Plastic-free Asheville

 Thanks to Mountain Xpress for writing about this issue. If I lived or worked in Asheville, I could take the survey. I live in Black Mountain, in Buncombe County, so I can work for their becoming plastic free (or reduced plastic use!)

"Dear readers, Plastic trash is everywhere. Sure, I occasionally see bottles, bags and foam cups overflowing from trash cans at park picnic shelters or in fast food parking lots. But I didn’t realize just how prevalent plastic has become until I asked river watchers at MountainTrue why they are urging the city of Asheville to ban single-use plastic bags. When plastic stops being a bag, bottle, wrapper or cup, it breaks down to become plastic film, choking small creatures in our otherwise pristine national parks and remote rivers, says Anna Alsobrook, watershed science and policy manager for MountainTrue. “A lot of people would assume that if you took a water sample in the middle of the national forest it wouldn’t have any microplastics in it but that’s not the case anymore. These microplastics are carried by wind and dust and rain and weather so we have found them everywhere,” she says. You can weigh in by taking the city of Asheville’s survey online through Sunday, April 30. Don’t forget your reusable bags,

— Greg Parlier, reporter" As I mentioned in another post, micro plastic fibers are everywhere, in our food, drinks, and the air we breathe. You may think you're reacting to pollen and allergies but think about how micro-plastic might affect your breathing also. I bought a red micro-fiber blanket once (and gave it away!) and found it let float off of it little visible micro-fibers. Because they were red they showed up everywhere. So I totally believe plastic is in the air, water, and soil where fruits and vegetables are grown. I wonder if they can be washed off from organic produce. Just a thought. So to combat the plastic revolution which started maybe in the 40s-50s, we do know how to live without it...think of how MAGA folks think life should return to those times. They are right that pollution hadn't become recognized. But by the 60s we saw what man was doing to the environment, and the clean air act, and the Environmental Protection Agency came about. So to reduce single-use plastic, we can do simple things like carry reusuable bags to grocery stores.The recycling stories are mainly about how little actually can be recycled. And talk about it with friends. What are we each doing to reduce single-use plastic? It's not such a bad conversation to have! OK, I've brought my opinions into the Black Mountain blog...my bad. But to let you know my personal status, I'm having trouble looking at screens, so am thinking I may not be able to blog at all after getting the second cataract done, at least for a few weeks. Sorry dear friends. But we'll see how it goes. It will take a while before I get my new glasses because my eyes will have to adjust to the new lenses in them. Not the lenses in the glasses.

Today's quote:

Grateful hearts truly love. Grateful hands reach out. Grateful eyes see generations. Grateful minds imagine big ideas like justice, peace, and health. Our world needs no less than grateful living.

KATIE STEEDLY CURLING