simplehiker

The Scottish news site scotsman.com reports that of 600 fulmars (a common UK sea bird) which washed up dead on shore 95% of them had ingested plastic with an average of 40 pieces per bird!

The article states that the birds often see the plastic floating in the sea and try and take a bite thinking it is a jelly fish. Some times I think we get caught up on big environmental issues and  forget about smaller common sense things such as picking up your trash and the overuse of plastic grocery bags. 

Plastic grocery bags are terrible for the environment for reasons stated above plus many others. They are rarely recycled due to the high cost and low yield of plastic from the very thing bags. From my readings it is common practice for the plastic bag recycling from grocery stores to be thrown directly in the dumpster, or if it actually gets back to the parent company it often shipped to a third world company where there is no law against incinerating there toxins in the air.

The best alternative is canvas reusable bags which can easily be made by a hiking guru, or picked up at most stores. You can often find a jackpot of these canvas bags at garage sale.  If you happen to forget your own bags, ask for paper! You can easily recycle these bag with your paper recycling. Also as odd as it sounds the pulp trees used to make paper are good for then environment. They are often grown in several groves, being harvested and replanted. They keep the land from being developed, help remove C02 and act as habitat.

Check out the article in the Scotsman
Study finds plastic in 95% of dead birds
and every hiker should have Leave No Trace bookmarked.
LNT.org

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