A key solution to eliminating plastic waste in our global ocean is to halt the flow of materials from shore. Each one of us can have a positive impact by taking personal responsibility and a few easy steps. Many people making small changes can make a big difference for our global ocean and environment.
Lead by Example
- Make a conscious decision to stop using single use plastic and 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.
- Drink the good quality tap water or install a water filter in 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 and 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 and enact responsible environmental policies.
Become an Advocate
- 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. Make sure they are made from recycled materials. 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.
Dear Project Kaisei & Mary Crowley,
I watched Dan Rather’s Report on your organization. I always wanted to find out who or what organization is helping in the clean up efforts of the Pacific Ocean. If your organization organizes a clean up on land or on sea I would love to volunteer for this. Please consider me when you organize another clean up.
Sincerely,
Robert C. Chavez
Contact # 925-788-2681
I want to volunteer to be a part of the Kaisei mission. I live in San Francisco and am obtaining my Master’s degree in Wildlife and Environmental Conservation. Please tell me how I can get involved to help clean up the Pacific Garbage Patch. Thank you.
-April Kelly-
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!
If you need help running your vessel, I have a 100 ton near coastal master lic, sailing endorsement, AB Seaman unlimited, any waters, STCW95, FCC radio lic etc. I am a retired USDA scientist, U.S. Sailing instructor, and I do a lot of coastal crusing on my sail boat.
Mary,
I need some direction in what you would need somebody like me, sitting here in the UK, can do to assist Ocean Voyages Institute’s Project Kaisei. I can write and talk and pass out information- just let me know how exactly I can do something.
Ross
Dear Mary, and everyone that feels the distress of our planet deeply in their hearts!
Whenever I look at the trash bags filling up with the huge amount of plastics and styrofoam – whether it is at work, at family gatherings, or other celebrations, I cannot help but think about how shortsighted, lazy, careless and egotistic we have become as a society. As a German living in the US, I was especially alarmed at family gatherings that supposedly celebrate life, how much trash is created just for a single human’s birthday, and thrown in the garbage without any second thought. It contributed partially to the estrangement from my family-in-law, when I made comments about it…
Done talking, I would like to offer my help, and contribute more than the everyday recycling, reusing, aboiding…
If there is any way to really help with the existing plastic islands in the pacific, please contact me!
Sincerely, and with love for ALL life,
Bianca Nandini Matter
612-860-9642
To whom it may concern,
could you let me know when is the next time there will be a Kaisei voyage to research, clean up the Plastic Vortex and what it takes to be a part of the project? Thank you so much.
From deep in the Heart of “South” Texas,
Oscar Austin Saenz