#Recycled plastic netting

[super-fast-safety-nets]

Eco-Friendly Apartment Balcony Netting Options

With growing awareness about environmental sustainability, more people are looking for eco-friendly solutions for their homes, including balcony netting. Super Fast Safety Nets Bangalore offers a range of eco-friendly bird netting options that are not only effective but also environmentally responsible. Here’s a comprehensive guide to eco-friendly apartment balcony netting options.

Why Choose Eco-Friendly Balcony Netting?

Environmental Protection:

Reduces the impact on the environment by using sustainable materials.

Non-Toxic Materials:

Ensures the safety of birds and other wildlife by avoiding harmful chemicals and materials.

Durable and Long-Lasting:

Eco-friendly netting options are designed to be durable and withstand weather conditions, reducing the need for frequent replacements.

Aesthetic Appeal:

Provides a clean and unobtrusive look to your balcony while keeping it bird-free.

Eco-Friendly Netting Materials

Biodegradable Netting:

Made from natural fibers that break down over time, reducing landfill waste.

Recycled Plastic Netting:

Made from recycled plastic materials, reducing plastic waste and conserving resources.

UV-Resistant Polyethylene:

A long-lasting and recyclable material that is resistant to UV rays and weather conditions.

Cotton or Jute Netting:

Natural fibers that are biodegradable and have minimal environmental impact.

Benefits of Eco-Friendly Balcony Netting

Sustainability:

Contributes to a sustainable lifestyle by using environmentally friendly materials.

Wildlife Protection:

Non-toxic materials ensure the safety of birds and other animals that might come into contact with the netting.

Cost-Effective:

Durable and long-lasting materials reduce the need for frequent replacements, saving money in the long run.

Aesthetic Enhancement:

Blends well with the natural environment, enhancing the overall look of your balcony.

Choosing the Right Eco-Friendly Netting

Assess Your Needs:

Determine the primary purpose of the netting (e.g., bird protection, safety, privacy) to choose the most suitable material.

Measure Accurately:

Measure the dimensions of your balcony to ensure you purchase the correct amount of netting.

Consider the Environment:

Choose materials that are suitable for your local climate and environmental conditions.

Consult Experts:

Seek advice from professionals at Super Fast Safety Nets Bangalore to find the best eco-friendly netting options for your needs.

Installation Tips for Eco-Friendly Netting

Use Eco-Friendly Fasteners:

Choose biodegradable or recycled fasteners to complement the eco-friendly netting.

Ensure Tight Installation:

Keep the netting tight to prevent sagging and potential gaps where birds could enter.

Regular Maintenance:

Inspect and maintain the netting regularly to ensure it remains secure and effective.

Professional Installation:

Consider hiring professionals from Super Fast Safety Nets Bangalore for a precise and secure installation.

Why Choose Super Fast Safety Nets Bangalore?

Expert Installation:

Our experienced technicians ensure precise and secure installation tailored to your specific needs.

Quality Materials:

We use durable, high-quality, eco-friendly netting designed to provide long-lasting protection.

Custom Solutions:

We offer customized solutions based on your unique requirements.

Reliable Service:

Our team provides efficient and reliable service, ensuring your complete satisfaction.

Conclusion

Eco-friendly balcony netting is a practical and responsible choice for keeping your balcony bird-free while protecting the environment. Super Fast Safety Nets Bangalore offers a variety of eco-friendly netting options and professional installation services to meet your needs.

Contact Super Fast Safety Nets Bangalore for expert advice and high-quality eco-friendly bird netting solutions tailored to your needs!

[reasonsforhope]

"For generations, the people of Erakor village in the Pacific nation of Vanuatu would pass their time swimming in the local lagoon. Ken Andrew, a local chief, remembers diving in its depths when he was a child, chasing the fish that spawned in its turquoise waters.

That was decades ago. Now 52, Andrew has noticed a more pernicious entity invading the lagoon: plastic.

“The plastic would form a small island inside the lagoon, it was so thick,” Andrew says. “We used fishing nets to pull some of the trash out, but we didn’t know how to get rid of it all. We couldn’t conquer it, there was just too much.”

While residents were struggling to empty Vanuatu’s waters of plastic, the country’s politicians were considering another solution. Could they stop the waste directly at the source?

Small island nations like Vanuatu face a series of unique challenges when it comes to plastic pollution. Many rely on imported goods to sustain their populations, and receive tonnes of plastic packaging every day as a result. Ocean currents pull plastic waste from around the world into Pacific waters, which eventually end up on the shores of its islands.

Few Pacific island governments have adequate recycling or waste management facilities on their narrow strips of land, so rubbish is often burned or left to wash up in rivers or lagoons like the one in Erakor. It is estimated that Pacific countries generate 1kg of waste per person a day, 40% higher than the global average.

In an attempt to drastically limit the amount of waste generated in Vanuatu, in 2018 the government became one of the first in the world to outlaw the sale and distribution of certain single-use plastics – including a world-first ban on plastic straws.

