Exploring Solutions to Plastic Pollution in Palau

By Dianna Cohen, CEO of Plastic Pollution Coalition

We recently returned from the beautiful island country of Palau, located in the western Pacific Ocean, where Plastic Pollution Coalition co-hosted an expedition with Oceanic Society, Drifters Project, and Heirs to Our Oceans with support from Mission Blue, to work together with local Palauans to explore potential solutions to plastic pollution.

The Plastic Pollution Forum, hosted by Heirs to Our Oceans, was held at the end of the week, where representatives from three local high schools came together with visiting Heirs from the U.S., business leaders, educators, and elected officials to brainstorm solutions. Dr. Sylvia Earle was a special guest speaker at the Youth Forum and spoke to the great beauty of Palau as a mighty island country in the vast blue still unexplored Pacific Ocean.

The students were able to set some benchmarks for ways to reduce plastic pollution that they want to see come to fruition within the next year. One idea was to take a look at each of their own school’s plastic footprint and ways to reduce it.

Palau has a long history of advocating for the environment. The Rock Islands are a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Marine Protected Area, and the country banned single-use plastic bags last year. Over the summer, Palau’s President Tommy Remengesau signed an executive order banning single-use plastics from all government offices and agencies. In early November, Palau became the first country to ban harmful sunscreens that are toxic to coral reefs.

“Palau was surprisingly clear of plastic in the water—nothing like the amounts we saw and removed in Indonesia in 2016,” said Pamela Longobardi of Drifters Project and a PPC Support Artist Ally. “Several reasons could account for this: it’s a much smaller island chain, and Palau has made immense conservation steps in creating the vast marine sanctuary around it, which in turn has perhaps made the population more environmentally conscious.”

As part of the expedition, our groups participated in a beach cleanup and brand audit hosted by Heirs to Our Oceans with local Palauan students and business leaders. A fascinating find, in addition to the 77 single-use plastic cups labeled Aqua by Danone, was an old Coca-Cola bottle cap extolling it’s “quality product.” (Coca-cola was the number one plastic polluting company identified in the recent #breakfreefromplastic global cleanup and brand audit.)

As Pam noted, we found most of the plastic pollution in the forested shores and mangroves of the islands, which unfortunately makes it less visible and therefore less likely to be cleared.  

“The brand audit showed identifiable names on the items,” said Wayne Sentman of Oceanic Society. “It was also interesting to see that one of the items we frequently see in Indonesia beach clean ups—single-use servings of water labeled Aqua and produced by Danone were also abundant on the beaches of Palau. We wonder if this plastic has a local source or has washed up in Palau from Indonesia.”

Pam led a “forensic beach cleaning” training with the group, which was followed by plastic retrieval of material from hundred-meter ropes and nets down to micro-scale plastic, then sorting, counting, removing colored material for the creation of the art piece, and finally loading the bags onto the boats for transport.

“One of the most meaningful parts of the trip for me was working with the Palauan Heirs and citizens on a new version of the State of Koror flag made out of ocean plastic collected in a mass beach cleaning on a remote island,” said Pam. “We worked in the Public Works woodshop where dozens of kids from local high schools, park rangers, public works employees, local artists, and expedition guests all stopped by to contribute to its construction. The completed work was presented at the Plastic Pollution forum in the State House of Koror, where it will be permanently displayed. For me, it signified Palau’s commitment to becoming a Plastic Free Island. It was also shown to the President of Palau and the UN Ambassador of Palau, who were both very excited by the work.”

Wayne was similarly encouraged by the community and Palauan Heirs to Our Oceans members. “Over our time there it became obvious to us all that many of the young woman and men we worked with and got to know are destined to become leaders in their community. As a group, they were already organizing successful efforts to reduce single-use plastics in local stores and schools, and in general promoting awareness about the importance of protecting their marine environment.”

In addition to being inspired by the youth, we appreciated the opportunity to speak with the President Remengesau and his ministers about the plastic pollution reduction achievements the country has made so far and to brainstorm ideas together as Palau prepares to host the Our Ocean conference 2020.

We commend the Palauan government, the local Heirs, and business and community leaders and members for their great work and commitment to protect their environment, and we look forward to continued partnership toward a world free of plastic pollution.

