Plastic for tea? - Reduce single use
Plastic for tea? - Reduce single use
Posted By admin |17 Jul 2019
Have you been to your local beach lately?
By JCI Southampton Community Director, Mike Rothon
If you have you might have enjoyed the relaxing sound of the gentle waves lapping at the shore, the sweet aroma of salt dancing on your nostrils and the refreshing breeze blowing in your hair.
This is why we venture from our cities, towns and villages to escape into nature to find peace in the tranquil beauty of nature.
The waves are natural but the beach is not
This is a photo I took at Southsea beach, Portsmouth. As you can see it has all the hallmarks of a beautiful beach, well apart from the pebbles. There is only one problem that when you look closer you can see it isn’t so picturesque. I sat down on Southsea beach and within my wingspan, I found a handful of rubbish just discarded. It was even worse when you looked at the high tide line. It was littered white, blue, yellow plastic bags buried in the pebbles.
Beach replenishment courtesy of the human population
Which is made even sadder by the fact I know Southsea beach is regularly cleaned and that everyone was walking past it as if it is normal. Even at my local beach in Weston shore, I have picked up shoes, clothes and countless crisp packets. In fact, it commonly recognised that the most common plastic litter on beaches are cigarette butts, these filters made of plastic and easily edible by fish[1]. I don’t think this is normal which is why I clean the beach, but this will never be enough if we don’t stop littering our outdoor spaces. If your not convinced that there is a problem digest the results of a study, “In 1960 plastics were found in less than 5% of seabirds. In 2010 this had risen to 80%”[2].
By Mustapha Salami
By Mutiat Ibrahim