In the six years since, the results have been impressive. Thin, plastic shopping bags are hardly ever seen, with most shoppers carrying reusable bags at their local market or grocery store. At festivals and outdoor events, food is more often served wrapped in banana leaves instead of polystyrene takeaway boxes. Now-banned items used to make up 35% of Vanuatu’s waste, but now make up less than 2%.

Pictured: Pandanus leaves are now used instead of plastic bags at markets, but supply of the crop can be affected by storms and cyclones, vendors say.

The plastic islands that once choked Erakor lagoon are also shrinking.

“Since they started the ban, you can see the lagoon has become cleaner,” says Andrew.

It is a massive victory for a small island nation made up of just over 300,000 people across 83 islands...

In 2020, a second phase of the policy added seven more items to the list of forbidden plastics, which now covers cutlery, single-use plates and artificial flowers.

“It’s quite difficult to enforce because of the very low capacity of the department of environment,” Regenvanu says. “So we try to work with the municipal authorities and customs and other people as well.”

Compromises had to be made, though. Fishers are still allowed to use plastic to wrap and transport their produce. Plastic bottles are also permitted, even though they often litter coastlines and rivers.

Secondary industries have now developed to provide sustainable alternatives to the banned items. On the island of Pentecost, communities have started replacing plastic planter pots with biodegradable ones made from native pandanus leaves. Mama’s Laef, a social enterprise that began selling fabric sanitary napkins before the ban, has since expanded its range to reusable nappies and bags.

“We came up with these ideas to reduce the amount of plastic in Vanuatu,” says the owner Jack Kalsrap. “We’re a small island state, so we know that pollution can really overwhelm us more than in other, bigger countries.” ...

Willy Sylverio, a coordinator of the Erakor Bridge Youth Association, is trying to find ways to recycle the litter his team regularly dredges up from the lagoon.

“The majority of the plastic waste now comes from noodle packaging or rice packaging, or biscuit packets,” Sylverio says. He hopes the plastic ban will one day include all packaging that covers imported goods. “Banning all plastic is a great idea, because it blocks the main road through which our environment is polluted.”

The Vanuatu government plans to expand the plastic ban to include disposable nappies, and says it will also introduce a plastic bottle deposit scheme this year to help recycle the remaining plastic waste in the country."

-via The Guardian, June 20, 2024

[probablyasocialecologist]

In 2012, Dutch teenager Boyan Slat presented a TED Talk on his concept for cleaning up the ocean with simple mechanisms to sweep up all the trash. While scientists and plastics experts cautioned that his ideas were ineffective, Slat’s non-profit the Ocean Cleanup, founded the year after his talk went viral, has gained millions of followers and big-name backers, including Salesforce, Maersk, KIA, and PayPal’s Peter Thiel. But the venture had one major problem: its first two designs didn’t work, despite the group burning through tens of millions of dollars over the course of a decade. The Ocean Cleanup has since pivoted to work with upstream river “interceptors” that are much more efficient at capturing garbage, but its website still prominently features its latest ocean debris “solution”—essentially a trawl fishing net dragged between two boats that has, to date, collected a comparatively miniscule amount of trash. Tech projects like these are more of a curse than a blessing. Even if the Ocean Cleanup one day somehow beats the insurmountable odds and removes all surface-level traces of plastic marine pollution, it’d still be missing the vast majority of waste that sinks to the bottom of the ocean floor, or breaks up into tiny microplastics. While companies like these bring increased attention to the plastics crisis, they’re ultimately flashy gimmicks that lull our public consciousness into thinking a clever gadget can solve a collective-action problem. These projects also allow consumer brands—like Coca-Cola, an official “Global Implementation Partner” of Slat’s group—to greenwash their continued massive plastic production, while lobbying behind-the-scenes against regulations that would actually help the world break its plastic addiction.  “We now know that we can’t start to reduce plastic pollution without a reduction of production,” environmental scientists Imari Walker-Franklin and Jenna Jambeck write in the introduction to their forthcoming study, Plastics. To meaningfully address this crisis and others like it, we need to look upstream, invest in reuse infrastructure, and mandate biodegradable packaging and high material recyclability. At a minimum, we need to start making producers bear the cost for the collection and disposal of their poorly designed goods.

[themakeupbrush]

Miss Earth Namibia 2023 National Costume

The leaves are made of silk organza which is a sustainable fabric, and recycled tulle fabric and green plastic leaves from recycled plastic bags. As for the glitter beaded part, these are recycled beads that have been hand glued onto mesh net. The hat is made of cardboard and covered by the beaded fabric. Now, the aloe plant, with its ability to thrive in harsh conditions of the Namibian climate, embodies the spirit of survival and adaptation that is deeply rooted in our culture. It stands tall in the face of adversity, just as the people of Namibia have for generations. When everything seems barren and desolate, the aloe blooms with vibrant, healing properties, mirroring the optimism and potential for growth that resides within us all. Aloes are not only emblematic of hope; they are also a source of sustenance and healing. For centuries, our people have turned to the aloe for its medicinal properties. Its gel, extracted from the fleshy leaves, soothes and heals, providing a remedy for the ailments of both body and soul. It symbolizes our ancestral knowledge, our respect for nature's gifts, and our commitment to sustainable living in harmony with the Earth. Choosing the Aloe Plant as a representation of Namibia is a testament to our connection with the environment, a reminder that we are the stewards of this remarkable land.

