Reduce, Reduce, Reduce...before Recycle

Two articles I read today made me cry...

Ocean Conservancy Report: Volunteers Remove Seven Million Pounds of Trash from the Ocean, Lakes, Rivers and Waterways in World’s Only Country-by-Country, State-by-State Analysis of Marine Debris. Report provides a roadmap for eliminating marine debris altogether by reducing it at the source, changing behaviors that cause it, and supporting debris prevention policies.

From the release:

The 2008 International Coastal Cleanup, by the numbers:
This year, 104 countries and locations participated in the Cleanup, a more than 30 percent jump in the number over 2007 -- a powerful demonstration that awareness of the marine debris problem is surging around the globe.
About half of the 390,881 volunteers were from the U.S.; the Philippines, Canada and Japan had the greatest volunteer turnout internationally.
443 animals were found entangled or trapped by marine debris, of those, 268 were found alive and released.
Volunteers removed 6.8 million pounds of debris the weight of 18 blue whales.
Volunteers collected 11.4 million items in all, from cigarette butts to grocery bags to food wrappers.
Volunteers tracked 43 items during the Cleanup; the top three most frequently found items were cigarette butts, plastic bags, and food wrappers/containers. The Top 10 items have remained the same over the past five years.
Volunteers collected 1,362,741 cigarette butts in the United States; 19,504 fishing nets in the United Kingdom; and 11,077 diapers in the Philippines information that can help planners at the local, regional, national, and international levels tackle specific marine debris problems.
Our report shows the same percentage and types of items found along the ocean were found in inland waterway cleanups. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, more than 50 percent of marine debris starts out on land, reinforcing the land-sea connections we all share.

Among the report’s other findings:
Every year, thousands of marine mammals, sea turtles, seabirds, and other animals are sickened, injured, or killed by trash in our ocean. Leaky paint cans, empty yogurt cups, and abandoned fishing gear can lead to entanglement and suffocation of wildlife. Ingested trash can also cause choking, blockage of the digestive system, or toxic poisoning.
Keeping our ocean free of trash is one of the easiest ways we can help improve the ocean’s resilience as it tries to adapt to the harmful effects of climate change such as melting ice, rising sea levels, and changing ocean chemistry. From wildlife like endangered sea turtles and the Hawaiian monk seal to biologically rich ecosystems like coral reefs, life in the ocean will be healthier, more resilient and better able to adapt to climate change in the absence of debris-related impacts.

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"China’s Big Recycling Market Is Sagging" By DAN LEVIN

“Even trash has become worthless,” Mr. Tian said recently as he made his way to a collection center, his sacks nearly bursting.

Sorting through discarded calligraphed sheets of Chairman Mao’s poems, she added, “China now has more garbage than it can digest. Do we really need America’s junk, too?”