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Presented in partnership YOUR TURF
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Your plastic footprint
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The contents of a single South Pacific seabird’s stomach reveal all types of plastic debris — even a lighter. Photo by Susan Middleton © 2005, All Rights Reserved. |
In a memorable scene from the 1968 movie, “The Graduate,” recent Harvard graduate Benjamin Braddock is given a single word of advice from one of his father’s friends: “Plastics.” It probably would have been good business advice in 1968, but it hasn’t worked out so well for planet Earth.
Plastic is everywhere. Plastic containers hold food, beverages, shampoo and household cleaning products. Plastic bags protect your newspaper from the elements and plastic bags cover your dry cleaning. That toy is not a rubber duckie, but a plastic duckie.
All this plastic does not biodegrade. It photodegrades when exposed to ultraviolet light and slowly breaks up into smaller and smaller pieces that persist in the environment. Even before the plastic hits the landfill, stress from heat and light will cause plastic objects such as soda bottles, for example, to release trace amounts of the chemicals they are made of. One of the most hideous examples of the permanence of plastic is a swirling heap of debris — about twice the size of Texas — in the Pacific Ocean. The debris is 80 percent plastic and weighs about 3.5 million tons.
Just as we have carbon footprints and nitrogen footprints, we also have plastic footprints. (Rise Above Plastics promises that a “plastic calculator” that helps measure your plastic footprint will soon be available at www.riseaboveplastics.org).
To combat the increasing flood of plastic, cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles and Westport, Conn., have banned the use of plastic bags in stores. In the U.S. at least 100 billion plastic bags are used every year, and only about 5 percent are recycled. Banning the bags is a way to decrease their use, but Ireland has levied a tax on plastic bags, successfully reducing their use by 90%.
Doing without plastic products is probably impossible, but reducing our reliance on them can be done.
Is winterkill a problem at your course? If the answer is yes, tune into GCSAA’s webcast series on March 12, when Kevin Frank, Ph.D., and Brian Horgan, Ph.D., will present “Addressing the Challenges of Winter Injury in Northern Climates.” The webcast will discuss the various causes of winterkill and provide tools to recover as quickly as possible from sustained losses. The program will also address a variety of management approaches, recent research on recovery and public relations techniques to communicate the issues to your golfing members. For more information, contact GCSAA Education, 800-472-7878, or visit www.gcsaa.org/education/webcast/webcast.aspx. A booklet recently released by the Turf Resource Center is designed to help turf managers make informed decisions regarding installation of natural grass or artificial turf. Titled Natural Grass and Artificial Turf: Separating Myths and Facts, the booklet includes facts based on scientifically documented information as well as commonly heard myths about artificial turf and natural grass. To request free copies of the booklet, visit www.turfresourcecenter.org to print out and fill out an order form, and send it via mail to the Turf Resource Center, 2 East Main Street, East Dundee, IL 60118, or via fax to 847-649-5678. |
