Introduction to Paper Towels

In my research this week, I began exploring the field area of paper towel usage and wastage.  Weeks back, actually, before being introduced to the Genius Project, I watched a TED talk and the presenter, Joe Smith, talked about how much people waste paper towels and mainly due to the fact that they use way more paper towels than they need. He demonstrated a simple technique of how people can use less paper towels and get their hands fully dried. The technique is called “Shake and Fold” and it only includes the usage of one single paper towel. The individual has to shake his/her hands twelve times before wiping his/her hands with a single paper towel. I think this is a very brilliant method and a good way of trying to better the world because as I have learned through my research this week, 13 billion pounds of paper towels are used in the U.S every year. This is a very large number compared to how ridiculously light one sheet of paper towel is.  Smith also suggested that if all Americans used one less paper towel a day, 571, 230,000 pounds of paper would be spared. My research has also informed me that 17 trees and 20,000 gallons of water are used to make one ton of paper towels. Thus, it is necessary that we use less paper towels because  our environment is under attack when we waste paper towels.  Next week, I hope to go deeper into details of how, where and who paper towels wastage affects aside from our trees and water.
 

Why People Litter Without Being Cognizant of Their Actions.

My research this week was focused on finalizing this part of my project that is focused plastic bottle pollution. In all the research I have done pertaining plastic bottle pollution, the ocean was affected the most out of anything.  In the beginning of this week, I was in the search to find out why people pollute. I interviewed my cousin, who is a freshman in high school, my mother and my friend and asked them why they think people pollute the environment and their answers were: “People are naturally lazy and we have this attitude where we don’t think beyond our choices to see how we affect others and everything around us, “For many people, it’s easier to throw something on the floor than rightfully place it in a garbage can because firstly, we undermine what problems the trash might bring up and secondly, people and be every lazy and ignorant to this world” and “I sometimes pollute the environment because I see other dirt on the floor so what difference will it make if I throw my water bottle on the ground. There is dirt everywhere so my bottle won’t make much of a difference”. My reasoning based on their answers is that the environment, including the sea, is being destroyed partly because many of us can’t be bothered to do the right thing and place trash where it should go. How hard is it to do the right thing? The more I pondered about this question, I realized that this question is meant for another research that isn’t in much correlation to my project so I went back on track.  TED is the place to be when it comes to finding the answers to many question concerning plastic pollution so I visited the website and found multiple TED talks about plastic in the ocean. Co-founder of the website and movement Plastic Pollution Coalition (Plasticpollutioncoaltion.org), Dianna Cohen, presented what she has discovered about plastic in the oceans and what she thinks we can do to prevent more plastic from ending up in the oceans. Sylvia Earle is another speaker that I found who was concerned with the ocean and her presentation was focused on how the oceans and it’s marine life is being affected by the imprudent decisions people are making. The end of her presentation showed a lot of marine life and showed that if we continue doing bad things that affect the ocean, then we will be affected in the long run. It was an inspiring talk and I think seeing all the marine life can motivate people to think more about protecting our oceans.

http://www.ted.com/talks/sylvia_earle_s_ted_prize_wish_to_protect_our_oceans http://www.ted.com/talks/dianna_cohen_tough_truths_about_plastic_pollution

Let the Experts Talk and What are the Physiological Issues?

              At the beginning of this week, first I wanted to learn what experts are saying about plastic pollution. I wanted to know what environmental scientists and such people had to say about the ocean and all the plastic in it. After some internet research (EasyBib helped), I found an interview on William J. Cooper, a professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering, and director of the Urban Water Research Center at the University of California, Irvine. Copper spoke about human behavior towards oceans and he stated, “‘The plastics in our oceans continue to build up and it is estimated that millions of seabirds, fish, sea turtles, and marine mammals die each year.  A very subtle point is that when people go to the beach, or fly over the oceans, they see oceans that appear peaceful and infinite.  Many people feel disconnected from the oceans, and feel that changes in their own behavior would not significantly result in a difference in the oceanic environment.  That is false. With 6.7 billion people, even one act per day per person to save the oceans could have a dramatic and lasting effect!’”  Copper believes humans have an impact on the oceans and that they can make an impacting by prudent in their actions.

                This led me to my next question and that was how do people determine if they will take action and in a case as big as plastic pollution. Many people are not well educated on the causes and effect additional to the consequences of improperly disposed plastic. If they are well informed, will that change their habits? Experts say that rising levels of plastics pollution are killing thousands of seabirds each year. Studies on 600 gull-like birds washed up on North Sea beaches revealed 95 per cent had plastic litter in their stomachs. If I inform people on these saddening facts, will their emotions be affected enough for them to change for the best or will they still remain as they were before and care less? Copper also stated, “‘I believe the most important of all potential solutions is the education of everyone!  If one wants to think of this as a business proposition, think return on investment (ROI), clearly reaching out to young students is at the top of the list. Education, outreach, mentoring, can also involve a cascading of educational levels starting with lifelong learners mentoring college and university students, and those students teaching younger students, and younger students teaching yet younger students, this would result in a downward age stair step amplification of this investment.’” Copper supports my argument because just as he does, I side with the fact that people can change their messy habits if well informed about plastic pollution.  Educating the young ones will go far on a long run because as we know that plastic takes more than 500 years to biodegrade, we know that the plastic in the ocean now has a long way to go so the best thing to do is to prevent more plastic from entering the ocean. The younger ones need to learn this because they will be here longer than the rest of us.

