Miwa Koizumi Creates Aquatic Life from Plastic Bottles

By now many of us are fully aware that there is a place in the Pacific Ocean called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the North Pacific Gyre. This area, about 1,000 miles off the coastline of California is a swirling mass of non-biodegradable plastic debris that outnumbers marine life by a 1000:1 ratio in some areas. Because much of this plastic has traveled to this area from land (wind carried bags, bottles washed out to sea, etc) it is more important than ever to ensure we find the most functional uses for our PET plastics and artist Miwa Koizumi has done just that in stunning form with her PET Project.

Her plastic marine animals and creatures are created primarily from items she has harvested from the trash and include all manner of plastics from colored soda bottles to five gallon water cooler bottles. She creates everything from dramatic jellyfish with seemingly weightless tails to the urchin and anemone type life forms that reside on the ocean floor.

The artist lives and works in New York and her art takes shape by all manner of cutting or soldering tools to create something truly unique and special.

In addition to her actual sculpture Miwa is also working on a photography project which captures the beauty and grace of her designs through use of black backgrounds, white backgrounds and directional lighting. She truly took the ‘trash to treasure’ adage to new heights with this project!

These works of art are just the tip of her creative talents however! Other projects include her plastic bag kites, a plaster and LCD installation art display, sound installations and performance arts.

Tap Water Just Got Tastier with PUR Flavor Options Water Filtration Systems

We all know that plastic bottles created from petroleum are harmful to the environment as they take centuries to break down (if at all), can end up leeching into the Earth or become stuck spinning in the middle of the ocean in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, so tap water in a reusable bottle is certainly the responsible way to go.

Tap water alone can become boring and although flavored water is tasty, most water enhancements such as packets or already flavored waters add calories, sugar or both to the water we drink. Not to mention how much money can be spent on all those individual bits. So then what is a thirsty Greenie to do? Why they run right out and pick up a PUR Flavor Options Water Filtration System of course!

Filtering tap water with a PUR filter can reduce pharmaceuticals in the water supply by 96% (if they are present), not to mention various agricultural or industrial pollutants, chlorine, lead, rust and microbial cysts. Who knew there was that much floating around in our public water supply? Um, yikes! Not to mention that using a PUR pitcher instead of bottles means that up to 2,000 individual bottles are removed from the landfill per person every year.

Of course the coolest part of this little baby is the flavor cartridge. Instead of a small individual packet that is used and tossed each time, the PUR cartridge inserts into the lid of the pitcher. If flavoring is desired just click a button on the top of the handle while pouring and a squirt is added. But without clicking there will be no flavoring, leaving the option open for plain water as well. The cartridges are said to last up to about 75 eight ounce glasses so there is far less waste associated than with packets or bottles.

And oh yeah, it’s super yummy without adding any sugar or calories! The pitcher I got came with a raspberry cartridge, I also got lemon, but there are strawberry, peach and grape options available as well. I tried the raspberry right away (mine and Matt’s favorite so far) but wanted to try lemon too so I just popped out the cartridge, tossed it in the fridge (tip up) and poured a glass of lemon water. E-Z!

My only concern is that the items we must throw away are in fact petroleum based plastic -- the filter and cartridges. Additionally, sometimes the squirt of flavoring ends up stuck in the little reservoir at the end so when switching to a different flavor it needs to be cleaned out. In comparison to individual bottles or packets however the waste associated with this PUR Flavor Options System is minimal so I am awarding it a Four and a Half Green Leaf rating!

I am uber impressed with this entire system and our little family is happy to be drinking healthy water as well as helping to keep tons of plastic out of landfills. Nice work PUR!
♥love♥

Plastic Soup

Picture this -- You get up in the morning, brush your teeth and get ready to go to work. Grabbing your travel mug you head out the door to the office. The day is long so you order lunch from that place down the street. You finish up the day and head home, picking up some take out because your effort to cook, after such a long day, is really low. You get home, sit down to watch some television with dinner and finally wash your face and go to bed.

