The Wrapper That Missed the Trash Can
| Lennae Starr Seattle Public Utilities |
Nice person picking up trash
See that beautiful blue piece of plastic right there? That’s me. I really thought I was perfect, designed to last forever – but someone thought otherwise and just tossed me carelessly into the street! I’m still in shock! Anyway, this nice person was seconds away from picking me up and taking me to a better place when WHOOSH! The wind blew me right past the grate and into that storm drain…
Fortunately, it had rained the day before and I didn’t fall too far before landing in some… uh… quite dirty water. I can still feel the grime… yuck. I lay in that puddle for a bit, swirling lazily around the other – let’s face it – litter. I had become LITTER. How far the mighty have fallen. We all got to chatting and I learned how others had come to land in this catch basin.
Some, like me, had been simply tossed aside, while others had fallen out of pockets and bags. Some had travelled miles and miles before arriving, stuck to tires or shoes or even carried through the air. For days we lay in that catch basin, until finally… it rained!
It started as a drip here and there from the grate and the inflow pipe above us, then a trickle, a stream, and finally a ROAR! Water came pouring out of the inflow pipe, stirring up the sediments that had been at the bottom and pushing us below the surface. I was so scared. If only someone had picked me up off of that grate sooner, this never would have happened! Just when I thought it was going to be the end of me, SCHLURP! I got sucked into the outlet pipe. Phew!
It was a turbulent few seconds sloshing around the outlet pipe before I was delivered into an underground mainline. I meandered down this new, bigger pipe full of water that was somehow even dirtier than what I had been in before. In the mainline, there were half decayed leaves, pieces of Styrofoam, little pieces of rubber tires and as I bobbed along the surface, I even saw the rainbow sheen of car oil and soap. Somebody better get that leak fixed!
After several twists and turns and drops, I cascaded out of the outfall pipe, leaving the storm drain system at last. Where did I arrive after my arduous journey, you ask? Why, the cold, salty waters of Puget Sound of course! After everything I had been through, I thought I deserved a nice, relaxing vacation. I tried lounging on the beach, but after a few hours the tide carried me back out to deeper waters. Bummer. Next, the current brought me to Elliot Bay to the Great Wheel, but I got caught in the kelp forests near the pier. Another fail. Then, I had the brilliant idea to observe the local wildlife when – you’ll never guess – the wildlife came to ME. GULP!
So here I am now, telling my story from the belly of an orca. She must have thought I was a fish – how embarrassing! No matter, I’m settling in the best I can along the half-digested salmon carcasses and the plastic shopping bags…I’d much rather be in a warm, dry trash can, though. Thanks for listening to my journey from the street to the sound. I’ll see you around! (No, literally – I won’t decompose ever; you’ll see me again).
You can prevent plastic like me from entering the Puget Sound by 1) making sure your trash actually goes into the trash can, and 2) pick a single use plastic to try and quit, and 3) adopting a storm drain!