I pick up a lot of beach trash. The most common thing I find are those stupid plastic bottle caps. There are probably hundreds of them for every kilometer of shoreline. I find a lot of plastic straws too. Plastic bags are kind of a rare find. I use plastic bags to collect my beach trash, so they are quite useful.

I still like it because I'm no longer forced to pay for bags that I don't want.

Pisses me off every time I go to Whole Paycheck and they give me paper bags. I look at these hipsters and ask them "How do you feel about killing innocent trees?" when they give me paper bags. Do you know how much room paper bags take up in a Prius?

The plastic bag bans were pushed by the grocery stores (sold as “saving the planet”) so they could increase profits.

---

Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

I like the plastic bags. They are good for picking up dog shit

yep. can't even recall what I used to scoop cat shit into prior to plastic bags.

---

To breathe, to feel, to know I'm alive.

“More than half of the plastic waste that flows into the oceans comes from just five countries: China, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.”


I bicycled through all of those countries and not surprised in the least. My bet would be that Thailand is #6 with Malaysia #7.


I would often go past a river, particularly in the large cities and you could almost walk across them by stepping on plastic. They treat waterways as garbage dumps. I saw some changes starting one city (Davao) but it is going to be a few generations at least until they clean up. It's just so ingrained that people throw things away, very aggravating when I would see it done so regularly.


I remember once planning to camp on a beach in Malaysia and I literally couldn't find a garbage free spot the size of my tent. I just didn't understand how people could sit there surrounded by garbage and not do a thing about it.

Let's just blame everything on China:


"China last year overtook Europe as the world's largest producer of plastics, with the eurozone slump continuing to deepen the divide, a recent study shows."

---

"The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."

Several years ago I was in China and we stopped at a shop on the road side to buy a bottled water. I took the cap off the bottle and asked the lady if she had a trash can. She didn't really understand so one of my coworkers translated for me. She took the cap out of my hand and just threw it on the ground.

I was amazed but there was trash all around on the ground so shouldn't have been. I picked it up and put it in my lap top case until I got back to the hotel.

It's a different way of life for sure and I'm convinced that the US can do all it wants to reduce/eliminate pollution in our country but it won't really matter until other countries follow suit. Asia Pacific is terrible for trash and pollution.

Looking at news articles of floating plastic in the oceans and I'm almost certain the US is not the root cause of the debris but have no scientific proof just suspicion based on my travels of the world.

The choice between paper and plastic is double sided. Plastic comes from oil which is evil. Paper comes from cutting trees down which is evil. The majority of the population isn't going to use hemp reusable bags for their groceries because it's a pain in the rear and not convenient. I'm all for cutting down trees, they do grow back with proper management.
.

Wife and I stopped using plastic bags about 3 years before grocery stores started charging for them. Everyone thought we were weirdos.

Regardless of what China and India and Africa are doing, I will still choose to not add to the problem.

---

How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

You are such a complainer. Asia and Africa is finally compliant with the new & revised EPA policies and directives. Scott Pruitt would be disappointed that you're going off with your bleeding heart, liberal protestations while they are expanding the global economy.

---

Remember - It's important to be comfortable in your own skin... because it turns out society frowns on wearing other people's

The west is not the problem because of regulation. Do you think businesses clean up shit from the goodness of their hearts? Nope.

---

===============
Proud member of the MSF (Maple Syrup Mafia)

On a vacation to Dominican Republuc I passed through a beach so littered with water bottles it made it difficult to walk

Some cultures have problems more pressing than litter and global warming.