The “throwaway” mentality is not a sustainable method of living.  The current status of our Pacific garbage patch, which is full plastic, is staggering, and it is growing.  Chalres Moore gives an excellent TED talk about why plastics are harmful and what we should do to halt the rate of plastics into the environment.  In Kure and Midway atolls many Albatross chicks have been dying with plastics, such as cigarette lighters and bottle caps, in their stomachs.  As consumers we can help to make a transition to using less plastic by doing simple things like buying a stainless steel or glass bottle for holding water or reusing a large glass pasta jar instead of buying bottled water!  It is also important to help at local beach cleanups as that trash is then stopped from floating into the ocean.  It’s amazing how each of our little differences can have large effects – just look at how little by little we have filled the middle of the Pacific with floating plastic trash!