[solarpunkbusiness]

Italian company converts discarded fishing nets into chairs, car mats and Prada bags

Since 2009, Giulio Bonazzi, the son of a small textile producer in northern Italy, has been working on a solution: an efficient recycling process for nylon. As CEO and chairman of a company called Aquafil, Bonazzi is turning the fibers from fishing nets – and old carpets – into new threads for car mats, Adidas bikinis, environmentally friendly carpets and Prada bags.

For Bonazzi, shifting to recycled nylon was a question of survival for the family business. His parents founded a textile company in 1959 in a garage in Verona, Italy. Fifteen years later, they started Aquafil to produce nylon for making raincoats, an enterprise that led to factories on three continents. But before the turn of the century, cheap products from Asia flooded the market and destroyed Europe’s textile production. When Bonazzi had finished his business studies and prepared to take over the family company, he wondered how he could produce nylon, which is usually produced from petrochemicals, in a way that was both successful and ecologically sustainable.

The question led him on an intellectual journey as he read influential books by activists such as world-renowned marine biologist Sylvia Earle and got to know Michael Braungart, who helped develop the Cradle-to-Cradle ethos of a circular economy. But the challenges of applying these ideologies to his family business were steep. Although fishing nets have become a mainstay of environmental fashion ads—and giants like Dupont and BASF have made breakthroughs in recycling nylon—no one had been able to scale up these efforts.

For ten years, Bonazzi tinkered with ideas for a proprietary recycling process. “It’s incredibly difficult because these products are not made to be recycled,” Bonazzi says. One complication is the variety of materials used in older carpets. “They are made to be beautiful, to last, to be useful. We vastly underestimated the difficulty when we started.”

Soon it became clear to Bonazzi that he needed to change the entire production process. He found a way to disintegrate old fibers with heat and pull new strings from the discarded fishing nets and carpets. In 2022, his company Aquafil produced more than 45,000 tons of Econyl, which is 100% recycled nylon, from discarded waste.

More than half of Aquafil’s recyclate is from used goods. According to the company, the recycling saves 90 percent of the CO2 emissions compared to the production of conventional nylon. That amounts to saving 57,100 tons of CO2 equivalents for every 10,000 tons of Econyl produced.

Bonazzi collects fishing nets from all over the world, including Norway and Chile—which have the world’s largest salmon productions—in addition to the Mediterranean, Turkey, India, Japan, Thailand, the Philippines, Pakistan, and New Zealand. He counts the government leadership of Seychelles as his most recent client; the island has prohibited ships from throwing away their fishing nets, creating the demand for a reliable recycler. With nearly 3,000 employees, Aquafil operates almost 40 collection and production sites in a dozen countries, including four collection sites for old carpets in the U.S., located in California and Arizona.

[dailyanarchistposts]

8

What is subsistence? Subsistence means committing to a place and the people who live there. It means generally getting food from your region because that is the geographical area that you understand and are familiar with and therefore you know when and how much of each item or animal is acceptable to gather or hunt.

Subsistence means fishing with friends. It means preserving food with others in your group or village or clan or whatever. Subsistence is getting together, voluntarily, with folks that you have an affinity with, to provide yourself with food and shelter and musical instruments and friendship.

Subsistence means abundance and balance, it means wildness and harmony at once. Subsistence is not an impoverished, depleted existence.

Time spent repairing the fishing nets or pickling vegetables or building a communal smokehouse isn’t alienated time. It is meaningful and joyous. In some places likely characterized by songs and mead, in others by quiet satisfaction. It means providing for yourself where you live.

Subsistence is participatory. It involves understanding your habitat and finding a healthy place within it.

Subsistence could be the bedrock upon which an anarchic culture’s ways rest on. It is the foundation of a healthy, independent, autonomous set ofliving practices, based on the cycles of the place where you live. Sense of place. Sensual wisdom.

This doesn’t mean that primal people don’t make mistakes. But overall, they rely on directly lived experience complimented by generations old wisdom to make their decisions.

Life in nature isn’t nasty brutish and short. This is a lie of the fearful and the fear mongers, of ruling classes set on the conquest of land-based people.

Subsistence means no or very little material waste: no dumpsites, no burning piles of garbage, no necessity of a recycling industry, and no mountains of appliances, gadgets and plastic. It is based in the natural cycles of your group’s land base. It means respecting nature where you live and all of the life forms that you share your habitat with, even the ones that are threatening to you, because we are all interconnected.

Subsistence isn’t about dumpster diving, scams, food banks, stealing and welfare cheques. Subsistence is directly participating in a collectivity’s future and thus ensuring your own.

For now, a group of five or ten folks acquiring food and shelter together is a form of surviving or pioneering. Fifteen or twenty people providing food and shelter for themselves, communally rearing their children, and generally taking care of each other is perhaps the ember of a clan, but true kinship probably takes a few generations.