This day sounds innocent enough, typical of many people out there in the working world. How could a day like this contribute to what is known as Garbage Island? Or, more importantly, what is Garbage Island?

Yesterday Julie posted a link in Facebook to TOXIC - GARBAGE ISLAND, a twelve part video series on VBS.tv, detailing the trip to, and discovery of, what is known as Garbage Island, a swirling current (the North Pacific Gyre) approximately 1,000 miles off the shoreline of California where accumulation of plastics of all shapes and sizes have floated to stay. Since plastic does not biodegrade but instead disintegrates into smaller particles that float, the ocean is the perfect catch basin for much of this debris. The crew on this mission discovered everything from birthday balloons to helmets to tires but the most frightening thing of all was the volume; the ratio of plastic to marine life in some areas was upwards of 1000:1. Yikes. So where did it all come from and how did it end up in the Pacific?

Go back to the day of the average person again and instead of being so vague let’s detail some of the places in this story where plastics could have been used.

You get up in the morning and hit the off button of the plastic alarm clock beside your bed. Brush your teeth with a plastic toothbrush. Women apply makeup (housed in plastic containers, using brushes with plastic handles); men shave their face (using either an electric razor encased in plastic or a disposable plastic razor). You grab your insulated travel mug with the plastic lid, jump into the car (I can not even fathom how many plastic pieces are utilized in a car) and head into the office. Using your plastic badge you enter the building, sit down in your plastic based office chair, turn on the plastic based computer and work until lunch. At lunch you order soup and a salad from the deli down the street; each are stored in a plastic container. You head home and stop for take out (in a Styrofoam [plastic] container of course) and turn on the plastic based television while eating. After an evening of scrolling through the channels using the plastic based remote you wash your face with that stuff you love that comes in the plastic tube and finally, go to bed.

On the lowest level this person used fifteen plastic based items in one day. As our society has become more disposable minded all of those items are built to wear out quicker, causing a need to repurchase and toss the old item. Many times this garbage will fall off a ship but more than not it comes directly from the land. This is possible even when we do not realize it is happening -- next time you see a plastic bag floating in the breeze think about how far the wind might blow it before it stops, when a bottle whooshes into a storm drain after a particularly heavy rain think about where that waterway ends.

One of the quotes from the video series particularly struck me and it said:

“Persistent Organic Pollutants are chemical substances that persist in the environment, bioaccumulate through the food web, and pose a risk of causing adverse effects to human health and the environment.”
- United Nations Environmental Program

Bioaccumulation is when substances like harmful compounds (toxins) amass, in diverse tissues of living creatures. In this example the obvious organism would be marine life but the chain of ingesting toxic chemicals grows as birds eat the fish, other fish eat the fish and humans eat the fish. Contaminates are introduced into our daily food supply and are seriously impacting sustained life of entire species on this planet (an example is when a bird goes out to eat and returns to feed their young, the young end up with stomachs full of plastic as opposed to the essential nutrients they need to survive and they perish as a result).

So what can we do? Can we physically clean up all the pieces that are already there? Unlikely. Can we make an attempt to stop putting more into the ocean? Absolutely!

Yesterday I posted a question from Linda with regard to plastic shopping bags and indicated that extending the life cycle of those bags is most paramount. This is true of all non-biodegradable plastics. When we act as consumers we need to think of the total life cycle of the item in question -- how long do we intend to use the item, what do we do with the item upon the end of its life span? If we are throwing it away we should be conscientious as to how we do so -- do we recycle our plastic or throw it in the trash, is there a way to reuse it, can we upcycle the item into something functional that may last long beyond the initial intended life span?

Opening our eyes to the issue and reducing our dependence on disposable plastic products is the first step in fixing the problem and this video is a fantastic eye opener. Please be aware that the twelve parts (plus the five minute extra) are an approximate total run time of a little over an hour and some very colorful language is used throughout but putting that aside this was the most informative, best hour I have spent learning in a long time.

Because of all these factors I am bestowing a Four Leaf Rating on this entire video series. Well worth the investment of time; well worth thinking about every day.