My Brain is Telling Me to Litter

 Upstream from the Broderick Boat Ramp, the Sacramento River was infected with the waste of a community.  A rainbow of broken glass shimmered in the mid-summer sun, as I stepped strategically to avoid the litter which covered her banks.  In some areas, I avoided the water fearing I would stumble on a lost murder victim.  Eventually, the rough terrain reinvented itself into mini sand dunes, where fish heads greeted me; their eyes locked in an undiminished gaze as they lay body less, excepting for their spines.  A question sparked my mind: what societal and psychological explanations are there for this epidemic, and what are the long term effects of our perpetuating environmental psychosis.

The boat ramp is just south of the Yolo County Park, in the community of Broderick, which in 1980 was incorporated into the City of West Sacramento. The award for first inhabitant  is given to the Patwin people, a Native American tribe.  The Patwins lived in a sustainable fashion, until the 19th century brought European settlers, illness, arrogance, slavery, and culture and put an end to these people.  The Industrial Revolution, and mass production transformed West Sacramento utterly, evolving the past century into what she is now.  The history section of the cities website proclaims that, "Although the city continues to change and grow even today, its roots are deeply embedded in the community spirit of the past."  So why then is the area so consumed by litter?  Does civic responsibility now include leaving the waste of today for the youth of tomorrow?

A Patwin village.  Notice the sustainable
earthen dwellings, and the close proximity
to  the river and its abundant resources.  Most
importantly, there is no trash!

Responsibility was what was on my mind at the point that our small two man raft pushed off from a relatively less toxic site on the sandy dunes.   Immediately we were confronted by the wake of passing jet skis and boats.  I rigorously cut through the water with my oar, each wave crashing into us and spraying my face with water.  Between each point of impact, I re-lived my walk through the valley of the shadow of trash, wondering why civic responsibility did not outweigh the urge to decimate our communities.

Searching for a clue, I came across a study done in 1969 by Dr. Phillip Zimbardo, which would become the basis for the “broken window” theory.  His website, (Zimbardo.com) lists Dr. Zimbardo  as a 2 time president of the Western Psychological Association, and a Professor of Psychology at NY State University.  According to the Florida State Criminology Department,  Zimbardo left a car with no license plate, and its hood popped open in the Bronx, and Palo Alto, California ( a more affluent area).  The car in the Bronx was ransacked very quickly, however, the one in California remained unscathed.  The professor then smashed one of its windows, and the car in California slowly began resembling the one in the Bronx.  This study from Stanford University proved one point: some crimes such as littering are in fact contagious!  That is to say, once it appears evident that an act has taken place (a shattered window in this case), it is much more likely that similar acts will be repeated by others.  So in the case of the Sacramento River, once the ground became a dustbin for one, it essentially became one for all.  But was that the only aspect of the littering problem, or was I  just scratching the surface?

 Paddling through the waves, under the cloudless blue sky,  I knew that soon the trip would be over, and that I would once again be greeted by the wave of byproducts that tell our story.  5gyres.org, states that 80% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch comes from our debris on land.  Garbage is absorbed by the flows of wind and water, eventually being taken to the sea, expanding the trash heap. It is impossible to tell the size of the beast, which is above and below water, and spread across the ocean.  Sources put the size of the Pacific patch at ranging from the size of Texas, to the size of the continental United States.  We do know that amassed in the accumulation, is predominently un-biodegradable material that could swish around in the currents of the ocean for eternity.  Estimates on the amount of plastic bottles alone consumed by Americans vary, but recycling-revolution.net says, Americans use 2,500,000 plastic bottles per year.

    I heard a squawking above me and looked up to see a formation of white birds, flying northbound.  They scattered, as Tupac Shakur echoed from a massive sound system supported by a speed boat down river.

"It's time we start makin' some changes.  Lets change the way we live..."

Noticing the consequence of the birds flight path with the music, I wondered how biodiversity was effected by the much heavier problem of litter.  What I found made me sick.

Above:  The 5 oceanic gyres.  Each white oval represents
a patch of garbage.  Below:  Another victim of our garbage
epidemic.  Notice the plastic in its stomach cavity.

In some parts of the ocean, there is more plastic than plankton.  A CNN article by John D. Sutter discusses sea turtles and monk seals, who mistakenly eat floating plastic bags confusing them for jellyfish.  And of course, what story about litter would be complete without mentioning the infamous plastic six pack rings, which traps animals, causing them deformities, or death.  Charles Moore, founder of Agalita, reveals startling information at a presentation he gave at TED, in February 2009.  Moore said that in necropsy's of hundreds of specimens,  1/3 had condensed pollution-full plastic particles in their stomachs.   These fish are the base species for some marine tropic structures, and they feed off of garbage, which pollutes the marine hierarchy.  More startling than plastic filled water samples, were the photographs of rotting bird carcases literally filled with plastics.  Most of this was bottle caps, which elder birds confuse for food and feed their young, but a variety of plastics filled these poor birds stomachs in life, and will continue to litter the ground once the                                    
lifeless body around it decays into dust.


It was Charles Moore who gave me my second, and equally compelling clue: the "throwaway lifestyle."  This term, coined in a 1955 Life Magazine article.  When refering to the flying plasticwares in the photo below, the article reads, "They are all meant to be thrown away after use"  Such things as paper plates, disposable diapers, and "popcorn that pops in its own pan" is discussed in such a fascinating way.  After all, as the article says, "Most of these items are new."  This lifestyle fundamentally became America. We work, we buy, and we throw away, many times for no other reason than perceived obsolescence.  Sure, our lives became somewhat easier with the advent of disposables, but at what cost?  The ecology and aesthetic properties of our land, wildlife, waterways, and oceans are in jeopardy.  The lifestyle promoted in the fifties is no longer acceptable today, as landfills reach capacity.  We have so much garbage that it now fills the shores of uninhabited islands.  We have a mass of garbage that is nearly, if not completely impossible to remedy.  Consuming less, wasting less, and ending littering are the solutions to the problem on land, which intertwines with the problem at sea.  Places like the Yolo County Park need to be preserved in all of their glory, which is presently covered by Kit Kat wrappers and beer bottles.

The time for change had come.  That much had become evident as our raft reached the rivers edge, garbage floating where the water met land.  Tupac became audible again as I opened up my car door.



"You see the old way wasn't workin', so it's on us to do what we gotta do to survive..."

Then it was silent, except for the wind.  A plastic bag flew elegantly through the sky.