When fifty or more people spend their lives, within the context of a successful break from the current world of hierarchy and private property and ideology, making sure that everyone within their group is fed and sheltered and nurtured and have built an infrastructure of ways and tools to assist them, anarchy begins to take hold.

This speculative glimpse is just my notion of how an urban area might de-urbanize should the present social order get cast overboard. Today, inhabitants of rural communes and eco-villages can practice some subsistence skills, but these are generally projects of the fortunate, out of reach of the majority, and can’t be viewed as the primary tactic of a thrust toward autonomous, genuine communities embedded in nature. A rural intentional community based around principles of mutual aid, cooperation and ecology might be a qualitatively superior place to live than most others, but truly self-directed people embedded in a habitat requires secession from private property and a refusal to obey the laws of both the market and the nation-state.

Power abhors subsistence. Capitalism depends on obedient producers and consumers spending our lives shopping and at work, not friends and neighbors practicing communal self reliance within a shared habitat. But together we can say no, we can disobey, and in this negativity there will birth a positive and creative force.

[alpaca-clouds]

What's up with all the plastic in the ocean?

Let me talk about one really sad thing - and one where the information out there is just really bad.

A lot of you will have heard about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. And about how you should not use plastic straws and have to recycle all the plastic you use and what not, because it is killing all the poor animals and what not.

I am here to tell you... it's all a lie. All of it.

Now, let me first say: Recycling is a scam. Because of capitalism. Yes, we could recycle at least some of the plastics we use (not all of them), but for the most part we do not do that, because it just is too expensive. So most of the plastics you and I put into recycling end up in landfills... Most likely in landfills in poor nations, where the stuff gets shipped off to. We do not really do anything good with the recycling stuff. Because making new plastics is cheaper. Simple as that. Capitalism prefers the cheap stuff. So, recycling is not happening.

But also... that plastic usually is still not the biggest problem when it comes to plastic in the ocean. Like, that landfil plastics are a problem and they should not be there. But they are not the reason for the plastics in the ocean.

Now, let me first talk microplastics, even though they are off course not that much of the plastic in volume. But where does that microplastic come from? Media wants you to believe that it is just not-recycled plastic that has somehow been made small by the ocean... But that's not it.

Instead most of the microplastics come from cars. It is abrasions from tires and breaks, that collect on the roads and then through rain get slowly transported into the oceans.

But as you can see from the graph above: Most plastics in the oceans are actually macroplastics and megaplastics. So big pieces of plastic. So, what are those?

Mostly... Fishing waste. So, fishing nets, fishing lines and stuff like that, that after use get just thrown into the oceans. This is because the fishing industry is among the industries least regulated - for the simple fact that most industries that work off the ocean are hard to regulate. And of course in the end people are very unintrested in regulating such industries.

Which is also the reason for other stuff. Overfishing. Bycatch. All those things. It just is not properly regulated - and even what regulations are there are hard to enforce because... well, who is gonna enforce them out there.

So... really. To save the oceans... we gotta eat less fish.

[starrystrawb]

See now: Water Mother Nature. Water has been around as long as the planet has been. She will be here long after we are all gone. She is has seen it all and will witness everything that is to come. She is the depths of the Marianas trench, she has been the shallows of a back-yard creek.

On to the eco-tips!

1. A lot of phone cases are made of plastic. Even ones made of recycled plastic are well... plastic. But worry not friends! Some phone case companies take old cases and recycle them for you! Castify is one of them, and one that I regularly send my old cases to! To get an address to send the old cases to, email them on their website. Pack those old cases up, and ship them off to be reused! They even offer a discount on orders for sending them the old cases, and they take any brand!

2. Speaking of phone cases, Pela is a phone case company that makes compostable phone cases! They are made from plant material and are actually pretty cute. They are a bit pricey, so they're not for everyone. Other companies have similar cases that are made of plants, made from recycled plastics, or made in a sustainable and eco-friendly manner! Re-Castify is castify's version of this, ecoblvd also makes phone cases, and otterbox has a series called Core. And of course, keeping one phone case for a long time and reusing it over and over is always great!

3. Phone cases usually go on phones, so lets talk about those little guys! It feels like every year, the phone you just got is slowing down, dying faster, and is rapidly collecting more and more issues. Technology is always advancing, which is great! But a lot of the components in electronics end up being tossed in the trash. If you have things like old phones or tablets laying around, and you're unsure what to do with them, worry not! Research your options! Some places like zoos, tech shops, or second hand shops might have tech recycling programs. And of course, selling to a shop that refurbishes and sells tech is always an option. A lot of phone companies and providers have started offering trade ins! Don't feel guilty for upgrading, trade in, sell, or recycle your old phones, tablets, and other electronics!

4. Moving on from tech, lets talk about paper! Did you know you can make your own paper? It was a pretty popular trend in 2020-2022. You do need some supplies, like a blender, a picture frame, some sort of netting, and usually glue or tacks of some kind. But I've done it before, and it's actually pretty fun! You can even sprinkle seeds into it to make a card that you can plant! Google and youtube have some very handy and easy to follow tutorials!

