What Can You Do With Plastic Bottles?
By Brandon Anderson
Description and Rationale
Corregidor Island is located in the mouth of the Manila Bay. The shores of the island are covered with garbage, from plastic bags, empty coke cans plastic bottles and the like. On several Boy Scout campouts to the island, I have noted the amount of garbage floating at the edge of the dock and lying on the rocky or sandy beaches. One of the real tragedies is the fact that much of the garbage left by man could be reused or recycled. It has also been known and seen in field areas of other Philippine islands that things that do not get thrown into the sea are burnt as fossil fuel. This creates carbon di-oxide that traps sunlight through the greenhouse gas effect that causes global warming.
In short, recyclable resources are being wasted for the lack of being reused. In this experiment, it is intended to use some common, recyclable trash and use it for a good and beneficial purpose.
Many years ago early fisherman used to use glass balls as flotation devices in their fishing nets to allow them to manage and pull in their nets. Today, prefabricated styrofoam is the main floatation device used to float the nets.
This project idea is to use various plastic bottles and demonstrate how to use them for floats on fishing nets. This would include the following items of Coca-cola plastic bottles, oil and other plastic containers as the floats. Fishing line and fishing nets will also be used. The plastic bottles will be attached to the top of the fishing nets to act as floatation devices while simple weights will be attached at the bottom to sink the nets.
In the respect of how Corregidor was used in times of trial in World War II, it would be honorable to protect the island’s beauty from pollution. If it is possible to use the items for fishing devices, there may be reason to reduce the heaps of garbage by reusing so called rubbish. It would be beneficial for the recyclables to be used again. The rationale is to demonstrate that a plastic bottle may be used by people to assist in their fishing and livelihood needs. The containers are easy to control and care for. They have no real extra cost since they are merely recycled items. The impact of this garbage problem at Corregidor may affect the people living on the island because of the eye-sore and possible loss of tourism and income for the workers. The garbage may also pose a pollution problem and kill or drive away sea life that would be food or needed for the ecological balance on Corregidor. Is it not already obvious to the people on Corregidor that there is a problem with pollution? Do people even care about this problem? Would this experiment prove to be a success to reduce the increasing number of garbage thrown out everyday? Would this new technique be of some use to fishermen in the future? Can one small act of stewardship on the island make a big difference? Would fish become more abundant if people stopped throwing their trash into the sea? Much of this could be determined once the experiment is put into practice.
If fewer people discarded recyclable garbage, sea life may be more abundant, tourism may increase and the beauty of this peaceful island could be re-stored. One can picture in his mind of what it would be if the experiment proved to be successful and the example followed by others. This may reduce the number of items thrown away everyday. It could prove that many things have reason to be recycled. Perhaps, one day, the war will be over and the ocean and beaches of Corregidor would be clean again, by use of simple practices like these.
This experiment takes the use of common discarded plastic bottles and attaches them to fishing nets to allow for a low cost recyclable use of garbage that will help improve the livelihood of the fisherman and protect the marine life and enhance the beauty of the island. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to demonstrate, in one way, how one can utilize some everyday garbage for useful purposes in hopes to decrease the amount of trash polluting the earth.
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Biology
Common Names and Synonyms
There are many ways to classify coral reefs whether by shape, size, or color. The most common type or coral is Corallium rubrum, or simply red coral. In the Philippines, they are called away (ah-WHY) in Tagalog. The main types that are living in the Philippines fall under the category of Class Anthozoa that includes coral reefs, polyps, anemones, and such of that type. Sometimes they can be identified as, “Rainforests” of the ocean, brushes, clusters, and also “bones of the sea”.
Classification
Kingdom: Animalia (Animal)
Phylum: Cnidaria (Marine invertebrate)
Class: Anthozoa (Polyp)
Order: Scleractinia (Hard skeleton)
Family: Pocilloporidae (Sexual)
Genus: Corallium (Precious)
Species: C. rubrum (Red)
Corals are mainly characterized by their skeletal structures that can be stony, bony, or leathery.
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Morphology and Physical Description
Corals can come in many different shapes, sizes, or even colors. Most of them, like anemones, may have a cylindrical or bowl-shaped body covered at the top, where their mouths are, with tentacles. These tentacles are their way for defense and processing food. Within the epidermis and tentacles is the oral cavity that leads to the gastrovascular cavity and further into the gastrodermis. They will lay attached to the rocky floor of the shallow waters in colonies from their basal plate. Their sizes vary. They can grow from less than an inch to several inches in their diameter. They come in almost every color of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and white.
They have a chemical composition that is Calcified Marine Life forms (CaCo3).
