Local environmentalist finds plastic word of warning in bay

A LOCAL filmmaker and environmentalist concerned about the amount of plastic being dumped in our oceans has captured a photo that strongly supports his argument.

Jarrod Boord said that there was no clearer sign than the piece of Caution Tape he captured on camera floating in the bay.

“Marine debris comes in all shapes and sizes, from micro plastics small enough for plankton to ingest to larger pieces of plastic that are mistaken for food by seabirds and ultimately kill them,” Mr Boord said.

“According to livescience.com, in one recent study 90 per cent of birds had ingested plastics such as twine, styrofoam and wrappers, and an average of 36.8 pieces were found per bird.”

Mr Boord said that our precious ecosystem was being destroyed and asked how our society got to this place of waste.

“Every time I shop I feel a sense of despair that the corn I am presented with in the supermarket has been wrapped up in two types of plastics, when it naturally comes pre-wrapped off the stalk – it’s ludicrous!

“The lettuce is wrapped up in plastic, the meat is wrapped in plastic, the cucumber is wrapped in plastic… the list goes on.”

He said there were alternatives to using plastic, including going to the green grocer and growing your own.

“However, the real issue here is convenience, the local supermarket is often the most convenient place to buy these items wrapped in plastic.

“So until they change their packaging, we will keep buying them.

“I am personally guilty of occasionally buying products that are unnecessarily wrapped in plastic due to convenience.

“However, I do what I can, where I can.”

Mr Boord said he owned a re-usable cup to get his take-away coffees, he took his own bags to the supermarket and when he forget them he could be seen walking out to his car dropping a dozen eggs in the carpark because he had tried to carry a trolley’s worth of shopping due to his hatred of plastic shopping bags.

“The problem is so big, it feels overwhelming, however I truly believe that we can all do something to help.

“If you’re not in a rush and don’t have a reusable coffee cup, why not sit down and take five minutes for yourself and drink your coffee in a glass or a mug?

“Choose items that are not wrapped in plastic – corn can still be bought in its natural husk just next to the plastic wrapped version, say no to bags, even when it’s multiple items you have to carry, just don’t drop the eggs!”