5. Talk to people! Online, in person, over the phone. Everywhere! Share eco-tips (like we're doing here), talk about legislation, organize groups, everything! Keep each other moving and keep spreading information and helping others. It is so important to involve your friends, family, and community in eco-friendly living! We all share the planet, friends!

Base

[sapphicteaparty]

i've NEVER seen a single good faith discussions about pleather on this website and i want ppl to think critically for one second about the way businesses talk about their products. "vegan leather" is purely a marketing term and nothing else. it was invented by the fashion industry and it has nothing to do with vegans or veganism.

"vegan leather" is basically made of polyester (a type of plastic), but crucially a lot of clothes nowadays are made of polyester either fully or partially because it's cheaper to produce. so of course clothing companies are going to be producing and marketing things that make them more money.

these products are not even targeting vegans, they're making an average customer feel better about their purchases, same way they are now putting "eco" labels on some of their organic cotton clothing. it's just greenwashing. NOTHING in fast fashion is eco friendly in any way - this whole industry is extremely wasteful an exploitative on every level. when are ppl going to realize that these companies just say anything they can to make it seem like they care about anything other than their profit margins. because they don't.

my wish is that ppl that talk about how bad pleather is and how vegans are apparently responsible for all of the microplastic pollution in the world also talked or cared even a little bit about the absolutely horrific abuse and exploitation that happens in the clothing and fast fashion industry. talk about how this industry consistently fails (or outright refuses) to pay its workers a living wage or how they don't provide them humane working conditions - and how that led to thousands of garment workers dying and getting injured when a garment factory collapsed in Bangladesh (and that's not the only tragedy this industry is directly responsible for).

also microplastics are only the tip of the iceberg if you want to talk about the pollution that the clothing industry is responsible for (toxic chemicals and pesticides used in cotton production, garment dyes, the disposal of textile waste etc) - all of which has direct human costs tied to it.

but if your only concern ever was microplastics that clothes can shed then great! avoid all polyester and plastic clothing. but did you know textiles aren't even the primary microplastic contaminants? it's plastic bags, bottles and fishing nets by far. most ppl can't always avoid these plastic items in daily life. but do you eat fish? vegans don't.

i'm just so tired of the pleather discussion focusing on the wrong thing (vegans) when there are so many more aspects about the clothing industry and plastic pollution that never get addressed when they should. and the amount of misinformation on these topics is just laughable at this point. ppl sure enjoy reblogging posts that confirm their biases and free them from having to critically engage with complicated issues because it's so easy to just blame a group of ppl for it.

anyway if you're concerned about ethical clothing (i hope you are) then basically these are your best options:

wear what you already have and don't buy new clothes unless necessary

get second hand clothes

get upcycled clothes

this may seem a bit extreme but these are the only options that don't result in new clothes and textiles being produced because there is an overproduction issue in the clothing industry which is why over 80% of clothes end up in landfills. obviously these options aren't viable for everyone all the time but if the goal is sustainability then that's just the reality of things for now.

you can also do things like mend your clothes so they last longer, learn to sew to make your own clothes etc all of that is better than buying new clothes. donating clothes to a thrift store is also not ideal since they get so many donations that a lot of it ends up in a landfill anyway and recycling clothes is also not straightforward or even possible in a lot of cases. so not buying new/more clothes is the most environmentally friendly option. and before you go no ethical consumption under capitalism blah blah yeah we know. doesn't mean you are powerless and have no choices in anything ever.

please learn more about microplastics, the clothing/textile industry and veganism before you uncritically reblog another misinformed post about "vegan leather" or microplastics. also please don't uncritically believe what i wrote here either. if you're seriously interested in these topics then your source for this information shouldn't be some tumblr post in the first place. there are lot of studies, documentaries and articles about all the things i mentioned. i'm not a researcher or a scientist, so don't ask me. i'm just tired.

[wachinyeya]

Since 2019, The Ocean Cleanup has been collecting the floating plastics for later recycling. And with a new $15 million grant from the Helmsley Charitable Trust — tied to World Ocean Day on June 8 — the group will continue its efforts to remove the garbage, a $189 million project that aims to ultimately remove 15 million pounds of plastic.

—

The latest iteration of the organization's system, funded by the Helmsley grant, involves a ship, which takes about five days to even reach the site, the largest plastic accumulation zone in the world. The ship then drags a nearly mile-and-a-half-long barrier at about walking pace to collect the plastic. AI monitoring allows the ship to steer toward the areas with the greatest plastic density, and underwater cameras monitor for any marine animal life caught in the "retention zone." If an animal is spotted, a safety hatch opens to allow the animal to escape.

"It was mind blowing," says Egger, who has completed the trip to the patch twice. "You have this pristine environment. It's a beautiful open ocean and you see a toothbrush just floating by, you see a kid's toy floating by. You realize the extent of the pollution that we caused is so vast that we created this garbage patch in the middle of the open ocean far away from human beings."

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch got its name from oceanographer Charles J. Moore, who coined the term after returning from a sailing race in 1997. About 85% of marine litter is plastic, according to the United Nations. Once these plastics enter a gyre, or an ocean vortex, they stay there until they degrade to microplastics.