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Getting Food
Coral diets include mainly zooplankton and various types of small fish. Generally, they are nocturnal feeders that eat mainly at night as they stretch out their tentacles to catch food. Their tentacles have special stinging cells that help kill their prey. After catching their food, they pull it into their oral cavity that leads to the internal structure to be digested by the digestive filament.
Corals are immobile and cannot move from their set environment. Therefore they do not have reason to gain the kind of energy that most other animals do for movement.
Reproduction
Corals can reproduce both sexually and asexually and each can do both in its lifetime. In the cases that they reproduce sexually, corals can do so through internal or external fertilization. In internal fertilization, the egg remains by the polyp for a number of days before it is released as a larva. Through external, the egg is released and develops into a larva while it is floating along. Corals can reproduce sexually whether they both are male or female or one is the opposite sex from the other.
In the asexual cases they can reproduce when they change from one area to another due to environmental disturbances, when newly developing colonies split to form their own separate one, or through budding.
Environmental Factors
The most preferable habitats for coral reefs are those in the shallow waters of the sea, a little less than 150 ft where the sun can reach them. It is reasonable that this is so because corals have a symbiotic relationship with algae. Therefore, sunlight is needed for corals to survive (also corals grow faster in clear water, are in need of warmer climates, and are more abundant where there are stronger waves). So it needs to be in the shallows to survive. There are some coral reefs, however, that are known to as far as 19,700 ft deep in the water.
Even though it is said how coral gets food doesn’t mean that they are on top of the food chain. There are some predator fish, such as the parrot fish, that will bite the ends of the coral.
They do not compete for any food or resources because they are immobile, which also makes them a home to certain surface fish like clownfish, angelfish, and even seahorses.
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Origin and Distribution
According to evolution, scientists believe that corals developed in the last three Ice Ages during the Pleistocene epoch 10,000 years ago. Sea water was trapped in ice that caused the sea level to drop that killed off the old coral reefs at that time. Soon the glaciers melted and the water rose back to its present measure and new coral reefs developed. Scientists may use the fact that corals extract calcium and carbonate to produce their exoskeleton.
In total, coral reefs make up their population of 0.07% (roughly the total size of Texas). They are located mainly around, tropical islands such as the Philippines, Hawaii, or Caribbean islands. Wherever they are located they are formed in groups that are very well known as reefs.
Importance to People
People barely know and understand the importance of coral reefs, but there is great reason to keep it alive, even though they only total up to 0.07% on the face of the earth. All over Southeast Asia coral reefs hold a number of fish that provides 25% of protein for local people living in the coastal areas. The coral reefs are also a beautiful sight to look at and see the wonder of God’s works. This makes them worth being tourist attractions for visitors.
Coral reefs being the home of some local fish make it easier to find fish by the environment they prefer. In Fiji the local people traditionally manage their reefs in ways that helps from over-harvesting the fish. They listen to their leaders to determine what type of fish to get and where to get it. For many years they have looked to the reefs to helps with there own survival. To follow their example would be very wise today in these years of economic struggles. Another major use of corals are known for just recently is that a lot of them can be used for medicines. Some of them are even used today to treat cancer and HIV.
Survivability and Endangered Status
Today, coral reefs are in severe danger of becoming extinct, especially in the Philippines. Even though they prefer warm climates for their well-being, global warming causes the coral to get sick and eventually die. One may know when a coral is sick because it would then turn pale and harden. This is because the algae have left the coral or itself had died. The overheating temperature also encourages more harmful algae to enter the coral and die on top of it. The fish may eat the algae to relieved the coral of it, but due to over-fishing there are too few of fish to do so. The harmful algae are able to grow from the pollution that is dumped in the water that does not do coral any good.
The most harmful human influence on coral is dynamite fishing, where the fish as well as the coral is blown up. If people would stop wasting things and putting them in the water, and if people would manage the way they fish better, like using nets to catch fish that would not harm the coral reefs, and only catch a enough fish rather than over fishing, the coral reefs would have a much better chance of surviving.
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Potential Solutions
So how can you clean the ocean from garbage? How can you reuse and recycle things? It is not as hard as it sounds. All you need to do is find a good use for something that is considered trash. With these experimental plastic bottles, I have found a few ways on how they can be used for the benefit of keeping the environment clean. If you could apply some of these to what you do you can help the ocean waters and the plants and animals living in them.
