She drifts on the tides. Her makeshift bamboo raft barely keeping her above the rippling waves. Surveying the horizon she sees nothing but never-ending blue. No land, no boats, no humans. But there is one thing keeping her company: hundreds of pieces of plastic passing her through the currents. A shampoo bottle, a coke can, a bucket, a rubber thong. All on their own castaway journey across the seas.
At this very moment there are over five trillion pieces of plastic castaways at sea. Having been lost or discarded on land, each has found its way into the oceans where it’s been carried away by the currents. Some may only travel to a neighboring beach, while others will float across the deepest oceans to land on a coastline on the opposite side of the world. These castaways injure and kill over 100,000 marine animals each year. Entangled and ingestion, sea creatures are dying off by the thousands due to human consumption and our obsession with plastics.
You might be asking yourself, “Well, what can I do about it?” The most powerful tool in eliminating the presence of plastics in our oceans is to begin cutting down, if not eliminate the amount of plastics you use each day. Take a reusable coffee cup to the cafe, refuse that plastic bag at the check out, and ask for no straw in your smoothie. The power is in the consumer. Your choices have the power to dramatically reduce the presence of plastics in the market. And after you’ve had your coffee, bought your groceries, and chugged down your smoothie, head down to the beach, pick up a few pieces of trash, and chuck them in a bin.
Check out the incredible things the Clean Coast Collective are doing right here.
