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Old 06-18-2020, 04:00 PM   #1
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Mylar Balloons

They really are a scourge. We have seen them everywhere on the water up and down the east coast and the Chesapeake.

265 of them collected in six weeks on Cumberland Island's beach. And those are just the one's which washed up.

I have just written to Publix and Winn Dixie pointing out that this national treasure sits right here where their businesses are and they really need to start the ball rolling on not selling them.

https://www.facebook.com/CumberlandI...48848908505996
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Old 06-18-2020, 04:10 PM   #2
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Right on, and it's not limited to there. There is this whole trend of having ceremonies, typically memorial services, where everyone is given a balloon and on cue releases it.
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Old 06-18-2020, 04:32 PM   #3
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Mr. m. I fully agree with you!!! Unfortunately, like trying to ban other single use plastics you're pleas are falling on deaf ears. As an aside, I've slashed my hands so many times on those blister packs that now, when I open one (IF I can), I put on heavy work gloves.


Greta made headline news decrying the burning of fossil fuels that apparently are leading to climate change but climate change IMO is a red herring. Humans can adapt, move facilities etc. NOT cheap BUT it can be done.


What Greta SHOULD have been protesting is the contamination of our oceans and environment with plastics. Kill the oceans and humans can NOT adapt. We're dead.


China, Indonesia and India have been singled out as the leading sources of plastic pollution of the oceans. What is never mentioned is that the source of that plastic pollution is first world countries who ship their plastic waste to third world countries for "processing".
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Old 06-18-2020, 05:41 PM   #4
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It is amazing how totally ignorant people are. I think "Marine life matters too" Our sea creatures have no opportunity to make a better life for themselves we humans need to do things that don't degrade their life. That is my thoughts. Just so everyone understands I think every life matters which includes all living creatures. I do believe humans can make a choice as to the quality of their life.
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Old 06-18-2020, 06:00 PM   #5
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Mylar balloons raise hell high tension electrical lines.
Whales apparently like to fill up on plastic
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Old 06-18-2020, 07:19 PM   #6
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IMHO, "disposable" plastics are the scourge of the industrial world. And I agree with RT, perhaps even the death knell for mankind.

Here is one of the better articles on the amount of plastics in the oceans:

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/e...garbage-patch/

We literally have to stop - stop NOW - using plastic as a "disposable" anything, whether it is bags, balloons, bottles or lawn chairs. But the reason the grocery stores sell the balloons and plastic bottles is simple profit. People buy those damn balloons and plastic containers because it is a convenience. The slippery slope...

I struggle with the idea of how to get people to stop using plastics. Educate the public on the repercussions of this awful product versus should the government just ban it all? The first idea takes too long and the other will never happen.

Sadly,
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Old 06-18-2020, 07:52 PM   #7
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We use reusable for grocery shopping but there is still plenty of plastic going out the doors.

They now charge you for plastic bags in the UK and Ireland, forcing people to buy reusables.

Why not in the US? 5 cents a plastic bag. 4 cents of that to a education and recycling program. Even though its a drop in the shopping bucket people are funny about paying any small amount for "nothing!" Plus it may make them think.
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Old 06-18-2020, 08:13 PM   #8
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NY outlawed "single use" plastic... eg groceries.
We reused EVERY one of those for garbage in various places. Our locality Requires garbage be in plastic!!!
We now have to buy more to use once for garbage... makes no sense to me?
The extreme, heavy duty, unnecessary multi level plastic packaging is OK but not a reusable bag?
Deposit for beer, soda, now water is a joke. Our state gets about half of the "excess" for bottles not returned and puts it in the general fund. It's a revenue stream and state has little interest in using that $ to enhance or encourage reuse or additional recycling.
Why can't states & local entities demonstrate some leadership and place a priority on buying products with higher recycle content?
Why aren't states demonstrating leadership by converting govt building energy use to environmentally friendly instead of just setting goals that the private sector should meet?
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Old 06-18-2020, 08:20 PM   #9
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We have them in Ct also..No deposit on baloons but 10 cent cost for a plastic bag. However suspended due to covid
AKA free for all
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Old 06-18-2020, 08:25 PM   #10
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Bacchus, I think the issue is recycling is not profitable so really of minimum interest to the private sector.

The US is hesitant to introduce additional costly local "public utilities," which frankly I get to a degree.

But we have to get to a common ground - to somehow incentivising non-use of single use plastics while incentivising recycling.
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Old 06-18-2020, 08:33 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jleonard View Post
We have them in Ct also..No deposit on baloons but 10 cent cost for a plastic bag. However suspended due to covid
AKA free for all
So two thoughts.

Why would they suspend a 10 cents per bag charge due to COVID? It really is more of a message than a hardship.

