I see a major pollutant entering our environment and no one I know of is doing anything about it so this post is to raise your awareness of this great threat to our ecosystem.

Yes, my friends I am talking about glitter.  It’s everywhere.  Today I saw a bit of it on my pew at church.  Right next to me, a bright bit of red glitter was imbedded in the thin blue cushion.  A closer inspection revealed other colors: yellow, orange, purple, silver and gold.  I’ve seen it everywhere – on clothes, chairs, in hair, and even on my driveway.

According to Wikipedia , from 1989 to 2009 over 10 million pounds of glitter was purchased and presumably used and then dumped on the planet.  The problem is that the stuff is not biodegradable.  That’s right, once made the glitter never goes away – ever.  It’s kind of like a bad joke, once made you can’t unmake it.  From the shirts of little children, to the washing machine, to the water treatment plant, and right out to sea.  Nothing stops it.  Nothing can filter it out.  In just a few more decades the ocean will start washing up glitter covered driftwood.  Don’t be surprised if the the next time to you cut into a nice piece of halibut you find purple, red and gold glitter on your fork.

This stuff is made from plastics embedded with aluminum, titanium dioxide, iron oxide and bismuth oxychloride.  Don’t know about you, but I don’t even want to touch stuff like that and now it’s everywhere.  Just last week I was walking through a parking lot and saw some glittering in the sun.  You can’t get away from it.  Really, just open your eyes and take a walk down your street and you’ll find it sticking to the sidewalk.

Do we really want a world covered in glitter?  What happens to grass?  Will it no longer be nice fresh and green but rather will our parks be covered in red, blue and gold sparkleness?  What happens when the young soccer player scrapes her knee while kicking the wining goal?  Will glitter poisoning in her leg cause an expensive trip to the emergency room?

While researching this glitter problem I discovered something truly concerning – sparkalaphobia .  Yes, my friends some unfortunate people out there suffer from an uncontrollable fear of sparkles.  In extreme cases people with sparkalaphopia can become paralyzed with fear and unable to leave the walls of their sparkleless homes.  An encounter with even a little bit of sparkle can cause serious trauma for the sufferers of this horrible disease.

So, my friends, I am asking you to help me join in the fight against glitter.  Let’s join together and help make the planet safe for the poor sufferers of sparkalaphopia.

Till next week,
Andrew