"That garbage isn't going anywhere, it's staying in that location for the most part, breaking down, and entering our food system," said the trust's Panzierer. "It is so important for us to work collectively as an entire society to remove this because it has not only health problems for America, but has health problems for the entire globe."

Ocean plastics harm marine life, too. Animals often confuse the plastics for food because of their size and color, which can lead to malnutrition. Sea turtles caught in fisheries operating around the patch can have up to 74% of their diets composed of ocean plastics, according to The Ocean Cleanup.

And ocean wildlife can get caught and die in discarded fishing nets, also known as ghost nets, which make up 46 percent of the mass of the garbage patch according to the Ocean Cleanup.

In addition to the health effects of ocean plastic pollution, there are economic costs too — plastics in the ocean cost roughly $13 billion per year, including the clean up costs and financial losses to fisheries and other industries, according to the United Nations. The new funding will help the organization, which relies on donations, transition to using the new, more efficient cleanup system and scale it up.

To clean up the entire patch, Egger said, would cost billions.

The United Nations is currently negotiating a global plastics treaty that aims to develop a legally binding agreement to address plastic pollution by the end 2024.

[cognitivejustice]

While the discussion surrounding marine plastic pollution has largely focused on land-based sources, such as households and industry, a major and often overlooked contributor to ocean plastic waste is marine capture fisheries. Marine fisheries contribute to plastic pollution primarily through the abandoned, lost, or discarded fishing gear (ALDFG), such as nets, lines, ropes, and traps used to catch 2-3 trillion fish and other aquatic animals each year. Commercial industrial fishing is the primary source of ALDFG in the oceans.

‘Ghost gear’ can result from fishing gear getting entangled on reefs, rocks, and bottom obstructions, conflicts with vessels or other fishing gear, and bad weather. It may also be lost due to extended soak times (the time that equipment is submerged during fishing), fishing in deep habitats, or deploying excessive gear that cannot be hauled in regularly. If gear touches the seafloor or is not actively managed by fishermen, the likelihood of loss increases. Additionally, intentional discarding, including from illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing, is also believed to contribute significantly to ghost gear in the sea, particularly in the areas beyond national jurisdiction. Vessels conducting IUU fishing often operate in adverse conditions, such as at night or without access to safe harbors during inclement weather, and frequently dispose of their gear to avoid detection, destroy evidence, and gain port access.

Overall, it is estimated that 5.7% of fishing nets, 8.6% of traps and pots, and 29% of fishing lines used globally are lost, abandoned, or otherwise discarded into the environment. All this ghost gear and other fisheries-related operations make up at least 10% of total ocean plastics. Rubbish associated with other marine operations adds at least an additional 10% to global marine litter. For plastics larger than 20 centimeters in size floating on the ocean’s surface, fishing gear accounts for as much as 70% (by weight).

[realasslesbian]

Ngl there's something about living an entirely environmentally conscious life, all my power comes from my personal solar panels, I rarely eat animal products & never red meat, all my clothes are 2nd hand, & when they're too worn in I recycle them as rags until they're literally threads, I don't put my fruit & veg in those plastic bags, I have my own reusable net bag, I live minimally & don't buy useless shit, I literally have one fork because that's all I need, I make the smallest impact possible & it's crazy knowing all that is rendered entirely obsolete by someone having just one(1) child.

[rametarin]

Seeing a lot of propaganda lately.

It's convenient that the astro turf environmentalists that schmoozed their way into business and regulation of it set up these oil companies and others with environmentalist paths and ways to get people to get involved in said environmentalism. That was effectively the compromise that would enable industry and progressive life to co-exist.

And now they're treating industrial environmentalism as if it was a scam concocted entirely by greedy polluting business heads. When people taught, trained and given careers in environmental science working with said companies weren't trained to do that shit.

It's just like the "OH MY GOD EVERYBODY PLASTIC STRAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWS!" fiasco, where the entire point of it was to have a goose stepping push for "change" imposed from the top down, get everybody into a hysteria about how straws were actually hurting the planet, and then come to find out.. No. 40-90% of the plastic in the environment, micro or other, is fishing nets. It was always fishing nets. And pollution from the developing world, or China. They knew that going into it and instead chose to do this campaign specifically to "have a convuhsayshun" by scaring the bejesus out of everybody and then pushing for low hanging fruit to drag you through the process of legislation thought to "change the world."

Those paper straws weren't even plastic free, as reusable as plastic straws, or very good.

So now the agritprops are spreading that anti-industry shit by acting like carbon footprints and home recycling was all a scam by the businesses to deflect from THEIR regulation or emissions, instead of what they really were: Deliberate demands by the environmentalists, whom regulate and oversee themselves as self-appointed experts and regulators of pollution, to micro manage everyday peoples trash and emissions. And make people ask, "Why aren't businesses getting poked with a stick?"

Because they wanted you to go, "GLAD YOU ASKED! Sign this paper that lets us suck great big sums of money out of businesses unless they reach these virtually unobtainable purity goals that are virtually required to function."

