How Does Your Bag End Up In The Ocean

I was 3 years old when I first saw the sea. Since I was a kid, I've loved the moment when we steped out of the car and smelled the mixture of sea salt and Mediterranean pine trees. A bit later, I fell in love with the calmness and feeling of complete freedom I got every time I watched the open sea. Even for these memories, I'm feeling so moved by how the oceans look now. Once empty beautiful beaches are being covered with piles of grabage, microplastic (and even some larger pieces) are getting into stomachs of marine animals, which end up on our plates and all the toxic substances are eventually making its way to our organism as well ...

Plastic makes up 73% of all beach waste and kills over one million marine animals each year. In November 2018, the world was shocked with the new about dead whale in Indonesia, which had 6 kilograms of plastic in its stomach - from PET bottles and plastic bags to disposable cups, flipflops and other plastic objects.

How does plastic come to the ocean?

Have you ever thought about what happens to plastic waste once you throw it into the garbage? Since we were kids, we've been told that we should recycle and that the plastic materials fall apart much slower than for example food residues or paper ... I don't know about you, but I've never thought about it in more detail when I was younger. All I was thinking about, is that I have to throw those things into the yellow bin. What happens to it later didn't interest me.

In reality, only  9 % of plastic waste is being recycled. 12 % is burnt and 79 % of the waste is still somewhwere around.  A big part of it ends up in ocean, where it is transmitted by rivers and wind.

There are couple of ways how the plastic gets into the ocean. A small part of it comes simply from the garbage that's laying around the beaches and streets near them. All the plastic bags, cups and food packages people throw in the nature are (because of the light weight of this material) also easily transmitted to the rivers and ocean. This way, they can get there even from the waste transportation or from the waste pipes from our homes. This kind of plastic is called the Microplastics and it can be found in cosmetics (eg. the small particles in peeling or toothpaste) or synthetic fibre, which is transmitted to the water through washing our clothes. 

And Then What? 

Not only nobody wants to lie on a beach, surrounded with plastic waste - plastic brings many more serious problems. They pose a big problem especially for marine animals which are caught in plastic objects in the water and they confuse it with their natural food, therefore many of them suffer from hunger because they have a stomach full of indigestible pieces of plastic waste.

Why We Should Care?

The biggest problem with plastic seems to be in asian and african countries, where not so long ago people used to use only natural materials which are now replaced with plastic, brought there by people from the "western world" and they simply have no idea how to work with that. 90% of all plastic in the ocean comes from ten river in Asia and Africa. Therefore we might feel like this is not our problem. Sure, european countries are doing quite well in comparison to the rest of the world. However 15,8 tons of waste from plastic packaging (31kg/person/year) produced in Europe every year is not a number we could brag about.

Also, it's not possible to expect the big changes from developing countries with much less education about this subject. We have to start with ourselves - even if it may look hopeless in the beginning. 

It's natural that we choose options which are more convenient for us, without thinking about the consequences. The problem is that we're not talking about something that will has an effect in the distant future and we simply can't act like nothing is happening. With the current stage of plastic pollution, it's very probable our kids will never experience a holiday on the beach without plastic waste. 

And even this image makes me really sad. 

What Can I do?

Every change in our life needs time. I don't expect you to quit plastic for good right now. I try and fail as well. I try to buy most food without plastic if it's possible but there are still things I can't buy without plastic packaging - tofu, tempeh, ingredients for sushi... I try to use homemade cosmetics or buy stuff in glass packaging, but I still haven't find a way to avoid plastic waste from contact lenses or makeup.

In my opinion, the world doesn't need people who do this perfectly - much more important is that we all make little changes in our everyday lives. Even though the "plastic situation" is urgent and we have to work on this problem immediately, don't feel guilty if you're not able to change all of your habits overnight. Try with small things - like bringing your own bag to a supermarket, bringing your own water bottle instead of buying bottles water, or choosing food without packaging whenever possible. 

For more information about plastic pollutions, check these documentaries: 

• Chasing corals
• Plastic ocean
• Mission blue

source:  greenpeace.org.uk, plasticoceans.org, theguardian.com, metro.cz, Kurzgesagt - In a Nutshell