Learn more about Plastic-Free Islands.

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By Bridget Cunningham

A beach vacation in Jamaica in January. Warm weather, blue water, sunshine. Escaping the New England cold to go see some fabulous music from some of our favorite bands. Paradise. It was as great as it sounds. We stayed a lovely resort in Trelawny, Jamaica. The resort was staffed with people who catered to the guests, and there were lots of luxuries including endless amounts of food, daily room cleaning, and the cleaning and raking the beach in front of the resort every morning.  

But what I didn’t realize is that there is no escaping the real world. Many of the things that worry and frustrate me here at home, like inequities in the world, consumption, and trash and plastic piling up, were present in Jamaica. And, just like here at home, they were disguised or hidden from view. Until they weren’t.  

It wasn’t until our last full day on the Island that the real world crept in and became apparent. The night before, after the bands finished playing, they announced that there would be a beach clean-up the next morning. I remember thinking that I couldn’t imagine that there was much to clean up, given the daily cleaning of the beach. But of course, both David, my other half, and I participated in the clean-up. Probably a dozen or so people joined the trash-gathering effort. We each took a trash bag and spread out up and down the beach and past the immediate beach area in front of the resort. I don’t think that anyone spent more than 45 minutes gathering trash. But everyone came back with overflowing bags containing everything from plastic food wrappers, plastic beverage bottles, shards of plastic, plastic cosmetic and beauty product containers, plastic straws, and flip-flops. There were massive amounts of flip-flops and massive amounts of plastic straws. The straws are particularly insidious because they begin to shred and fray into strips of disintegrating plastic that are even hard to pick up. Pretty horrifying.

What I didn’t know was that gathering the trash was just the beginning of our work. We then we began the process of inventorying all the refuse. The purpose behind inventorying the types of trash and plastic, and the brand names of the products, is to identify large-scale single-use plastic producers and apply pressure on them to seek packaging forms that are alternative to single-use plastic. 

I have a 20+ year background in the consumer packaged goods world, working for companies like The Coca-Cola Company and L’Oreal. So, I have fairly deep knowledge across the food and beverage and beauty industries of what companies own which brands. I was able to contribute to the inventorying efforts by categorizing packaging forms by the companies that produced the products. I was surprised to discover that, although much of what we collected and inventoried was produced by the usual suspects—Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Unilever, etc., a lot of the plastic and packaging was not just from Jamaica, but that much of it had traveled through the Caribbean waters to Jamaica from other islands. 

It was a long day, and gratifying in its own way. We made a small dent in the plastic pollution situation in a little town on a little island, and maybe gathered further support and evidence to put in front of some of the largest single-use plastic producers that they must seek alternatives to their current business models. 

Or so we thought. Immediately after the last song of the night, the skies opened up and the rain and winds raged for the rest of the night. We woke the next morning to continued teeming rain and wind. The beach in front of the resort was completely covered with huge piles of seaweed, massive numbers of plastic beverage bottles, and dozens of tires.  We couldn’t believe the amount of trash that had accumulated over night, and we wondered where it all came from and how far it had traveled. Further proof that the world is inundated with single-use plastic bottles, food wrappers, and on and on.  And that we must find ways to eliminate it at the source vs. continuing to produce it, only to have to dispose of it. Or have it end up in the ocean and on the world’s beaches.

So now what? I returned home to my life more enlightened. But it is a life that still has too much single-use plastic in it. I continue to worry about it, and I continue to contribute to the problem.  I am certainly more aware and less accepting of it. I hope that organizations like Plastic Pollution Coalition can help to provide me with tools and guidance to make some necessary changes in my life so that I can at least contribute less to what is a vast, overwhelming global problem. 

Bridget Cunningham had 20+ year progressive career in Consumer Packaged Goods as Human Resources leader and business partner. She has worked at The Coca-Cola Company (Soft Drink), L’Oreal USA (Beauty), Playtex Products (Feminine Care, Sun Screen, Baby and Infant Care), The Sun Products Corporation (Laundry and Homecare) and Henkel North America—Consumer Goods (Laundry and Homecare).  

