This is what you need to know: in the middle of the Pacific Ocean is a large area of water which is nicknamed “Trash Island”. That’s right, this area of the ocean is over double the size of Texas and it contains millions of small pieces of plastic pollution. Entire fish species are dying out and the birds who eat the fish are next on the list. We have to solve this crisis before it gets out of hand.
1. Recycle! It’s easier said than done, but it definitely can be. Sometimes we just can’t find that recycling bin, or maybe the trash can is closer. However, recycling really does clean up our earth and make the environment clean and healthy.
2. Don’t Litter. Maybe you think that if you litter on land, some trash guy will just come by sooner or later to clean it up. However, almost all trash in the ocean was once on land. How? Rain runoff always flows downstream, taking the trash with it. It then flows into a larger body of water, polluting the entire ecosystem there. Currently, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, is an area sometimes referred to as “Trash Island”. This part of the ocean is twice the size of Texas and growing. There, the pollution is all scooped up into one are with millions of pieces of trash floating in all direction. To give you an idea of how much trash there is, I’ll tell you this; the ratio of life to trash on the surface is 6:1. That’s right, there is 6 times more trash than life over there. Some problem, huh?
3. Buy a reusable cloth bag for shopping at stores. Instead of grabbing free plastic bag, you can just use your own. This saves a ton of plastic and doesn’t even cost that much, since your cloth can be reused for many years!
4. Buy a stainless steel water bottle which you can reuse instead of buying hundreds of water bottles. Even if you recycle those bottles, that’s not as good as not using them in the first place (but still do it if you do have water bottles to recycle!!!!!).
5. Encourage friends and family! As always, spread the word! This will cause a chain reaction (a good one); you tell somebody, they tell somebody, etc…. If this happens you could multiply the number of recycled items by hundreds, if not thousands.