               

Plastic Pollution in the World's Oceans: Effects and Dangers to the Environment, Man and Marine Animals.

http://www.plasticoceans.net/. This website, Plastic Oceans, advocates the seriousness of plastic in our oceans and its harmful effects. Plastic pollution poses as a danger even to our economy. It costs the state of California an estimated $72 million per year to collect and dispose of one-time use disposable cups and bags. In addition, it costs California an estimated $52.2 million per year to attempt to keep our beaches clean. In total, the current annual costs to public agencies for litter prevention, cleanup, and disposal is $375.2 million. 1 million plastic cups are used just on airline flights in the US every 6 hours.  2 million plastic beverage bottles are used in the US every 5 minutes. Simple proper recycling can lower the percentage of plastic getting into the oceans and causing harmful effects.

Most of the plastic that invades our oceans isn't biodegradable so this means that once it arrives, the majority of plastic pollution will affect the marine ecosystem for decades or even centuries. Floating plastic particles look like food to many marine species – including the fish that we eat. Animals can suffocate on plastic pollution, such as plastic bags and six pack holders, which can block air passageways and/or inhibit normal growth patterns. A common example includes sea turtles who try and ingest plastic bags, mistaking them for jellyfish (their favorite food). Often the plastic bag is too large for the animal to digest and the turtle will suffocate. Compounds found in some plastics have been linked to cancer and hormone disruption.

           Plastic pollution is a symbol of our global over-consumption crisis. We must shift our societies away from disposable habits that poison our oceans and land by eliminating our consumption of throwaway plastics, and embracing a culture of sustainability. The most effective way to stop plastic pollution in our oceans is to make sure it never reaches the water in the first place. Despite the fact that only 0.05% of plastic pieces from surface waters are pellets, they comprise about 70% of the plastic eaten by seabirds. These small plastic particles have been found in the stomachs of 63 of the world's approximately 250 species of seabirds. Ocean pollution affects at least 267 species worldwide, including 86% of sea turtle species, 44% of all seabird species, and 43% of marine mammal species.

 

Here is a gorgeous film by Disney displaying the true beauty of the oceans and its animals.

Plastic Bottle Pollution in the Oceans, Lakes and Rivers

Week One: Plastic Bottles

To commerce my project, I have come up with a list of topics that I will be particularly focusing on and the list goes as: plastic bottles in the ocean, paper towels usage and last but not least, electricity wastage. These are the first three topics I have chosen and I plan to add at least two more topics to the list as I move on deeper into my research. This week, I was focused on plastic bottles. My first step was finding a way to not only research about what plastic bottles are doing to different bodies of water all over the world, but also how to get my fellow peers involved in my project. I want to set up an experiment in my school where I will hang up posters advising students to properly dispose all bottles that they use. This experiment will test how concerned humans are about their environment and if they are willing to improve it. The posters will as well provide students information on how plastic bottles among other materials are polluting our water.

From research gathered from different websites on the internet, I have learned that just one out of five water bottles is put in a recycle bin. This fact makes me feel depressed because how is it difficult for a person to walk/drive/ride to a store and buy a product containing a plastic bottle but finds it tough to walk for about five seconds to dispose the plastic bottle? This shames the human race and shows how careless and ignorant we are towards the world we live in. Another piece of information learned from my research is that plastic takes about 700 years to decompose. I recently watched a Brita (water filter company) commercial and the narrator stated that America uses enough water bottles to go around the world 230 times. Therefore, if it takes plastic 700 years to decompose but there is enough plastic to go around the world 230 times, then that means it would take more than billions of years for the world to be cleansed of plastic. Moreover, every day people are throwing more and more plastic to the environment so it is impossible to imagine when our oceans will be clean of plastic pollution. The average American consumes 167 bottles of water a year but if he/she is only putting one out of five of the bottles in the garbage, then that means the average American puts 33 plastic bottles in the garbage bin yearly. Since there are approximately 314 million people living in America, after computing the math to find how many plastic bottles America uses yearly, the answer that I found was nearly 52 billion which is a close approximation to the number 50 billion that many websites revealed to be the actual approximated number. With 50 billion plastic bottles being used yearly, 38 billion plastic bottles are wasted each year in America. These bottles normally end up on the streets and sidewalks and then swept by rain, wind and people into the ocean, beaches, rivers and lakes.  After plastics enter the marine environment, they slowly break down into smaller pieces that marine life can mistake for food, sometimes with fatal results. Plastic pollution in our oceans and seas kills 1.5 million marine animals each year. 

I have been creating posters for plastic bottle recycling and I will be putting up these posters all over the school eventually. I plan for the plastic bottle project to run from now until May and this will be when I will gather up all the data and formulate a conclusion if raising awareness of the dangers of not recycling plastic bottles will or will not raise the number of plastic bottles being recycled.

On a side not, my concern with plastic bottles polluting the earth began when I was a young kid. Whenever I would walk to the market place, I would recognize large amounts of plastic bottles lying around on the road especially flooding the market place area. Some plastic bottles were clammed up together and they were causing other wastes on the ground to build up and make an awful, smelly scene. I loathed walking by all the plastic bottles especially since I knew that they might be germinating the food being sold in the market place. For this reason, I am ambitious to carry out this first part of my project and cannot wait to see the result. I am hoping for the best.