In June of 2018, Bridget and her business partner, Simone Wan, launched a new business, IN:Total Wellness. IN:Total Wellness is a pioneering alternative medicine company specializing in all-natural, delicious herbal effervescent drink mixes that use sustainable, powerful, plant-based ingredients and effervescent technology to treat common ailments, including pain, anxiety and sleeplessness.

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Learn how to do a brand audit during your next cleanup using this toolkit from Break Free From Plastic.

Join the community of people tracking plastic pollution all over the world. Litterati helps you identify, map, and collect plastic pollution.

by Dr. Sandra Curtis

Cigarette butts continue to be the number one item collected in shoreline cleanups worldwide. The numbers are dramatic.

“. . . As in previous years, cigarette butts—which contain plastic filters—topped the list at approximately 2.4 million collected,” said Nicholas Mallos, director of Ocean Conservancy’s Trash Free Seas® program. “Over the years, we have seen plastics creeping into the top-ten list, displacing items like rope, beverage cans, and paper bags. But this is the first year that all ten of the top-ten items collected are made of plastic. Given that plastic production is rising, this could be the start of a long and troubling trend.”

Cigarette Butts Health Risk 3

The European Environment Agency (EEA) released new data about litter found specifically on Europe’s beaches. Based on nearly 700,000 collected items, disposable plastics are the biggest contributor to marine litter, with cigarette butts and filters being the most commonly found individual items.

Cigarette Butts Health Risk

Cigarette filters are made of non-biodegradable cellulose acetate from cutting, forming, and polishing sheets of plastic. Trillions of these add-ons to cigarettes (4.5 trillion) are discarded annually. The environmental toxicity of cigarette butts on fish has been demonstrated. The butts take up to 15 years to disintegrate. Similar to the fiberglass insulation used in attics, the filters keep fingers cool while smokers efficiently deliver nicotine to their brain and heart within three seconds.

Where did cigarette butts come from? Curiously, filters were invented by the tobacco industry as a ploy to improve the damning research on the hazardous health effects of smoking. Responding to evidence of a link between lung diseases and smoking in the 1950’s, the tobacco companies began promoting filtered cigarettes as a “safer” alternative.  

In 1952, the Kent Micronite cigarettes had a filter that sucked particles out of the smoke but the Micronite contained asbestos fibers that were far more dangerous than tobacco smoke. Philip Morris promised that an antifreeze chemical (diethylene glycol) in the mouthpiece would take “the FEAR out of smoking.” And DuPont scientists tried to trap harmful particles with new fabrics, including Dacron, the same polyester that allowed for wrinkle-free pantsuits.

By the 1960s, filtered cigarettes dominated the market, however, since the nicotine delivery of these filtered cigarettes was less, smokers began inhaling longer and deeper to get the same nicotine hit.  

An accompanying change in lung cancer diagnoses from smoking developed with the advent of filters. The incidence of adenocarcinoma (AC) increased much more rapidly than squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) in both men and women. The reason for this increase is due to the filter’s ventilation action by: 1) altering tobacco combustion, thereby increasing smoke toxicants; 2) allowing for elasticity of use so that smokers inhale more smoke to maintain their nicotine intake; and 3) causing a false perception of lower health risk from “lighter” smoke.

A similar marketing ploy has been used by the tobacco companies to promote e-cigarettes, publicizing them as a means to safer smoking.

A similar marketing ploy has been used by the tobacco companies to promote e-cigarettes, publicizing them as a means to safer smoking. This past Feb., the first study documenting the long-term health damage from e-cigarettes was released. The results showed that smoking these supposedly safer alternatives actually double the risk of heart attacks with daily use.  

“E-cigarettes are widely promoted as a smoking cessation aid, but for most people, they actually make it harder to quit smoking, so most people end up as so-called ‘dual users’ who keep smoking while using e-cigarettes,” said pioneering tobacco researcher, Dr. Stanton Glantz. “The new study shows that the risks compound. Someone who continues to smoke daily while using e-cigarettes daily has an increased risk of a heart attack by a factor of five.

