, baskets and carts ...