Persistent as Plastic

When I was a kid there was a slogan seen everywhere, “Give a hoot. Don’t pollute!” We need an update to that slogan, because plastic pollution hasn’t gone away during the pandemic. In fact, it seems to have gotten worse–in my town anyway. Several years ago, I decided to start picking up all the plastic trash I see whenever I go for a walk. I live in Suisun City, a historical town on a slough that connects to the San Francisco Estuary. I made the commitment when I noticed a plastic bag looped through an iron railing above the water while I was out on a walk. “I’ll grab that and throw it away on my way back,” I said to myself. I was well aware of what happens to plastic in water, how it breaks down to miniscule pieces that are mistaken for food by fish and birds. But when I returned, the bag was in the water ten feet below and irretrievable without a boat. That was the day I decided that I could make a small difference by retrieving any plastic trash I see in my town and keeping it out of the Bay and Pacific Ocean.