Cigarette Butts Health Risk 2

Instead of getting smokers to switch from conventional cigarettes to e-cigarettes or quitting altogether as had been the hope of some scientists and policymakers, e-cigarettes have been reducing the likelihood that people will quit smoking, while expanding the nicotine market by attracting more youth to start.

Use by high school and middle-school students is on the rise.  “Vaping” is now the most popular form of tobacco use among teenagers in the U.S. E-cigarette use rose by 900 percent among high school students from 2011 to 2015. In 2016, over 2 million middle and high school students had tried e-cigarettes. For those aged 18 to 24 years, 40 percent of vapers had not been smokers before using the device. The U. S. Surgeon General issued a specific report on youth and e-cigarettes in 2016.

From an environmental perspective, e-cigarettes are not yet showing up in quantities like cigarette butts during beach cleanups.  Last year Ocean Conservancy showed 4 data points in their annual survey – 2 from the U. S. and 2 from the U.K.  Nick Mallos, Director, Trash Free Seas® Program recently shared his opinion that “we’ll see more and more of these devices in years to come as folk’s transition from traditional cigarettes to e-distribution.” He noted they can track them during this year’s Cleanup and preliminary data would be available later in Nov./Dec.

Several components of e-cigarettes are plastic and designed to be disposable, like the cartomizer that comes preloaded with e-liquid. The cartomizer consists of a metal or plastic casing which houses a single of dual coil atomizer wrapped in a generous roll of polyfill (more plastic) material that absorbs the e-liquid. Cartomizers were originally designed as disposables but can be refilled and used several times. For financial reasons, most companies discourage refilling. Other parts to the e-cigarette are either plastic, glass, or metal which will eventually end up in the waste stream.

Recent research warns that e-cigarettes are a potential source of exposure to toxic metals like Chromium (Cr), Nickel (Ni) and Lead (Pb) as well as other metals that are toxic when inhaled – Magnesium (Mn) and Zinc (Zn).   

Given the statistics of increased use, and more research studies being conducted, it is highly likely that growing health challenges and environmental impacts from e-cigarettes will surface.

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The art installation ‘Vita Sensa Plastica’ (Live Plastic Free) created in collaboration by Dianna Cohen, artist and co-founder and CEO of Plastic Pollution Coalition, and Alvaro Soler-Arpa, a PPC Artist Ambassador, opened on Friday, June 29 at club La Macchia on Macchiatonda Beach in Capalbio located in southern Tuscany, Italy.

The opening reception was attended by 300 guests and inspired conversations around plastic pollution, the impact as well as solutions and alternatives. Club La Macchia switched from bio-plastic to paper straws for the event and committed to serving paper straws moving forward.

Cohen and Soler-Arpa worked together over the course of five days to build and install the sculpture, using plastic gathered on Macchiatonda beach by the World Wildlife Fund’s beach cleanups. The installation was created on a sand dune about 100 yards from the shoreline, with trails of found plastic dug into the sand leading up to the main piece. 

“In this piece we attempt to express suffering,” explained Cohen, “with these animal skulls reaching up and out and crying to the sky. We are suffocating in plastic and consumption, and we have a plastic pollution blindness.”

Nadja Romain, the curator of the installation and the founder Art, Action, Change, said: “Art transcends thinking and logic. It holds the power to change our mindset allowing us to create new ways of seeing the world and living in it. It’s fantastic that La Macchia, a private member club in Italy is pioneering and using its position by the sea and its network to raise awareness about the pollution of the sea to stop the epidemic of plastic pollution.”

“We have done our best to find an artistic way to express how plastic is contaminating the world,” said Alvaro Soler-Arpa about the installation and process. “We have experienced firsthand that many Italians are not yet aware of the problem but are interested in the issue and looking forward to learning more about it.”

Dianna Cohen is a Los Angeles based visual artist, who has shown her work internationally at galleries, foundations, and museums. She uses plastic in her artwork to make a visual and social impact. With plastic bags as her primary material for the past 27 years, Cohen explores its materiality through modifications and the material’s relationship to culture, media, toxicity, and the world at large.

