Ajishima Clean Up - Day 18

Have wheels will travel...

Short and sweet today, and very convenient for me:

One wire framed hand cart
Blue plastic tarp
Two styrofoam buoys
Sheet metal
Rope
Assorted other trash

...all the way to the dump!

This hand cart as abandoned some time ago. The frame is rusted through and the tires are disintegrating. The tarp and styrofoam buoys are as solid and intact as the day they were manufactured.

I wish all of the trash spread over Ajishima was this easy to gather up. I actually had to use a truck today to load this hand cart into. I found it a couple months ago along one of the most beautiful paths on the island. Now, the walkway is even more beautiful, sans a huge pile of garbage!!!

Exhibit A: Styrofoam Buoys

These buoys are solid styrofoam a little bigger than my entire body, but they only weigh a few kilograms. They are wrapped in blue plastic tarps to protect them from the waves and weather and then deployed in the sea by the fishermen. I do not know how they use them specifically, but perhaps they hold up nets, fish farms, or oyster or seaweed cultures.

Once the fishermen are done with they buoys they are disposed of in the sea or in the forest. The styrofoam breaks down into smaller and smaller bits, but it never stops being styrofoam.

The buoys in the picture above are a relatively new addition to Ajishima. They are only a few months old and have not been used at sea yet. I imagine they will be deployed once it warms up. I only hope they will be disposed of properly once the fishermen are done using them. However, experience informs me that they will end up in the sea or some forest sooner or later.

This begs the question: if we choose different materials and consume less stuff overall, then we will have less waste to worry about later on. I am not sure many people think about this kind of thing, but I am obsessed with it now!