With the teachers at the schools being so engaged in educating our children in the message of a healthy environment being not just good for the animals, bird life and sea life but for us humans as well, I am sure some of the ideas the kids came up with to reduce the impact of plastic pollution will be achieved.

Here are a few photos of the day.

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There is a lot of it:

According to the Ocean Conservatory in 2008, plastic bags came in second to discarded cigarette butts as the most identified type of litter.

Rampant waste:

Plastic Bags are thrown away every day and generally end up in land fill. But they also end up in forests, rivers, seas and oceans around the world. Plastic Bags are generally not recycled and the growth of plastic consumption and its improper disposal currently significantly outpaces efforts to recycle.

Plastic does not break down

Plastic is not biodegradable and in reality most plastic does not even disappear but becomes long lasting “plastic dust”. And there is no winning; producing recycled materials uses copious amounts of energy. A better solution is to reduce the use of plastics altogether.

Danger to aquatic life

Over 1 million sea birds, whales, seals, dolphins and sea turtles die each year from plastic debris that ends up in our oceans. Plastic ends up inside these animals which leads to their death. The impact of plastic pollution in our oceans and ecosystems creates havoc for the environment.

Toxin carriers

In addition to not breaking down fast, plastic material also breaks down dangerously. A lot of plastics contain toxins and as plastic breaks down it can absorb and release dangerous toxins into the environment.

A simple change in your behaviour when you go shopping can reduce the dangerous and damaging affect of plastic bags on our oceans, beaches, rivers creeks and land. #bringyourbag

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Great work Celia Bolton to discuss this matter with Costa and get him on board. The more people that understand the issues and damage that the free distribution of single use plastic bags cause the more people will change their behaviour and make the change to #bringyourbag.

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The we were planning to clean up both sides of the road, about 300 metres all up – doing our little bit.

Blake and I got about 10 metres along one side of the road and Cindy and Madelen about 40 metres along the other side and our buckets were full. The photo below is a collection of what we picked up. 19 bottles, about 30 single use plastic bags, lots of chip packets and food wrappers.

This is crazy stuff.

Some of this may be accidental litter but most can be avoided. If we stop the free distribution of single use plastic bags that solves on issue. #bringyourbag when you go shopping.

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Stopping the growth of Plastic Pollution is something just about everyone understands needs to happen. We are just trying to do our little bit – to take a few small steps forward to help our part of the planet and hopefully inspire others to do the same.

You can follow us on Facebook and Like our Facebook page but more importantly, next time you go shopping, no matter where, #BRINGYOURBAG.

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