North Sea beach clean up Pt. I
Hello,
As you may know, the world's oceans are gradually turning into a plastic soup:
We are producing nearly 300 million tons of plastic every year, half of which is for single use. More than 8 million tons of plastic is dumped into our oceans every year.
-quoted from plasticoceans.org.
This heavily affects wildlife; after spending a while in sea it becomes brittle and breaks down to very tiny pieces. When for example a bird or fish mistakenly see that glittering undigestable plastic for food and eats it, it fills up their stomach and ends up dying from starvation. Sometimes ending with their plastic contents on your table.
So instead of going for a quick jog I decided to put in a small effort (microscopic in equation) and pick up some trash on a beach I closely live by.
After an hour picking up trash in a limited area I already accumulated about 10kg (22lbs) worth of:
- plastic packages, tubes, bottles, lids, toys, balloons,..
- styrofoam.
- wire and nets.
- drinking cans and glass bottles.
The weather was windy and overcast but sifting through the sand made a little sweat while enjoying the soothing rumbling of the crashing waves.
Healthy for the mind, body... and the sea.
You are doing a great job helping the environment get better and helping the aquatic life live peacefully. Nice Job!!!!
Thank you! Admittedly it's a droplet in a hot frying pan, but it isn't back into the sea atleast :-)
Nice job, @gregan. It really surprised me that there was enough trash there to find it at a rate of ~10kg per hour. That’s quite insane.
Thank you @servusminervae. And this is just in a small area picking "low hanging fruit". This waste collecting is gaining popularity where I live. Which is pretty rad.
I can't imagine how many garbage gets washed up after a storm.
The bad news is that most of the plastic forms big masses in deadzones in the middle of the oceans.