Polar bear entangled in fishing net!

[Box Brownie]

On this evenings news talking about the pollution afflicting our oceans it showed the shameful result of a Polar Bear entangled in and dragging it around. They find it hard enough with the reduction in sea ice to hunt successfully for food.........let alone hampered by that net

 

[gramps]

Saw a Seal in the Farne Islands last year with a nylon rope around its middle and cutting into its flesh, it's a shocking state we have allowed our environment to get into!

 

[GeeJay57]

Tragic. When I was out New Zealand in 2014, I went fishing in a small boat with a couple of friends. On our way out to our anchor point we found a Mollymawk that had become tangled in some fishing gear and then drowned. Awful experience.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buller's_albatross

Alas, I think there is already more than too much plastic and other human detritus in the ocean. It's great that this issue is nearer the public consciousness than it was, but I fear it's too late to for us to be effective in getting rid of it.

 

[GTG]

I seen that on the news also.
Did you see how much plastic crap was in 1 litre of melted Ice ( if it was the same programme )
There must have been dozens of bits.

 

[GeeJay57]

I seen that on the news also.
Did you see how much plastic crap was in 1 litre of melted Ice ( if it was the same programme )
There must have been dozens of bits.

Yes, saw that. There was also the recent commentary from David Attenborough on Blue Planet II and this week an image of a scuba diver/snorkeler in the Indian Ocean surround by plastic rubbish.

 

[Tringa]

It was awful to see the polar bear and the other animals being maimed or killed by our waste. Unfortunately at present we are wedded to plastic. Yesterday I bought a couple of bedside lamps and bulbs. The lamps had a sticker on the bottom with the name and model, and a plastic label attached by a thin plastic cable tie telling me the same thing. There were also two plastic labels with details of which bulbs to use, and the bulbs came in blister packs.

We need a rethink about how plastic is used and recycled. One of the main culprits appears to be plastic water bottles. These can be recycled but unless there is an incentive some, many perhaps, will simply throw them away. I need only look at the local Sunday football pitches to get an idea of how many are thrown away.

If, say, 25p, was added to the cost of a bottle of water that could be reclaimed if you returned the empty bottle it would make a big difference - look what charging 5p for a plastic carrier bag did. This, of course, ignores the fact that needing to have a bottle of water with you at all times is largely a big con. I accept there are times when it is helpful - stuck on a full underground train in the middle of a hot spell, for example, but most of the time it isn't necessary. At least half of my life was lived at a time when there were no plastic bottles of water and other than when I went walking I never carrier any water.

Dave

 

[happy haggis]

I do worry about the state of our beautiful planet, we seem to have no regard for its wellbeing. I’m glad that I’m in My twilight years and have no children of my own. I feel sad that those with the real power have no regard for anything other than money and pay lip service to genuine concerns about the health of our world.
I don’t believe in God, but I don’t worship Mammon either. I think the amount of money paid to CEOs and celebrities is obscene. Soccer stars earning £14m a year whilst nurses and other public service employees get a relative pittance is wrong on so many levels.
Of course, now with Trump saying that they are going to use ‘clean coal’ all will be right with the world, won’t it?

 

[MatBin]

As an aside (sort of) we watched the programme about cruise ships in the Med last night, they were cleaning the sea water inlet filters, the sea water is used to create drinking water etc, each month apparently they clean the filters, the muck that was removed was unbelievable and to think they do it each month was quite appalling.
When I used to Scuba dive the water around the UK was pretty clear of man made crap so things must have declined very quickly as it wasnt that long ago.

 

[MatBin]

We need a rethink about how plastic is used and recycled. One of the main culprits appears to be plastic water bottles. These can be recycled but unless there is an incentive some, many perhaps, will simply throw them away. I need only look at the local Sunday football pitches to get an idea of how many are thrown away.

If, say, 25p, was added to the cost of a bottle of water that could be reclaimed if you returned the empty bottle it would make a big difference - look what charging 5p for a plastic carrier bag did.
Dave

Years ago I worked in an off-licence, most of the (glass) bottles had a refundable deposit, from a marketing point of view it was a winner, people came back to get their deposit back and invariably ended up buying another bottle of the same stuff, seems odd that was changed and as an aside it must have helped with recycling.

 

[gramps]

Years ago I worked in an off-licence, most of the (glass) bottles had a refundable deposit, from a marketing point of view it was a winner, people came back to get their deposit back and invariably ended up buying another bottle of the same stuff, seems odd that was changed and as an aside it must have helped with recycling.

I remember as a kid from a very poor family, going around to find bottles to get the deposits back and have some spending money and invariably some of the money was spent at the shop issuing the refunds. Problem today is that it would take a lot of deposit refunds to buy the latest iPhone, XBox, Nike etc so I doubt many kids would be interested.

 

[MatBin]

I remember as a kid from a very poor family, going around to find bottles to get the deposits back and have some spending money and invariably some of the money was spent at the shop issuing the refunds.

I did the same, especially popular were the huge (to me) glass soda syphon bottles

 

[Pazz68]

Years ago I worked in an off-licence, most of the (glass) bottles had a refundable deposit, from a marketing point of view it was a winner, people came back to get their deposit back and invariably ended up buying another bottle of the same stuff, seems odd that was changed and as an aside it must have helped with recycling.

Totally agree, instead of the proposed sugar tax, make it a deposit added to the price instead to which would increase recycling with people returning to get their deposit back. In addition it will create a new enterprise for youngsters as it did for me in my childhood looking for bottles to take back for deposit that had been discarded. That in turn should offset some of the sugar consumed by the xbox generation as they scurry around looking for recyclables to fund their next fizzy drink or xbox game

Breaks my heart to see some of the recent images on TV of our waste in the oceans

 

[GreenNinja67]

We're trying to be plastic free.

we now have a milkman delivering milk in glass bottles, we're buying bread fresh and the missus has sewn a bread bag so we don't have to be given the loaf in cellophane etc.

Vegetables are being bought loose.

It all helps.

 

[davholla]

I remember as a kid from a very poor family, going around to find bottles to get the deposits back and have some spending money and invariably some of the money was spent at the shop issuing the refunds. Problem today is that it would take a lot of deposit refunds to buy the latest iPhone, XBox, Nike etc so I doubt many kids would be interested.

I don't a lot of kids like apps etc at 25p ago you could get some useful pocket money very quickly.