A Labor of Hercules

A Labor for Hercules

When speaking of cleaning our oceans, the old advice of “an ounce of prevention” applies. Had government and the press effectively interceded at a critical moment, not only would Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” have resulted in the banning of DDT, but it would have stopped the dumping of over 25,000 barrels of DDT tainted toxic waste off the coast between Los Angeles and Catalina Island by a major manufacturer of DDT back in the 1970’s. And that is just the ones they know about.

Those barrels have begun to leak, and fish near the site have tested with dangerous levels of DDT in them. Local sea lions are exhibiting an increased incidence of cancer.

Other than recent press exploring how the dump happened and speculation about its implications, the world treats this news with a shrug. Apparently, what happens offshore stays offshore.

We do have Super Fund toxic waste clean up programs. Boston Harbor and New York Harbor are two of the beneficiaries of the Super Fund, but who knows their status after four years of the EPA being targeted for dismantling?

But we are now recycling our plastics and keeping them out of the ocean. That deserves a pat on the back. Right?

Well, maybe for good intentions. Not so much for effectiveness. 66% of the paper and 27% of the glass gets recycled.

Columbia University reported that only 9% of the plastic we put in our bins actually gets recycled. Only plastics showing a recycling number of 1 or 2 are commercially viable. Those numbered 3 - 7 are rejected and exported to other countries for disposal. China used to accept our low grades of plastic waste but stopped in 2018.

And how do those countries then rid themselves of our waste? Incineration is one way, but dumping is another. And no one’s looking, so some of the waste gets dumped into the ocean, just not initially near our shores.

It is estimated that 9 million tons of plastic gets dumped into the oceans each year. Because it is located within one of the notorious ocean trash patches, some of that plastic and other sea trash washes ashore on one of Hawaii’s northernmost islands. They, to their credit, harvest much of the trash and burn it for energy.

So what can we do?

We have to start where we are, so on a day to day basis we can look for packaging showing a 1 or a 2. Also we can treat water with respect and not toss our trash into it. It matters not whether it is a steam or the ocean, a good rain can send our trash sailing toward the mother of waters.

But probably of more importance is to teach our children about the interconnectivity of life to our oceans, our lands and our air. We want to motivate them to discover better uses for our waste. Maybe they will discover a good way to turn plastic waste into bricks for construction or into solar panels, or paving materials.

Also, changing behavior through instruction or reason is less effective than changing behavior by changing the environment. Single outlet communities do not have the speeding problems that through streets have. Similarly if you take plastic bottles off the shelf, the consumer will reach for the cardboard container. If we don’t ship our trash off to other countries, they won’t have it to re-dump.

Of course, to modify the environment to cause change in behavior, requires broad social action involving governments, businesses, and citizens. We can seek that at the polls and with our consumer choices. Education also has its role to play.

The cleanup of our oceans and our planet is our labor. Hercules could help, but even he could not do it alone.