3 Small Ways You Can Reduce Your Plastic Footprint

Or: How I Learned to Sorta Stop Worrying and Start Using Less Plastic

A vortex of shit.

See that? Those colored areas are the estimated size and location of the giant plastic “patch” floating in the Pacific Ocean. As you can probably tell, there appears to be more than 1 patch. 2 or maybe even 3? Or whatever the fuck.

In reality:

The name “Pacific Garbage Patch” has led many to believe that this area is a large and continuous patch of easily visible marine debris items such as bottles and other litter — akin to a literal island of trash that should be visible with satellite or aerial photographs. While higher concentrations of litter items can be found in this area, along with other debris such as derelict fishing nets, much of the debris is actually small pieces of floating plastic that are not immediately evident to the naked eye.

Oh good! I’ve deliberately neglected to insert some of the more lurid images from said patch, but if for some reason you need a quick downer (who doesn’t love a good downer, right?), do a quick Google image search for “Giant Pacific Garbage Patch” and scroll down. Go ahead, I’ll wait. I’ll also have tissues. And Xanax.

Alright! Alright! Enough! Suck it up buttercup, because all is not lost just yet…