January 1, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I was having too much fun on Instagram. I was up to almost 200 followers and then my account was deactivated because I violated some rules. I’m pretty sure it was because the word I was trying to write for Korean New Year’s soup is maybe a bad word to someone. I don’t know. I haven’t learned how to type in Korean and Vietnamese on the internet yet. It’s on my to-do list for 2020, along with saving the earth. I’m just a middle-aged pediatrician trying to pick up trash! Anyway, I’ve emailed back the Instagram team and we’ll see what happens.

(more…)

January 1, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I included my haul from today for December 2019. Keeps my accounting easier. It’s 835AM and New Years Day. My mother-in-law is making special Korean soup that is delicious and we eat every New Years. It’s a tradition and the children look forward to it. The two tall Plastic Picker family children are sleeping, as they actually stayed up until midnight drinking bubbly apple cider which is a first. Life has given me so many new joys and opportunities for growth since I started ocean plastic picking and blogging 4 months ago, but I need to keep true to the mission – which is to get to the beach and pick up plastic and do my part.

(more…)

October 23, 2019

by drplasticpicker

Its hard to know how parts of our plastic-filled lives ends up on the beach. The current commonly quoted percentage is 30% of plastics ends up in the ocean. But the Ocean Clean Up group has done research now demonstrating that much of that ocean plastic actually is repeatedly washed onto our shores, and at some point escapes and joins the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

This Large Toy Plastic Kitchen holds a lot of meaning to our family. The picture above is where it is now, with it’s second family and two beautiful siblings playing together. If this toy is cared for properly it could be the host of many more times of great fun and laughter for many generations.

(more…)

October 20, 2019

by drplasticpicker

Drplasticpicker in my real life is in middle management. I do half time clinical work, and the other half at endless meetings. Trust me, I’ve heard about mindfulness and physician wellness. I sit there sometimes, and I just nod mindlessly about our discussions about mindfulness.

(more…)

October 16, 2019

by drplasticpicker

I had adventures this morning! Drplasticpicker was up before sunrise and I met a wondrous sight. I try to clean at the ocean’s edge and along the sand cliffs, and sometimes I’ll pick ocean plastic on the main beach. I’ve seen sand being brought it to rebuild the beach, but wondered how the beach itself was cleaned? Now, I have seen it with my own eyes! It is cleaned by the Surf Rake, a tractor-towed beach cleaner.

(more…)

October 7, 2019

by drplasticpicker

The Sea Turtle is our Spirit Animal. Why the sea turtle? The sea turtle is a marine and terrestrial animal. It’s life cycle starts on the sandy beaches where they hatch and then crawl to the ocean, the kelp where they live their first years, the great ocean during their adult lives, and back to the same beaches where they return to nest. The sea turtle is acutely vulnerable to ocean plastic, since as young sea turtles they live amongst the kelp beds and sometimes mistake bits of plastic for food. Sea turtles are also beautiful and majestic. The Sea Turtle is our spirit animal, because drplasticpicker hopes to be like the turtle – every day being consistent and persistent in our ocean plastic picking. Although the sea turtle is not a tortoise, it is related. Like the hare and the tortoise parable, the tortoise will win the race against ocean plastic debris.

(more…)