Environmental... Whiner?

I have always been what I would call environmentally conscious - my parents always had a backyard compost heap so food scraps never went in the garbage; we used to pick up garbage in the ditch and have can contests at school; I grew up camping in the backcountry of Kejimkujik National Park, respecting the world around me and learning to "pack out" garbage. Gradually, more and more of the world has joined me in this green craze.

I was the one to push for composting at our office and the one who created PowerPoint presentations to teach people how to sort their waste. I am also the one who will dig through the recycling bin at the office and remove the non-recyclable materials! And when I forgot to take reusable bags with me to the grocery store the other day, I hurried across the parking lot guiltily with my plastic bags of food.

So when other people don't take being green as seriously as I do, I get... annoyed. The part that bugs me the most is that I really feel powerless in a lot of situations to do anything other than gripe.

Take "my" beach. For the last 5 months I have been working on a yearlong project, called Daily Ocean, to take a photograph of the ocean by my house each day. And there is often what is technically garbage on the beach -the usual rope, tires, the odd flip flop or rubber boot that you would expect to come from the ocean especially near an active fishery - but on one particular day the tide must have been just right because the beach was littered with bright green, pink, blue and white... tampon applicators. I mean, GROSS! Who wants to see that on their beautiful beach? And what do people think is going to happen to a PLASTIC applicator when they put it in the toilet?

So that is my gripe for the day. And all I can really do about it is gripe... and blog.