The only thing I'm glad about is that carbon sequestration and other forms of particulate management have improved as technologies to where machines capable of sequestering industrial emissions and doing something about storage and repatriation of the waste materials into other industrial applications, are much cheaper now. Eventually, these alarmists and blood suckers will run out of pollutants to use to justify a middle man to antagonize businesses about.

Because really, that's it. Once industries can manage and sequester 99.999% of their emissions until they're environmentally benign, and so are their products, there won't BE anything to tax or penalize for their pollution.

As is, if the UK itself cut its contribution to pollution each year by 100%, it'd put an end to a total of 2% of the global emissions of anything. The big drivers and movers of pollution driven climate change aren't western, they're East Asian, South Asian and African.

This revisionist propaganda where it was just business itself that made life suck for individuals when it "should've been raking business through the coals all along" is just that. It wouldn't have been possible to meet emissions standards of 0 in the west and be able to have any kind of industry.

But then the Inverted-Reds knew that. Which is why so many were gone off the deep end in environmentalism, talking about "getting back to primitive roots" and other nonsensical hippie shit. We're not going to forget that movement, yall.

[overfedvenison]

Most microplastics and ocean plastic are fishing nets but that doesn't mean that other plastics should not be eliminated as well. I see that sometimes as sort of a "rebuttal" to like, the concept of recycling or phasing out plastics

But like, remember: Removing plastic straws and the packaging is just outright a good thing. You have to attack a problem from multiple fronts; cutting down on single-use plastics reduces dangerous litter on the local level and more broadly reduces demand for plastic from society as a whole. One should also be vocally opposed to the use of plastic in fishing nets and in general be supportive of ocean health, of course! That's a problem which needs highlighting. But that does not mean you should turn a blind eye to the use of other single-use plastics or accept them. And that does not mean that trash pollution does not otherwise matter.

Plastic is outright forever (Well - not anymore, stuff is starting to rot it. But it will take a long time for it to rot.) So, any use of plastic needs to be a measured use. I'm not so hard on it that I think it has no place in creation; plastic miniatures and figures are good; plastic in medical supplies can be important. But common single-use plastic in places like shelf-stable food packaging should go the way of leaded gasoline.

I see posts sometimes about how it's mostly huge companies more than the individual which are responsible for major environmental degradation like this. And this is true. But don't mistake that for "There is only one major problem and that's all we have to care about." Things are simply not that easy. And don't mistake that for personal choices not mattering at all - combined, group choices and pressure from people collectively are why single-use plastics are being phased out in the first place, and opposing the idea that an individual can do something to help with garbage and litter is nothing but an appeal to apathy.

[blinddreams24]

Recycle

A Mermay Prompt

Masterlist

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Recycle day!

You tossed your custom, tightly woven nets over your shoulder and lifted your gear out of the car, a smile on your face. While you hated that there was junk in the water, you had to admit it was fun to collect trash like Easter eggs. The water would push and hide everything in different places and you just had to search. That’s what the nets were for.

Most of your gear was already on when Cross showed up. You heard him beach himself behind you.

“Hey, y/n. What are you-?” His voice cut off with a splash.

You turned around to see him much further away than normal, staring at you with his head being the only thing out of the water. He was almost glaring at you.

“Y/n.” He almost growled, his voice low and tense. “Why do you have a net?”

You glanced at the nets you’d set on the ground. “Oh! It’s recycling day. I like take a few nets and try to clean up as much trash as I can from the water. I don’t… I don’t hunt or anything. I use nets because trash bags are hard to carry around in the water while nets are much easier.”

“Mmm.” He kept his distance and didn’t speak as you finished putting on your gear.

Once that was done, you slowly grabbed the nets, careful not to scare Cross, and just as slowly waded into the water. You glanced at him and he stared back with a guarded expression. “…Would you like to help? You don’t have to.” You offered one of the nets to him and turned slightly away, leaving yourself open and unthreatening.

His eyes narrowed and glanced between you and the net before backing up.

You shrugged. “Your choice.” Nozzle went in your mouth and you got to work.

The first part was always the easiest. Large clumps of trash could easily be scooped up into your net leaving you to grasp for the smaller pieces that tried to drift away. Plastics, styrofoam, metals, and glass all made their way into your net. You were careful to keep the fish out of the trash in your hand. The other nets were tied to your belt(no fanny pack this time) and gave you a little resistance as you swam. Nothing you couldn’t handle.

You felt Cross follow close behind you, watching you work, and figured looking at him while he was skittish would probably scare him off so you didn’t.

Until he swam at you.

You didn’t have time to turn around before an arm hugged you from behind to hold you still, something on your belt clicked, and he darted away again.

He didn’t speak and when you turned around you couldn’t find him. You checked your nets. One was missing.

Maybe he decided he would help.

When your net was full, you tied it off and headed back to the beach. Hauling yourself and the heavy, water-laden net was difficult but you managed. Once done with that, you went in for another round, this time without a companion.

Your net was halfway full when Cross came back, hauling a full net of trash. Your smile beamed at him as he sheepishly approached.

