Litter!!!!!!!!!

Last week we talked about litter and its dangers to wildlife.  This week we documented and collected litter in the Eastman Conservation Area behind the school. 

First, this is what we learned about the dangers that litter poses to wildlife:

• Litter can entangle animals:  Plastics, nets, fishing line, tangled ropes, plastic rings that hold groups of beverage cans together are big problems.  Beaks, legs, wings, flippers, tails can be so entangled that the animal cannot move or eat normally and its life is in danger.

• Litter can be ingested:  The animal's digestive tract can be blocked, leading to starvation.  Or chemicals from the litter, such as plastics, are absorbed with bad health effects.  Plastic bags and balloons are a real problem for sea turtles that mistake this floating litter for the jellyfish that they eat.  Waterbirds often ingest smaller bits of litter that block their intestines.  Shiny metal opening tabs for beverage cans, and shiny bottle tops can be eaten. More than 180 species of animals have been documented to ingest plastic litter.

• Half-open cans and broken glass can cut animals.
• Bottles with narrow necks can trap animals who climb inside for food remains and cannot climb up the slippery bottle neck.
• Plastic yogurt containers with a bottom wider than the neck can trap animals such as skunks who get their heads inside to lick the yogurt and then cannot successfully remove their heads.

Plastic litter is a huge, huge problem in our oceans.  It makes up 60-80% of marine debris.  There are floating accumulations of plastic twice the size of Texas!

What you can do:

• Reduce your use of plastics, especially single-use disposable plastics.
• Recycle and Reuse whenever you can.
• Dispose of trash carefully.  Make sure that it cannot become windblown, or carried off by animals.
• Don't release balloons, please!!!  They float away, and can (and do!) land in the ocean.
• Educate others about the dangers of litter.

So this week we put on gloves, and carried a large garbage bag, rakes and a long-handled net to clean up litter on the land and in the water at Eastman.  We carried a clipboard to make a list of what we collected just on this 1/3 mile walk:
8 beverage cans
15 beverage bottles
11 candy wrappers
10 plastic bags
9 cardboard boxes
35 "other" - included such things as a large SpongeBob balloon, beach towel, golf ball, tennis ball, cigarettes, lots of other plastics. 

Here are a few pictures...     (Sorry!  camera problem, so bad exposure, focus)