Possibility 1
My main focus was to use plastic bottles for floatation devices for fishing nets. A lot of the garbage that is thrown into the ocean is often plastic items. So perhaps if people use things, like plastic bottles for instance, for floatation devices on fishing nets, then there would be good use to have them. Unfortunately, I came across a stumbling block in my theory. In my encounter with some local fishermen at Puerto Galera they said that plastic bottles were not as reliable as the rubber sandal pieces that they used as floatation devices. They said that plastic bottles would not stay tied to the net. I saw where I had to agree with them as I looked at the sandals and saw how they were tied through a hole that was made into each of them whereas plastic bottles would have to be tied around. There could be some trouble with that.
Advantages
1. It would reduce the number of items thrown carelessly into the sea that also harm the sea creatures.
2. The fishermen can have something to keep their nets floating as they search for fish.
Disadvantages
1. Plastic bottles may come loose from the net and be lost in the ocean where they will be a hazard to ocean life.
2. The bottles might fill up with water and not be a useful source of floatation since it is sinking.
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Possibility 2
If you cannot rely on plastic bottles so well for fishing equipment, do not worry. There are still 998 leftover uses that the bottles contain. One can always use them as plain containers in their home. There are thousands of things that you can use with plastic bottles, like storing water for instance. Water is a major source that almost all living things live on to survive. And where do people get water? They might buy them from anywhere. What they do to the bottles is up to them. Why not just keep the bottles to refill with water for another time? And why not do the same for bottles that did not previously have water but soda and other drinkable liquids? They can be used for humans to consume as well as to irrigate plants.
Advantages
1. It could reduce the amount of trash that is thrown away everyday if people use them for their recyclable purpose.
2. It could possibly reduce the price of local water bottles. This makes having clean water cheaper and more easily available.
3. It allows poor people a reusable container to store and/or sell juices, drinks and oils.
Disadvantages
1. Your refrigerator may become overloaded with the numerous bottles collected from other sources.
2. Unknown previous content of the bottle may make them unusable, as they would be hazardous for consumption or storage.
3. Some of the bottles themselves may have holes or cracks that make them unusable.
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Possibility 3
As I walked on after talking to the fishermen, feeling a bit defeated, my dad and I passed by two young children that were doing a bit of community service of their own. They themselves were collecting bottles to sell to a recycling center. It warmed my heart to see those two do such whether they knew what a great act of service it was or not. I didn’t know if they did it to help clean up the beach for environmental benefits or if they needed money. Either way, it was a good thing that they were doing.
Advantages
1. It would help keep the beach clean and set an example to others to consider these acts.
2. It would help poorer people to gain financial support in order to do this kind of job.
Disadvantages
1. They would have a long way to go depending on how far it is from the beach to the recycling center.
2. People might be fearful of buying recycled bottles not knowing the content.
3. Making sure that the bottles are properly cleaned and stored for such purposes is a task that may need to be taken seriously. Say, for example, a bottle once held Clorox needs to go through strict cleaning. To store them is an equal task to make sure that no wildlife can interfere and contaminate the bottle, like a cat might come to lick the lip of the bottle or something similar.
Possible Future Directions
It does not really matter what you do to plastic bottles, whether you collect them, sell them, and use them, just as long as it is for good intention for the environment. In my mind I can see how the future of the ocean waters may be better if people found use in the things that are often thrown into the sea. To see the ocean be cleaned out and to be clearer than ever. To see fish and other creatures of the sea that was once near extinction come to multiply once again. All of this can be possible if people will decide once and for all that it is better to reuse an old thing rather than to say, “it has done what it was meant to do and now let it rot somewhere so it won’t be my problem” and become a hazard elsewhere. In Mattew 6:28-29, Jesus says, "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these." Jesus tells about the beauty of the nature that God has created. So let us come together to preserve the beauty of nature God created not only in the ocean, but in the entire world.
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Bibliography
Aqua.org. “Ask the Aquarium.” http://www.aqua.org/downloads/pdf/Coral_Reefs.pdf
Calstatela.edu. “Why does it.” http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/eviau/edit557/oceans/patty/pcoral2.htm
Coralfilm.com. “Coral Reef Adventure.” http://www.coralfilm.com/about.html#humans
Enchantedlearning.com. “Coral Reefs Animal Printouts.” http://www.enchantedlearning.com/biomes/coralreef/coralreef.shtml
Seawolrd.org. “Corals and Coral Reefs.” http://www.seaworld.org/infobooks/Coral/home.html
Seaworld.org. “Corals and Coral Reefs: Classification.” http://www.seaworld.org/animal-info/info-books/coral/appendix-classification.htm
Solcomhouse.com. “Coral Reefs.” http://www.solcomhouse.com/coralreef.htm
Usinfo.state.gov. “Coral Reefs: Fertile Gardens of the Sea.” http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/biodiv/coral.htm
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