I just came across the article by Heike Vesper and am really disgusted. A whale has been found dead in a national park (!) With 6kg plastic (including 115 plastic cups, 25 plastic bags, a nylon sack and two flip-flops) in the stomach !!!
It’s not a novelty, but it makes you sad again and again, as people manage to “beat” such huge wonderful and intelligent animals with plastic ….
Heike Vesper appeals to the industry, because beach cleaning and garbage fishing would not be enough. If you look at this graph and realize that it is actually purging 7 million tons of plastic waste into the oceans EVERY year, you should think again about your own habits!
How can you approach it yourself?
Even at home, you can already change quite a bit, for example:
Cosmetics:
According to the NDR (Link here) one can pay attention to these ingredients:
- Acrylate Copolymer (AC)
- Acrylate Crosspolymer (ACS)
- Dimethiconol
- Methicone
- Polyamide (PA, Nylon)
- Polyacrylate (PA)
- Polymethylmetacrylate (PMMA)
- Polyquaternium (PQ)
- Polyethylene (PE)
- Polyethyleneglycol (PEG)
- Polyethyleneterephtalate (PET)
- Polypropylene (PP)
- Polypropyleneglycol (PPG)
- Polystyrene (PS)
- Polyurethane (PUR)
- Siloxane
There are also these apps: CodeCheck (has good reviews, but you can not seem to download in any country) and Beat the Microbead (I had tried that before, but does not work with many German products)
I will check some apps in the next time and inform you about the result.
Washing / wastewater
Not only detergents but above all the popular plastic fibers bring plastic into the oceans.
In another post I wrote about the Guppyfriend, a pragmatic solution to filter the plastic particles during washing. Look here.
Do not empty the lint in the drain but in the garbage (contains above mentioned particles)
Fishing
Of course you should pay attention to responsible fishing when shopping here. A first indication is of course the MSC seal. If you want to take a closer look, you can check the “WWF shopping guide fish & seafood“.