And if people hadn't already started using reusable bags because of the extra charge prior to COVID, then it really isn't "sticking."

So a re-look is probably needed.
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Old 06-18-2020, 08:39 PM   #12
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Container deposits help. Free supermarket bags are largely banned now. I have seen stories and film of plastic pieces being removed from the stomachs of dead birds and animals, it clogs their stomachs, they die of starvation, even baby birds get fed it by foraging parents. There is fine polyester thread from clothing being ingested too.
Too many people,a world now unable to dispose of its rubbish. The world is telling us something but our inbuilt desire to procreate comes first. It cannot end well.
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Old 06-18-2020, 08:51 PM   #13
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This really is something we boaters have an interest in, since we ply one of the greatest resources on earth.

We snorkel and dive reefs.

We fish.

We marvel at the dolphins that ride our wakes.

We sit in our cockpits with a glass in hand of an evening, watching a sunset, and we sigh.

We post photos of all this, because we love it.

We are not what is traditionally tagged as "tree huggers," because we own relatively expensive boats.

When we talk about the environment we float in, we cannot be labeled as C or D or L, we should be labeled at boaters, those who get huge rewards from being out there on the water.

So what can we do? That is positive without being labeled as being of one political bent versus another.

What can we as boaters do to simply make our waining years as enjoyable as we can while protecting the environment we chose to live in.

There are millions of us around the world. We have a common core. It can be powerful.

And yet...
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Old 06-18-2020, 09:02 PM   #14
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Warning...very depressing photos of plastics impact on sea birds:

https://www.plasticpollutioncoalitio...lution-problem

Welcome to the Anthropocene.
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Old 06-18-2020, 09:22 PM   #15
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Greetings,
Mr. m. Stores have gone back to single use plastic bags instead of reusable ones due to potential transfer of the virus via bag contamination.



A 5 or 10 cent cost for a single use bag is not really any incentive for the public to not use them. Outright banning seems to be the only way to get rid of them.


What can we do? As much as I think Greta got her priorities mixed, perhaps someone can convince her to get on the plastic bandwagon.


As far as recycling the single use bags and the non profitability...It's not just the US that ships plastic waste to third world countries, it's MOST developed countries in the world. NO country that I'm aware of has the technology to treat this type of waste. Once it's out of sight and ends up in Indonesia, it's gone with regards to the exporting country. Thing is, Indonesia doesn't have the technology either and it simply ends up in the waterways and ultimately the oceans.



Yup. Yet again, follow the $$.
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Old 06-18-2020, 09:28 PM   #16
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I think most receiving countries stopped accepting plastics, some even sent it back. Often it was contaminated with non recyclables. Banning supermarket bags has helped here, now we carry ones the supermarkets sell us to reuse and reuse. You get used to it, eventually. But there are so many kinds of plastic,I fear it`s a losing battle.
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Old 06-18-2020, 10:11 PM   #17
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Back to the original post. I would fully support a ban on mylar balloons. They are a real problem in Southern California, especially when we have Santa Ana winds which blow from the east. Sometimes the ocean is littered with the damn things. One of the local fishing websites started a contest to encourage anglers to gather them up giving prizes away regularly. I even won myself. I gather them every time I can stop. One time coming back from Catalina around Valentines Day there were so many red balloons I just had to give up or I was never going to make it home.

https://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/th...ts-now.679096/
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Old 06-18-2020, 11:42 PM   #18
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The day my delivery captains were heading up Lake Michigan there was some fog. They got 22 visually confirmed false radar targets from Mylar balloons. Funny until you stop taking them seriously and miss a real target.
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Old 06-19-2020, 06:23 AM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by menzies View Post
Bacchus, I think the issue is recycling is not profitable so really of minimum interest to the private sector.

The US is hesitant to introduce additional costly local "public utilities," which frankly I get to a degree.

But we have to get to a common ground - to somehow incentivising non-use of single use plastics while incentivising recycling.
Exactly my point!
If doing the "right" things re recycle aren't "profitable" on their own maybe there needs to be some incentives / offsets derived from the bad products to make recycle work. Use "excess" bottle deposits to help recycle NOT move to general fund to spend somewhere else.
Why wouldn't a fixed price per KWH be fair?
Use the difference in production costs to help subsidize more costly "green" sources... at least to get them up and running.
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Old 06-19-2020, 07:11 AM   #20
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Quote:
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So two thoughts.

Why would they suspend a 10 cents per bag charge due to COVID? It really is more of a message than a hardship.

And if people hadn't already started using reusable bags because of the extra charge prior to COVID, then it really isn't "sticking."

So a re-look is probably needed.
I assume they do not want people to bring their possibly contaminated bags into the store. The cashiers and packers will not pack into them
They only want to pack into fresh new bags.
And this is Ct so logic has no part in this play
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