Cohen invited Catalan artist Alvaro Soler-Arpa to collaborate based on some ideas they had shared within their respective bodies of work. Soler-Arpa’s previous work includes Vida Tóxica (Toxic Life), which featured imaginary contemporary creatures composed of assorted animal bones, wire, and plastic waste. His “contemporary dinosaurs” draw a strong parallel to fossil fuels, the common denominator between plastic pollution and climate change.

See also: 12 Inspiring Works of Art on Plastic Pollution

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By Jason Paul

As a child in Southern California, I remember spending years of my life with toes sandy and trunks wet. There was always something new to explore, from a tide pool or shipwreck, to the “gnarly” break just around the bend.

I remember vividly the first time I found a piece of plastic floating in the ocean. I must have been 9 or 10 years old and I was swimming, as I often did, past the breakers, underwater, eyes open. I noticed something small and shiny that seemed oddly out of place. At first I assumed that it must be some exotic species that I hadn’t noticed before but upon closer inspection, I noticed a dial-code for international calling. I had stumbled upon a plastic-coated phone card that had inevitably floated downstream to my playground: the ocean.

Today, it’s hard not to notice all of the floating plastic that is plaguing our waterways. Plastic bags imitating jellyfish are as abundant as traveling sargassum. Broken beach toys and bits of Styrofoam can be found intertwined with washed up chunks of kelp. Personally, I’ve noticed a change in the environment over the past few decades, and as a young parent, I question what world we’re leaving behind for the next generation.

The effect that plastic is having on our world is difficult to fathom. It was recently estimated by the World Economic Forum and Ellen MacArthur Foundation that by 2050 there very well may be more plastic in our oceans than fish (by weight). It’s hard to believe, but it becomes scarily realistic after looking at the statistics. In the greater Los Angeles area alone more than 10 tons of plastic pour into the ocean on a daily basis.

But aside from this catastrophe, what can we do? How can we be pragmatic about having a positive effect on our environment rather than stuffing it full of “recyclables”? Read on to discover 10 top dangers of plastic pollution and what you can do to fight back.

Danger #1: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

You may have heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, but do you really know what it is? In 2003 Captain Charles Moore took a shortcut through a Pacific gyre on his way back to California when he discovered something unexpected: a sea of plastic. It took he and his crew a week to cross the patch before they were able to glimpse clear water again free of debris; bottle caps, plastic bags, fragments of hardhats or long forgotten toys. Recent estimations put the Great Pacific Garbage Patch at three times the size of France. In a recent study published in the Journal of Environmental Science and Technology, it’s estimated that at the surface of the patch, plastic outnumbers organisms by 180:1, so you can forget about 2050.

Action tip: Pledge your support.

Support local beach and waterway cleanups near you, and support organizations that are working on source reduction, or stopping the flow of plastic into our waterways, oceans, and environment.

Danger #2: But wait, there’s more.

Unfortunately, the effects of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch go far beyond the view. Based on recent research from The Ocean Cleanup, 84 percent of the plastic found in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch contain harmful chemical pollutants. This has an impact on the ocean in the form of increased acidification, but frankly we don’t know the effect these chemicals could have on the environment in the long-run. But that’s not the worst of it. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is one of 5 gyres in the world where plastic has begun to accumulate at astonishing rates. The North Pacific, South Pacific, North Atlantic, South Atlantic, and Indian Oceans all have their own patch that is slowly spreading across the ocean

Action tip: Get educated and get involved.

Stay informed. Don’t get lazy and don’t get discouraged. It’s easy to get bogged down in the negativity of today’s world, and watching the news doesn’t always help. The worst thing you can do is alienate yourself by removing yourself from the conversation. Instead, dive deeper, learn more, and educate others. The more you know, the more power you have to change the direction things are headed in.

Danger #3: Micro what?

Affectionately called MOOP by Burning Man aficionados worldwide, microplastics are simply the tiny bits of plastic that seem to find themselves everywhere and nowhere all at once. Your favorite kindergarten craft ingredient, glitter, is microplastics. Anything from the size of the period at the end of this sentence to the quarter in your pocket, microplastics are bad news. A popular haunt for the microplastic is the inside of a micro-invertebrate like krill. Serving as the main food source for nearly half of all whales, seals, penguins, squid, and fish, microplastics may work their way up the food chain towards humans.

