It often escapes us just how much trash washes into our oceans. It’s easy to spout off numbers and measure how many tons of trash bags, plastic bottles and any sort of debris are floating out there today. But even then, those numbers are so vast that it’s hard to comprehend the real impact pollution is having on everything that survives in/with the ocean.
To stick with the numbers, 300 million pounds of plastic are produced globally each year according to Washed Ashore, an Oregon based non-profit. The danger in that, they say, is that less than 10 percent of it all is recycled each year. So Washed Ashore takes the whole “beach clean up” movement an extra step by collecting over 11 tons of ocean debris in the last four years, then using it to create unique sculptures. They’ve recruited over 10,000 volunteers and more than 8,000 students to collect debris from more than 300 miles of coastline. One of their largest sculptures, for examples, is a giant sea star. It’s made up entirely of plastic bottles left over from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, standing as a testament to one of Washed Ashore’s common findings and problems with our ocean waste problem today: the largest culprits are single use plastics.
To see one of Washed Ashore’s traveling exhibits or to learn more visit WashedAshore.org
