Real environmentalists tells us, and have a really, really good point
(NJ.ccom) Â When Marilyn Schlossbach stopped offering straws to customers at her restaurants last month, it was not her expenses she was trying to reduce.
An environmentally conscious restaurateur and surfer who has participated annually in beach trash sweeps, Schlossbach said she’s trying to reduce her consumption of plastics.
And while she’s been able to cut down on her expenses because of it, she said she’s more interested in the message of environmental responsibility it sends to her customers and staff.
“When I go on the beach, one of the biggest problems is straw consumption,” Schlossbach said at a press conference at her Langosta Lounge restaurant on the boardwalk in Asbury Park. “I’m hoping our one little thing can ignite people to want to do something similar and cut back on their plastic usage.”
Clean Ocean Action on Wednesday used Schlossbach’s restaurant to kick off its annual summer campaign to educate the public about the dangers of plastics on the marine environment.
While the focus of the article may be on plastic straws, with a mention of some other plastics, especially micro-beads, overall, entirely too much of all the various types of plastics make it into the waters, especially the seas. Bottles, straws, bags, you name it. Over the years, other types of pollutants have been seriously diminished. There was a time when you’d see all sorts of crap, including medical waste from companies illegally dumping it off of NYC (I’ve personally seen empty bags of blood and used needles floating, along with so much other nasty crap), at Jersey beaches. People, unfortunately, also just leave their garbage on the beach, sometimes burying it in the sand, rather than throwing it out.
And then it ends up in the ocean. And it makes it into the ocean from so many other ways. Not all environmental regulation and law is a bad thing. It was rather easy to solve the medical waste issue, and significantly update ocean waste disposal. How do you deal with straws and plastic forks?
