So much plastic awareness is based on plastics polluting our oceans. And while our trash here in Mid-America does find its way to the coasts, the on-land plastics pollution problem seems to get a lot less press. This might seem to let those of us in fly-over areas off the hook, but that isn’t at all true.
According to a study published in 2018, our soils contain from 4 to 23 times the plastic pollution as our oceans. So, while ocean-going plastics break into micro-particles that attract long-dormant poisons, and then are eaten by zooplankton, on land something slightly different occurs.
“Think about it. Why would you make something that you're going to use for a few minutes out of a material that's basically going to last forever, and you're just going to throw it away. What's up with that?" --Jeb Berrier
As plastics break down, they gain new physical and chemical properties on land, as sunlight and more extreme heat and cold temperatures on land than in oceans degrade them. These particles bind with contaminants in the soil, where they are consumed by earthworms and other decomposers, which are then eaten by larger animals, and so the contaminants work their way up the food chain. Also, the microplastics inhibit the consumption of other food so many animals are malnourished and starving with full bellies of microplastics. They are starving, so they are in turn less nutritious to those that eat them along with the plastics and toxins they contain, and so it travels up the food chain.
What can we do?
So much advice about living a zero-plastics life depend on access to large shopping experiences where you can purchase items in bulk. Many of us in middle America don’t have that sort of access. That doesn’t mean we rural and small town folks should just throw up our hands and give up. It also doesn’t necessarily mean we have to order all our zero waste goods online (though that is OK too!) Instead, we just need to think outside the box a little more.
We rural folks can do many of the eco friendly basics: Shopping totes, fabric produce bags, reuseable water bottles and coffee containers, forego plastic straws unless you need them medically, pack a lunch instead of a store packaged one, and so on.
But here, where so much of our world’s food is produced, we might have unique access to many things. And I think that local political action groups, churches, book clubs, mommy groups and any other meeting of like-minded people are gifts if you want to reduce your footprint.
For instance, I attend a UU church in a medium-sized town about an hour away. Near my home is an orchard that sells apples, potatoes, onions and other root veggies, along with their own honey, local maple syrup, and other foods all winter long. Most of their items are packaged in re-used boxes, or paper bags or recycled glass jars. I have offered to post on my church’s facebook on Friday what the orchard is selling and the price, and then bring what people want on Sunday.
Perhaps there is someone in your Mommy group that bakes, and who can take bread orders to be delivered wrapped in paper or cloth at the group dates. There might be a soap maker in your book club, a person who keeps chickens with eggs to sell in your New Moon group. Research small butchers in your region. The one I use wraps in butcher paper and freezes the meat. Get together with your group and take orders to share a pig, or part of a cow, whole chickens or turkeys, or some specially made sausages that don’t come in plastic wrapped styrofoam trays. With the easing of regulations, small and fairly local butchers might be a safer bet for meat now anyway. A local beekeeper might sell you some honey in your own sterilized recycled jars or your group could keep a couple of hives and share the work and expense. Could your group go together and buy a 55 gallon drum of shampoo or dish soap? Could your group start a garden, and share fresh herbs and veggies with no packaging? Does that person have access to a farm manure pile to get some composting worms so members of your group can vermicompost your papers and boxes?
Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rehome, Replant, Rot.
I think the key is going to be finding local like-minded folks, and then figuring out who has access to what. Get together and make lists of what products you can’t easily find that don’t have plastic packaging, and then see how your group can solve those problems. While you are at it, let others know if you might need something that someone else is throwing out. Maybe they have a bread machine, and you need one. Or you have kombucha scobies and they killed their mother. I might have too many tomatoes in August, and you might have some Tupperware you are getting rid of.
Of course, this means meeting people face to face. Getting to know people around you and working together to problem solve. If you don’t have a group, think about joining one, or creating one, or searching for a Meet-up, or posting something in your local Craigslist or on the board at your local library. Your county Democratic Party group might have some interested members, and you could protest and then exchange plastic free tips while holding recycled protest signs. Maybe connect with your local community college and see if they have community education courses on going plastic free. If they don’t, offer to get a class started, and network from there.
We don’t live in big cities. We don’t live on a coast. But we are powerful, smart, resourceful people whose ancestors built these parts of the country that we love. Many of us have our roots deep into our local areas. Lets protect our roots, both figuratively and literally by protecting our soils and waterways.
We can do this.
