The Sins of Littering

By Mary O’KEEFE

I don’t know about you but it is getting more and more difficult for me to turn my brain off at night so I can sleep. So many thoughts swim through my mind and many of them are just random. One of those sleepless night thoughts recently had to do with litter.

When I was younger we lived near Westwood and would go there – a lot – for Mrs. Fields Cookies. As we would enjoy our cookie and walk around the Westwood Village there would be all kinds of activists and people with a specific topic they were certain we would want to be educated on. One group was there every weekend. They were a religious group, not really certain what religion exactly, but they forcefully would shove a pamphlet into the hands of passersby, regardless of how many cookies one may be holding. People would take these pamphlets and throw them away – some in a trashcan but many just threw them on the ground … littering. This was ironic since, according to this pamphlet, the number one sin was to “litter.”

My friend said that “sin” was listed because they didn’t want us to throw the pamphlet away and that made sense then. But now I think they may have been on to something. Whether it is the number one sin that can be committed by humans (I still do not agree with that) littering is really a huge deal and something good people … which is what this group was trying to get us all to be … should not do.

I also realized, as my sleepless night continued, that littering is something I have been thinking about since I was a child. I remember making my dad stop the car when a friend of his threw a bottle of pop [that’s Iowa speak for soda] out of the window as we were traveling down a country road. My dad stopped, I got out, grabbed the bottle and put it in the car’s “litter bag” that my mom made. My dad knew it was better just to give in to my litter obsession than to hear me lecture everyone on the evils of throwing garbage on the ground.

And now, living in California and having a family that has and continues to spend a lot of time in the ocean, especially my youngest child who is more mermaid than human, my anti-littering stance has taken on a whole new importance because no matter how far you are from the ocean, litter finds its way to the water.

The issue of trash in the ocean has become a significant concern in recent years. With staggering estimates that there are 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic debris in the ocean, the impact on marine life and coastal environments is undeniable, according to American Oceans’ “How Many Pounds of Trash in the Ocean.”

“In 2010, roughly 8 million metric tons of plastic entered the ocean, equivalent to the weight of nearly 90 aircraft carriers. This escalating presence of trash in the ocean not only threatens marine ecosystems but also affects human health and economies worldwide,” according to American Oceans. “Land-based sources of trash are responsible for approximately 80% of the waste found in the oceans.”

For some that one container they dumped into a parking lot during an impromptu car clean really isn’t littering. After all, there are people from the city who will clean the parking lot … they’ll get it.

I don’t know about you but my mom taught me to clean up after myself ­– and that is something we all have to learn. There are no “magic environmental fairies” that will make sure what you throw on the ground goes into the trash bin. It’s up to us.

This garbage affects marine species when they ingest or get entangled by plastic debris that causes injuries and death.

In 2010 a gray whale died after stranding on the shore of Washington State. The whale was found to have over 20 plastic bags, a golf ball and other trash in its stomach. A seal pup on Scotland shores was found dead; the cause appeared to be a small piece of plastic wrapper that was found in its intestines.

This plastic that ends up in the ocean breaks up into tiny bits called microplastics, which is ingested by fish … and we eat the fish.

Microplastics are not only affecting sea life but other animals – and humans.

According to World Wildlife Fund’s “Your Plastic Diet,” “On average people could be ingesting around five grams of plastic every week, which is equivalent to the weight of a credit card.”

The studies vary regarding how much microplastics humans are ingesting as well as what harm (if any) is being done to our health; however, for me eating plastic does not sound like it would be part of a healthy diet.

Synthetic plastic was pioneered by Leo Baekeland, a Belgian chemist, in 1907. He beat his Scottish rival, James Swinburne, to the patent office by one day, according to Science Museum.

Since then plastics have been used for everything, from toothbrushes to keyboards. So if you think that if we simply avoid eating fish we won’t have plastic in our diets, that’s not the way it works.

Scientists have found microplastics in honey and even beer. But the biggest source of microplastics humans consume comes from bottled water. Microplastics can also come from dust. So there is no escaping the plastic world we have embraced, but there is something we can do to help marine life that had no choice in the matter.

First: don’t litter. There is no reason to throw your trash on the ground, out the window or next to a garbage bin instead of inside the bin. And doing simple things, like purchasing a metal, glass or bamboo straw and using it when you go to restaurants, reducing the number of times you order take-out, buying bar soap instead of liquid soap, avoiding the purchase of single servings sizes of food and buying condiments stored in glass containers instead of plastic ones. We can reduce our plastic use but we still have to remember that what we throw on the ground will end up in the ocean eventually, so we must be aware of our actions.

And just another note: If you walk down Honolulu Avenue, or any city street to be honest, there is no doubt you will see lots of cigarette butts, which take up 10 years to decompose because of cellulose acetate. Cigarette butts are a serious threat to the environment, as they contain toxic substances like arsenic, which can contaminate soil and water according to environment.cenn.org.

Adopt the philosophy of hikers and campers: “pack it in/pack it out” and “leave no trace.”

According to NOAA, we should see cooler temperatures by Friday that will be in the upper to mid 70s for the high, with lows in the mid 50s. There may be some “light” winds in a couple of days. There is no rain in the near forecast.

“We are not seeing any indication of a major Santa Ana wind event for the next several days,” Ariel Cohen, meteorologist. However, he added that next week stronger winds are possible.