Action tip: Take two.

A British non-profit has taken to social media to spread the word of helping our environment.  #2minutebeachcleanup, a project of 1% For The Planet, calls itself “a growing family of beach lovers rolling up their sleeves to help rid the world’s beaches of marine litter and plastic pollution, 2 minutes at a time.” The idea is simple, during your next seaside jaunt, before heading back to your car, take two minutes to pick up as much trash as you can find. Snap a photo and post it to your social media using #2minutebeachcleanup. The response has been overwhelming — moving quickly from a little known hashtag to a worldwide movement. Every little bit counts, so don’t forget to grab some MOOP on your way off the sand.

Danger #4: Another great extinction.

At one point, megafauna like giant sloths, dire wolves, mammoths, and even giant beavers roamed North America. Some scientists speculate that their extinction could have been caused by Paleoindians, the first North Americans, who hunted these species to extinction. How fitting that today, our oceans are experiencing a comparable event, caused by humans. Everything from plankton to whales have been found in the ocean having digested microplastics. But does this have an effect on our species? Scientists say large amounts of plastic in the ocean can have bio-accumulative effects on food webs.

Action tip: Cut it out.

The simplest thing you can do to change the amount of plastic going into the ocean is use less plastic. Start with single-use plastic such as bags, bottles, and straws. Buying whole, unpackaged foods can seriously reduce the amount of plastic waste that you produce. Many recycling centers simply don’t have the infrastructure to recycle plastics like bits of Saran Wrap or food packaging. Less than 8 percent of plastic is recycled in the U.S., so buying food with less packaging will make a difference.

Danger #5: Paradise Lost.

Bali is one of the most sought after travel destinations for surfers in the world, made famous for long peeling right-handers and square barrels breaking over shallow chunks of reef. Today, one of Bali’s top tourist destinations, Kuta, is making headlines for something entirely different.  Government officials in Indonesia recently declared a “garbage emergency” for the 100 tons of garbage that wash up, daily, on beaches from Kuta to Jimbaran and Seminyak. If we do
n’t change the fate of Indonesia could be the fate of surf sanctuaries worldwide.

Action tip: Book a trip.

You can help this problem by simply going to Bali. Tell your friends how epic the surf is, how great the parties are, and how much trash is floating in the line-up. The more folks know about these problems, the more likely we’re going to see change.

Danger #6: More people, more footprint on the earth.

The greater outdoor industry, aquatic sports included, amounted to an 887 billion dollar industry in 2017 and is showing signs of growth. Adventure is trending and with it comes responsibility.  Unfortunately, our participation in outdoor activities from sea to summit has an impact on the environment. In 2016 alone, the National Park Service tallied their highest visitation rates to date: 331 million visits. Visitors who aren’t well versed in ‘leave no trace’ environmental ethics may choose to wash diapers in local streams, leave plastic bottles behind, or carve their name into old growth forests.

Action tip: Stay active.

The good news is that with growing participation in outdoor recreation, we may see a rise in environmental attitudes and behaviors. Studies have shown that people who participate in outdoor recreation activities are more likely to have an “appreciative” outlook on the environment rather than a “consumptive” outlook. Meaning, they may be more likely to carry beliefs and thus take action to preserve our natural spaces rather than exploit them.

Danger #7: The Surfing Problem.

Surfing as an industry is notoriously not sustainable. While many of us consider ourselves environmental stewards, leaders, and general sustainability aficionados, the fact is that the gear we use typically doesn’t biodegrade. Wetsuits are made from petroleum, boards are made from fiberglass, and leashes made from plastic aren’t great for the environment. This isn’t helped by bulk superstores’ favorite poster child: Costco. Since Costco dove into the surf industry with everyone’s favorite board to hate, the Wavestorm, it seems that the $99 8’0” longboard has found its way into every line-up around the globe. While the fact that crowds may simply harsh your mellow, this isn’t the biggest issue with Wavestorms. Made popular by it’s cheap price and remarkable maneuverability, Wavestorms have one secret weapon: they’re eternally returnable.  With a Costco membership, you can return a Wavestorm for just about anything from years of sun damage, delamination, dings, or decapitation. Unfortunately, once returned there’s only one place these boards will end up: the landfill.

