Be Part of the Solution
The solution to plastic waste in our global ocean is halting the flow of materials from shore. Each one of us can have a positive impact on our ocean by taking a few easy steps.
Many people making small changes can make a big difference for our environment.
Lead by Example
Make a conscious decision to stop using single use plastic & Styrofoam items such as forks, plates, cups, etc in you and your family’s day to day life whenever possible.
Replace single and limited use disposable plastic items with long-lasting durable ones, (metal, ceramic or glass containers for beverages and foods, canvas bags for shopping, etc) which can be re-used.
For drinking water, drink the good quality tap water we have or install a water filter at your home and ask your work to do the same. This simple step can give you great clean water, saves you money and greatly reduces waste created from single use plastic water bottles.
Educate and Encourage
Educate your family, friends, neighbors and co-workers about the effects incorrectly disposed of plastic waste is having on our environment, both on shore and in the ocean.
Encourage people to make changes in their consumption of single use plastic by putting alternatives in their hand, stainless water bottles & canvas bags can be great gifts!
Become involved with your local, city and county government to be sure they are fostering sound environmental policy.
Choose elected officials that are working to create, support & enact responsible environmental policies.
Take a Proactive Role in the Solution
Volunteer and support the organizations such as Project Kaisei who are working on solutions to this problem. Participate in clean-up events such as cleanup of beaches, parks, waterways, roads, etc. If you don’t have any active clean up events in your area, then start one!
Buy products that follow principles of sustainability. Purchase fresh locally grown produce and foods which are not packaged and shipped from out of the area.
Look at the products you buy; are they made from recycled materials or packaged in unnecessary amount of plastic? Look at alternative products which use minimal plastic and/or recycled materials. Contact companies and tell them to use environmentally sound packaging in their products.
The Oceans Voyages Institute is doing terrific work. I found your website while looking for more information after reading excerpts from the book “Garbology.” I didn’t see any posts from 2012, though, and I wonder what you are focusing on now? Also, do you have a strategy for clean-up? I work as a fundraiser for a nature center in upstate New York, and I can’t help but think that if you figured out a strategy for clean-up, with an identified dollar figure you would need per year to accomplish a specific step in the clean-up process, that you could raise large amounts of money to clean up the trash. This problem is so important, and it alarms anyone who loves the ocean – and this is practically everyone! It seems overwhelming – many people just give up – “it can’t be cleaned up” – that’s why I think you need to break it down. Perhaps you are working on this now? It would be great for you to articulate: “you are going to clean up X amount each year – estimate if you had Y amount of money, you could do X.” Also, I think we need to hold producers responsible as well as consumers, and they would be your potentially very large donors. My advice would be to approach large “FMCG” corporations – the Proctor & Gamble, Coke & Pepsi, etc – for donations once you have a very clear clean-up strategy, a 5 year plan for example, with extremely clear objectives. What would be great would be to figure out who are the top 20 producers of plastic trash in the world, and approach them, hold them responsible for their actions. Do an aggressive marketing campaign (your goal is to produce a video that goes viral), and then ask the top 20 for very large amounts of money, indicating that you intend to match their donations by donations from the other top 19. I wish I lived in California where I would be happy to help you as a volunteer! This is a big problem – you need a really big, aggressive campaign to clean up the ocean!