“I… I saw that you closed yours.” He looked down at his bag in embarrassment. “I don’t know how to close it.”

At least he was trying.

You gestured for him to hand you the net and you slowly showed him how to tie it off. Then you offered him another net.

He snatched it and shot off towards the beach.

The rest of the day was spent collecting trash and teaching Cross a few things when he had questions.

Until you found an intact glass bottle.

You gestured excitedly at Cross and swam up to the surface of the water. He was going to love this! He followed you.

Water ran down your face as you surfaced and pulled the nozzle out of your mouth to talk to Cross. You poured some of the water out of the bottle. “These bottles make cool sounds when you blow on them! Watch!” You took in a breath, put the bottle to your lips, and blew.

The same eerie tone from the other day filled the air but this time you could feel the small spike of fear you had at the sound. Your breath wavered and broke out the sound, overwhelmed by the memory of the strange siren. He’d almost killed you, hadn’t he? His hand had reached for you and there was nothing you could’ve done. You weren’t afraid of him when he approached because of the song. Was that how he normally hunted? Sing you into a state of peace and attack you while you didn’t understand what was happening? You could still hear that haunting tone.

The bottle was yanked from your hands.

“What do you think you’re doing, y/n!?” Cross snapped, worry lacing his voice. “Do you have a death wish?!?”

You just stared down at your now empty hand. He’d almost taken your life and you might have just called him. What were you thinking?

Cross seemed to finally notice your expression and his hands grabbed your shoulders. “Y/n? Have you heard that sound before?” His eyes searched your face.

You didn’t look him in the eye. You just nodded.

“Was it from a siren?”

Nod.

“….Holy shit, y/n.” He sighed and hugged you. “How are you alive?”

You found your voice but it cracked. “I… I brought you food… heheh, he ate it all. Sorry.” You leaned into the hug.

“You have got to be the luckiest little urchin I know.” He gave a breathy chuckle. “Are you okay? Did he touch you?”

“I’m fine. He…” You blushed in embarrassment. “…He pet me…”

“Pfft!” Cross laughed and pulled away to look at you. “He pet you??”

“Yes! I don’t know why! He… He just… He said ‘thanks’ and then left.”

“Woah! He talked to you? What did you feed him?” Cross grinned at you, his genuine smile calming your nerves.

“Just some homemade sandwiches. Nothing special.” You shrugged it off.

“Yeah, pizza is better than whatever you could make.” He teased.

You punched him. “Rude! My food is awesome!”

He chuckled at you and grabbed your fists as you swung at him. “Sure. Live in your denial. I’m not changing my mind until I taste it.”

“Fine!” You were now trying to get your comically small hands out of his with little success. He kept grinning at you as you struggled. “I’ll try to get some to you, if the others don’t eat it first.”

“Others?” Cross became serious again. “Did you meet a different siren?” His voice strained with worry.

You shrugged. “Just Killer. He’s been surprisingly nice to hang out with for the past few days.”

“Killer came back?!?” You yelped when Cross yanked you forward to check every possible surface he could find, which finally freed your arms. “Did he hurt you?? Are you okay?? Oh my stars, y/n!!” He fussed.

“Cross! It’s fine! He didn’t hurt me.” You weren’t going to tell him about that night on the cliff. “We played with a frisbee the other day. He’s chilled out since then.”

Cross deflated into the water with a sigh, his head still peeking out. “You’re gonna give me a soul attack. I’m gonna die.”

“Oh you big baby.” You teased, slashing water on his face. You glanced down at the half-full net on your belt. “C’mon. I still have work to do. You can yell at me while I clean.”

He did.

Cross lectured and fussed over you for the rest of the day, constantly touching you on your arms and shoulders as if he expected you to disappear.

At least he wasn’t avoiding you and your nets anymore.

You smiled.

[solarpunkbusiness]

Europe’s largest rooftop farm, Nature Urbaine in Paris, can produce 10 tons of produce each season. 

Hundreds of immaculate white columns dotted with small cylindrical outlets cover the rooftop of the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles exhibition center in the south of the French capital.

Fragrant basil, scarlet strawberries and unwieldy masses of dark green kale are among the colorful produce sprouting from each of the holes, which form part of a soil-less farming device known as an aeroponic growing tower.

“You see, there’s nothing in there,” says Eugénie Mercier, pulling out a bunch of kale to reveal its roots dangling freely inside the plastic structure. “When we water them, the plants take what is needed and we recycle the leftover water, so none is wasted.”

Mercier is manager of Nature Urbaine, Europe’s largest urban rooftop farm, which opened in spring 2020. At 14,000 square meters (150,000 square feet), its surface is almost as large as the playing area of the Stade de France football pitch not far away, and it can produce more than 10 tons of fruit and vegetables per season, using neither pesticides nor soil. According to manufacturer Agripolis, its computer-controlled hydroponic and aeroponic systems use 80% less water and produce 62% fewer CO2 emissions than a conventional farm for the same yield. Last year it was recognized by Ecocert, a French certification organization, as the first urban farm in the world to net offset carbon.

“It’s not just greenwashing,” adds Mercier. “This will really benefit the planet.”

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