Featured Image Credit:Zak Noyle
By Kira Krall
This powerful PSA from Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii gives us a look at what people on the Islands have to deal with every day: everyone else’s trash.
Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii – Cultural Inspiration to fight Plastic Pollution from Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii.
Even though the island residents themselves may not be littering, trash still winds up on their historically pristine beaches.
Hmm… Why is that?
The Pacific Ocean’s currents cover thousands of miles of water and debris tends to accumulate in the center of the circulating currents. Debris includes garbage, plastic bottles, discarded fishing gear, waste, and etc. Trash floats with help of the current for years in the ocean, with the potential of injuring thousands of animals, before winds actually carry it onto the beaches.
Hawaii is smack dab in the center of this phenomenon, causing one of their beaches to be the MOST polluted beach in the world.
The above photo shows an average day at Kamilo Beach. 90% of the trash on its shores is plastic-based. Image Credit: EverythingConnects
The gripping plastic PSA pulls on the heart’s strings and promotes eco-friendly behavior in every day life. It also prompts something else that doesn’t get talked about as much as it should: environmental stewardship.
Stewardship is a sense of ownership. While it’s relatively easy to say you care about polar bears and sea turtles, the reality is that for most people those animals can be mentally and literally very distant problems. Essentially, out of sight, out of mind. Environmental stewardship encourages people to be proud of the place they call home and to physically show it by actually protecting and taking care of the ground they live and breath on. Leave the world a better place than you found it.
Hawaiians are calling out the rest of the world, in hopes that others will take action and make a difference. Think about it like this, if you use less of what’s polluting the ocean, then there will be less to pollute the ocean.
Check out My Plastic Free Life to get some ideas and start your plastic-free journey.
“The future of our oceans is up to us. Its fate relies on the choices we make daily.”