The Green Lawn and Plastics Trade Off

In going around Lake Elkhorn today you can see the results of the fertilizer that is put on lawns in Columbia.  The algae bloom is the result of the nitrogen in lawn fertilizer.  This is becoming a problem that extends from Lake Elkhorn to the Chesapeake Bay. The alga dies and drops to the bottom of the body of water and steals oxygen that affects fish and other wildlife. This is a direct cause and effect.

If you also look at the picture above you see the plastic bottles that cause another problem that gets passed on to our oceans.  In the Pacific Ocean is an area called the Great Pacific Garbage Dump and is larger than the United States that collects the plastic containers discharged on land and end up swirling around in the Pacific. Currents in the Pacific cause the plastic to swirl in a circular fashion.  Fish eat the plastic and then we eat the fish so we are eating the plastic. What should we do? First use less plastic and second recycle what we use.