The Alguita Returns Home

"For a solid two hours, we fished as fast as we could, pulling up floats, toothbrushes, plastic and glass bottles, a golf ball, a billiard ball, an unused glue stick for a hot glue gun, and several rope boluses filled with crabs and tiny striped fish - But most appalling was the plastic confetti. An endless stream of delicate, white snowflakes, like plastic powder coating the ocean’s surface. This, remarked Charlie, is indicative of the gyre, “where the trash comes home to roost and degrade…..” - From The Alguita's Blog

My friends Anna and Marcus are returning tomorrow from their trip across the Pacific to study the Pacific Gyre. I fear that I have been less than active in passing on their words from the voyage, mostly due to being sick at first and then overwhelmed by all of the things I didn't get to while I was sick. Theirs is an unbelievable journey and story and one that should be heard by everyone. As soon as they have settled in, I will surely be speaking with them to hear first hand accounts of what they found and pass along what I learn.

In the meantime, here are a few links to some stories that have been written about them, and links to the remainder of the posts from their voyage.

Common Dreams
San Francisco Chronicle
LA Times
London Independent

And from the blog

Calm After The Synthetic Storm
Following A River Of Trash In The Sea
It's A Plankton Eat Plankton World
Algalita’s message traveling around the world. Day 18 – Travel day
Day 19 - Sifting The Sahara
Entering the Eastern Garbage Patch "Where Our Trash Comes Home"
Dinner Dissection and A "Safe Seafood" Recipe
Return To the Garbage Patch Sampled In 1999
Creatures of the Night Emerge
Words From The Crew
Valentines Day
Keeping Our Wits In The Doldrums
No Title Today
Questions Lead To Questions
72 hour Countdown
Come join us in welcoming ORV Alguita back to Long Beach!
Let's Talk About The Weather

Dave

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Washin' the car

This morning was a rainy day in LA and as a result, I decided to wash the car. Now at first, washing the car in the rain may seem a bit strange, but in reality it makes perfect sense. You don't need to wet down the car, and you don't need to worry about the soap drying, so you can take your time and really clean it. The whole operation used a small bucket of water for rinsing the rag, and about a 2 minute rinse with the hose, which was on low (it was just misting at that point). Of course, you're going to end up with some water spots, but not too bad.

For suds I like to use Simple Green as it is non-toxic, biodegradable, and works really well (it smells cool too). We buy it in bulk, dilute it in a spray bottle, and use it forever. It's great stuff.

I don't wash my car too often but because I show it to school kids I don't like it to get too dirty either. When it's summertime, I try to wash it early in the AM or later in the evening, and I pull the car up on the lawn so the water ends up being used rather than heading down the street as run off.

And on top of saving water and feeding the lawns, both of these activities get a few weird looks from the neighbors, so the way I figure it, it's all good!

Dave

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Day 51 - Wednesday 2/20/08

Today's Haul:

• 2 paper Studio passes - worms
• 1 cardboard ice cream sandwich box - recycle
• 1 plastic ice cream sandwich wrap - recycle
• 5 restaurant hot dog "boats" - recycle
• 4 paper napkins - worms
• 2 condiment packets - garbage
• 4 wax covered drink cups - garbage
• 4 plastic cup lids - recycle
• 2 plastic drinking straws - recycle
• 2 paper drinking straw covers - worms
• 4 small chips bags - garbage
• 1 paper tray liner - worms
  

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Re-Usable Drinking Containers

I picked these up for my kids today for their lunches. We've been using plastic ones and they were getting pretty old (we've set them aside for outside squirting fun now). They are all aluminum, don't smell, have no taste, and are leakproof. They are made by a company called Sigg in Switzerland and I know several folks who use them (they make large sizes too). Here's the kicker though - they were $17!!!!! I was shocked. The nice thing thoguh is that the larger sizes are only about $4 more so while they are expensive, at least they represent what it probably costs to make these things. The way i figure it, my kids health is worth it, if they last 10 years, they are 1.70 a year, and for others, as compared to store bought bottled water or juice boxes everyday, they're a steal.

Dave

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Packaging Insanity

I ordered some tapes online for my video camera and look at what they came in. 10 tapes (they are on the right there) and 14 other pieces of stuff. Incredible. I'll give you that the plastic air bags are better than the styro-foam peanuts which end up blowing all over the place, but come on. This could have been packed in a box half it's size and used much less packaging. No wonder we're in trouble.

Everything in the pic goes into our mail area and will eventually be re-used for shipping something else, except for the tape box, which will be used to organize shot tapes.

Dave

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Dirty Little Secrets

OK, I need to come clean on something here. I'm insanely addicted to Chipwich's (or any variation thereof). Now the only one's we seem to be able to get around here are Nestle Tollhouse Cookie Ice Cream Sandwich's which in my opinion, don't even come close to the goodness of Chipwich's due to the cookie to chocolate chip to ice cream ratio, which is way off. the Nestle's ones come in this horrendous plastic wrapper that can't be recycled, so, at the end of December, I had my last one, realizing that while I wouldn't go a year, I'd probably not be seeing them for a while.

Cut to today and I was in Trader Joe's and caught sight of a box of Trader Joe's Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Cookie sandwiches. I swear the lights dimmed and I heard a chorus of angels. They come in a cardboard box and are individually wrapped in thin plastic bags that are recyclable.

Now don't get me wrong, I know that I'm better off waste wise, not buying these things and I won't be buying them often, but i have to be honest, I'm psyched. I actually ate two of them before lunch (I know, I'm a child).

What can I say, we all have our vices.

Dave

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Day 50 - Tuesday 2/19/08

Today's Haul:

• 1 macaroni and cheese box - recycle
• 1 macaroni and cheese cheese packet - garbage
• 1 can frozen orange juice - recycle
• 2 plastic wraps (more on these in another post) - recycle
• 1 toilet paper roll - worms
• 1 piece scrap paper - worms
• 1 receipt - worms
• 1 used q-tip - worms
• 2 pieces chewed gum in wrappers - garbage

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