After decades of pollution and contamination, it feels like there really is nothing we can do to save our oceans So now what? Now, there are people all around the globe working to diffuse the ticking time bomb of garbage from destroying our oceans.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch undoubtedly upsets people everywhere. One of these people was Dutch inventor Boyan Slat. Slat founded The Ocean Cleanup in 2013. The Ocean Cleanup is a nonprofit organization dedicated to developing technologies that work to eliminate plastic from our oceans.
One such device is a system that moves with the oceans currents and collects plastic as it goes. By deploying a fleet of these systems, the Ocean Cleanup estimates it will be able to remove 50% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in 5 years.
Two countries at the foreground of the war against plastic waste are the UK and Taiwan. The UK has recently enacted stricter laws when it comes to plastic waste. So far, there have been laws banning microbeads, small plastic beads found in skincare products used for exfoliation.
A higher tax on plastic bags has been implemented as well a proposal to ban the use of cotton swabs. One of the most impressive pieces of legislation is the reduction of the quota of how many plastic bottles are made a year.
Since February, Taiwan has banned single-use plastic bags, straws, and cups. By 2019, the country hopes to ban chain restaurants from giving out plastic straws; ban all straws, charge stores for providing plastic bags, food containers, and utensils by 2020; and ban all plastic items by 2030.
Normal, everyday people can also play a bigger role than they expect in saving the ocean. One way is to stop bringing plastic and trash to the beach. In Los Angeles alone, 10 metric tons of plastic are carried to the ocean from the shores every single day.
Another way is sunscreen. We all know about the health benefits of wearing sunscreen, but not many people know about the damage it does to coral reefs everywhere. Sunscreen plays a huge role in coral bleaching due to the chemicals oxybenzone and octinoxate found in most brand name sunscreens. By switching your sunscreen, you could help the preservation of coral reefs everywhere.
Of course, there's always the technique that everyone's been hearing since they were born: reduce, reuse, recycle. These three simple actions hold as much effectiveness as they did the first time you heard the words. Today, you can create less plastic waste by using plastic straws only when you really need them.
You can also reuse cloth or canvas bags to go grocery shopping instead of asking for a plastic bag. And always remember to recycle. Even though plastic cannot decompose, it can be reused.
The biggest problem (other than plastic) facing our environment is apathy. So many people think that the change they would make is irrelevant and minuscule, after all, they are just one of one billion people. But that's exactly the point. If you decide to make a change, you are removing the harm you would cause. And if one person does it, more and more will follow.
