I can get into that summer state of mind

The weather is just starting to turn here and all the trees and flowers are in full bloom. I am a planner by nature, so I jump ahead and start thinking of our summer weekends and how we plan to fill them. We are lucky that we live only 45 minutes from the ocean, so we visit fairly often during the hot summer months. My mind drifts off to seeing the dolphins each morning at sunrise (yes, NJ has dolphins!), spending hours building sandcastles with my son, and reading a good book while hubby takes our son in the ocean for a swim.

This year though, I cannot conjure up those lovely images, because I am haunted by these instead:

ICK! The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Before plastic made its way into our everyday lives, there was still garbage in the oceans. But that garbage was mostly biodegradable. Plastic does not biodegrade, but when exposed to sunlight it photo-degrades, breaking down into smaller and smaller particles and finally breaking down into “nurdles”(tiny grains that are the building blocks of most modern plastics). Nurdles soak up waterborne toxins like pesticides and cooling agents. Then the nurdles are consumed by filter-feeders at the bottom of the food chain and these toxins make their way up the food chain and onto your plate. So, yes, you drink that crap. And yes, you eat it too. Revolting, isn't it?

So, what can we do to help clean up this mess that we all made? The most important thing we can do is STOP USING PLASTIC. Stop using plastic grocery bags, stop buying plastic bottles of water, juice, and soda. Take action: write companies who package their goods in plastic and urge them to use earth friendly packaging instead. Recycle as much as you possibly can. Pick up litter on the road, at the park, in the parking lots, and on vacation. It will eventually find its way to our water and the only way to stop it is to stop our dependence on plastic and clean up after ourselves.