Thank you White Hawk for reminding us all of this. I have seen the reports on the news each evening and it reminds me of sailing trip I made 20 years ago around the Philippine Islands.
There we were no land in sight for days, but some very large black dustbin bags would float past regularly. Since then I have refused PBs whenever possible and I am very aware of packaging and whether it is really necessary to wrap banana's in a plastic bag in the supermarket for instance. Plastic was not common when I was a child (about 30 years ago) but its effects will be with us for centuries.
I recall standing behind one lady in a shop who bought something in a box and refused the PB that the assistant offered. She then said "I also don't need most of this packaging so I am going to leave it with you to dispose of" and promptly took out the items she needed (hair product) and left the unnecessary packaging with the stunned shop assistant. What wasn't said was that shops in UK have to pay to have their rubbish removed........ 2 strikes to that lady I say!
Actually 3 strikes because I tell that story to as many people as I can!
If we all took a leaf from this example, the shops would have a huge rubbish disposal bill and then they might understand that we don't want it foisted on us.
I did something similar in a shop overseas recently and was surprised to hear a voice behind me in the queue saying "I wish more people would do that"- so I guess if we all try our best (and that doesn't mean being 100% perfect) we can be what Gandhi suggested - be the change you wish to see in the world.
