The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) is an area of the Pacific Ocean polluted by 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic (over 200 pieces for every single person on the planet) and THREE TIMES THE SIZE OF FRANCE! Thinking about this hurts our head AND our heart and, while GroBikes isn't able to help shrink the GPGP (yet), we can help you not make it worse.
Credit: The Ocean Cleanup
Reducing is Better than Recycling
By our count, the average new bicycle we take delivery of comes with thirty-seven individual pieces of plastic used ONLY for transportation. These are single-use plastics and, no matter how vigilant we all are about recycling, the reality is that Canada's recycling rate for plastic is tragically low, somewhere in the order of only 9%.
Because we carefully maintain and repair our bikes to last two to three times as long as bikes that are bought and owned, using GroBikes means you are creating less demand for new bikes and, by extension, reducing the single-use plastics contributing to our world's plastic problem (including the Great Pacific Garbage Patch).
A Good Start
We know: this isn't solving the problem, but it is an improvement and, in our books, a good start. ("Don't let perfect be the enemy of the good", right?) As GroBikes gets bigger and we start ordering bikes by the container-load, we will ask our suppliers to eliminate these plastics when shipping those bikes, among other changes that will further increase the sustainability of our business, and kids bikes overall.
Think Global, Act Local
So, now that you're thinking about plastics on a global scale, we hope you will act locally and make choices that reduce your impact. Subscribe to GroBikes. Get your personal care and home cleaning products from our friends at The Green Jar. Decline your dentist's "gift bag" and brush with bamboo toothbrushes instead. You get the idea.
Because as those 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic show, every little bit counts.