People are Garbage, part I

In my efforts to get out of the house and meet more people, I've signed up with a handful of volunteer organizations. I've already been out on a couple of projects, both involving local cleanup.

It's a worthy effort, especially considering the Pacific trash patch and the increasing problem of microplastics, but frustrating nonetheless.

Because not enough is being done to prevent it in the first place.

My first cleanup project was Adopt-A-Highway with the Pacific Whale Foundation. One Monday morning a bunch of staff and me and a volunteer from Switzerland (!) piled into two vans to tackle a stretch of the main highway.

Cans, bottles, fast food containers, SO MANY CIGARETTE BUTTS. It was expected, but still disappointing.

And the microplastics issue became obvious when I tried to pick up some plastic bottles lying in the dirt. They literally disintegrated in my hand, leaving behind a galaxy of minuscule plastic bits.

I ended up digging down and dumping handfuls of dirt into my collection bag to be sure I didn't miss anything that could be eaten by an animal or washed into the ocean.

You're not even safe if you don't eat fish or
drink bottled water. Microplastics can be
inhaled and damage organs that way as well.

My second cleanup outing was for International Beach Cleanup Day. With most of the choice beach sites already assigned, I partnered with a woman who comes to Maui from California a few times a year, and the two of us took a stretch of the main highway that runs through town.

Again, cans, bottles, fast food containers. Also, clothing, diapers, plastic wrappers, building materials, and we picked up more than 200 cigarette butts in one hour! By the end of it, I felt both proud we'd made a difference and disgusted by our haul.

First, people need to take more responsibility for themselves and their impact. Second, officials need to make it easier for people to step up. My gripe in this regard relates to recycling.

When we lived in San Francisco, we were recycling and composting to (what we thought) was the best of our ability.

This is just the
cruise schedule,
adding 2,000+
people per ship
to an island
of 155,000.
Many more tourists
come on their own.

Then we moved to Germany, where recycling is done on a whole different level but there are massive bins out on the streets every few blocks so people have no excuse to plead inconvenience or cost.

While I didn't expect that same level of diligence when we moved to Maui, as a relatively closed and isolated ecosystem I certainly expected more than what's available here.

The lack of curbside recycling I can handle because the closest recycling center is only a 10-minute drive away. But the limitations on what can be recycled are frustrating, and the fact that there was briefly an electronics recycling program that is now dead is heartbreaking.

From what I've read, the primary reason is economics. Apparently, there's not enough of a population base to make it cost-efficient to collect and sell the recyclables generated here.

Understandable at first glance, but not when the local population is constantly supplemented by tourists, who contribute heavily to the increase in consumable packing, plastic bottles, and cigarette butts. Tax. Those. People.

I'm not even going to go into the politics of origins--how retailers and food providers could be more conscious about how they package and serve items here. Or the politics of economics--how apparently state funding goes first to Oahu to support Honolulu, and the other islands are left with the dregs.

If we are what we eat (or drink or breathe), then all that stuff we so mindlessly toss away is coming back to haunt us. 

It's an age-old American problem (we wear the consumerism crown!) with accelerating and expanding negative implications. The kind of thing I love to sink my teeth into. As crazy as it sounds, this fight feels like home.