Greentings everyone! There are practical changes you can make to your daily routine that will highly impact the state of our Oceans and Seas. The WWF (For those of you who think I’m talking about the World Wrestling Federation think again…referring to the World Wildlife Fund, the organization with a cute and cuddly Panda as its logo) figures that approximately 80% of all trash found at sea comes from land sources, via the streams and rivers, literally down the drain towards our oceans. This can easily be avoided by taking a few steps which I will explain shortly. Remember, it may seem like you, as an individual may not produce enough change to have a meaningful impact, but if a collective group of individuals think and act responsibly, the outcome will be visible. The land should be the limit of our trash (step by step people!), let’s make sure it does not end up in the Ocean!
Recycling
This concept has been around for numerous years now and is still one of the most viable “solutions” towards solving our current trash conundrum. Although it does not address the underlying cause of the challenge we face, it does provide a responsible way of limiting the impact on our natural world. Start small, by setting up a segregated waste disposal unit at home for the most utilized recyclable items, such as glass, plastic, paper and metal. If space is a concern, I would recommend combining plastic and glass into one and have paper and metal in another, thus saving on space and having to arrange additional containers (which will most probably be made of plastic. As the Greeks in the old days would say, killing two birds with one stone.) Every water bottle that is recycled is a water bottle less that ends up in our waterways.
Littering
This one is self-explanatory, DO NOT LITTER! Just stop it, it’s not cool!
Avoid plastic use
Avoiding plastic has become increasingly easy to do in the past few years thanks to a change in societies perception and a better understanding on its shortfalls for our natural world. Sure, trash can be composed of other materials, but the main issue with plastic is that the majority of it does not decompose and will be around for hundreds of years after me and you are long gone from the green and blue giant we call home. To put this into perspective, let’s take a staple item such as a plastic water bottle who we will name Lucy for this purpose. Lucy has just arrived at her final resting place at some landfill after having lived for 12 minutes, it will take 4.5 lifetimes (Assuming we are all healthy individuals who will live up to 100) for Lucy to decompose, your great grandchildren will be still be dealing with Lucy! I am sure we will be hearing more from Lucy moving forward. If this is not a good deterrent, I do not know what is!
Join a Beach Cleanup Activity
Communities around the world are gathering and organizing socially responsible activities such as beach cleanups. This is a great way to collect garbage which has slipped through the cracks and has found its way into our oceans. In Macau, people have rallied together and are currently organizing beach cleanup days on a monthly basis! Visit the Facebook group Macau Econscious for the latest information on dates. Come join us!