On July 30, we held a beach cleanup to help protect our local community and better understand the issue with plastic pollution. When we first arrived at the beach, there didn't seem to be much trash on the surface; however as we looked closely, there was trash everywhere.
Some trash was easy to see - plastic food wraps, broken beach toys, and bottles. Others were less visible - bottle tops, straws, and tiny broken down pieces of plastic.
These tiny pieces of degraded plastic can get confused as food by fish and wildlife. In the end, our small but mighty group collected more trash than we could have imagined in just one small part of the beach.
Why Does This Matter?
Cleaning our local beach opened our eyes to how much trash we create on a daily basis. While single-use plastic is sometimes the easiest and most accessible option, we must make an effort to choose reusable options whenever possible. Whether we start small, like saying no to straws, or bigger, by completely cutting out single-use plastic - ever little change we make counts.
The below video is one we saw several years ago and continues to impact us just the same every time we see it. We all know plastic pollution is a problem - but this video helps illustrate exactly what it does to our planet and its living creatures.