Action tip: Ride a beater.

Considering Americans alone produce nearly 250 million tons of trash each year, it’s high time we figured out something to do with our used gear. There’s no shame in riding a board until it’s dead, filled with water and dinged from nose to tail. In fact, some longboarders prefer a heavy board for earlier drop-ins. That being said, there are a number of companies you can choose from that are recognizing the sustainability loophole in our favorite pastimes and finding new ways to address it. Companies like Patagonia, Matuse, and Soöruz, are finding new ways to green-up our surf gear by making wetsuits from plant-based materials. In the SUP industry, several companies who are well-known for manufacturing some of the best inflatable paddle boards on the market are working to incorporate more environmentally-friendly materials into their board designs. Others like RERIP are finding new and innovative ways to recycle old boards to be donated to deserving groms around the globe. Bottom-line: demand transparency in your purchases and search out companies doing their part to protect the places where we play.

Danger #8: Those pesky tourists!

If you’ve ever been on the biting side of a localism display, you may have a slight bias against tourists – it’s safe to say that tourism doesn’t always bring the most environmentally conscious.  The industry itself can inspire environmental destruction in the form of man-made beaches where mangrove forests once stood and crushed turtle eggs under uneducated flip-flops. Just as uneducated visitors can damage pristine wilderness areas, self-centered tourists can ignore the effect they may have on our coastal areas.

Action tip: Take a trip with a purpose.

Organizations around the world like Waves for Development can help to ensure that your next trip leaves a positive impact on the environment and community. With destinations in Mexico, Peru, and Nicaragua, Waves works to ensure that surf travel benefits the people and communities where it happens. Don’t forget that while helping local communities, you’ll be scoring some of the best waves of your life from Lobitos in Peru to Popoyo in Nicaragua.

Danger #9: Puff, Puff, Pollution

The cigarette is the most common piece of litter found in North America. While smoking rates are down in today’s youth, cigarettes still amount to about 40-50 percent of all waste collected from roads and streets. As stated by your local storm drain, all waste eventually finds its way to the ocean and in turn leaves a lasting mark. Plastic components found in cigarette filters cannot biodegrade. Recent studies have shown that cigarette butts, when exposed to water, can leak harmful chemicals capable of killing 50 percent of fish in a controlled laboratory. One can imagine the effects that millions of cigarettes can have on the ocean and its wildlife.

Action tip: Quit.

Kicking the habit is easier said than done, but if you’re not motivated purely by the damaging effects smoking can have on your body, think critically about its effect on the environment. Be the change you want to see in the world — if you want to see a change in our environment, stop smoking.

Danger #10: All those people, all that sunscreen.

If it weren’t for sunscreen, I’m pretty sure I would have quit surfing a long time ago. While I’ve never truly been a fan of UV protection, I do recall a colossal burn in my early 20’s that left me boiled and blistered. These days I tend to slap a bit of zinc wherever I can. Recent studies have shown that oxybenzone, a popular chemical found in many sunscreen products, is having a devastating effect on coral reefs. According to findings from the National Park service, nearly 6,000 tons of sunscreen is absorbed by coral reefs each year. Choose a nontoxic sunscreen without oxybenzone before you head outside.

Action tip: Be a teacher

The best way to share your love, knowledge, and experience in the ocean is to share it with others. While you may have worked a few surf instructor jobs through your youth, take a moment to teach others why our oceans and outdoor spaces mean something to you. Teaching is an extension of learning, in that you will inevitably learn a
nd grow from interaction with your students. Teaching can help you understand new perspectives and find new ways to share the importance of protecting our oceans and environments. So take your friend out into the line-up, push a child into a wave, or find your way into the classroom.

While our world will certainly continue to face challenges, there are actions that we can take as ocean enthusiasts, leaders, and stewards to impact the direction we’re heading in. As surfers or general outdoors loving people, we have a responsibility to ensure that future generations can enjoy our world as we have. It’s up to us, today, to ensure that our children, and our children’s children live in a world where we can dive deep in clear blue water, swim through dense kelp forests and coral reefs, or explore dense forests free of plastic debris.

Be the change you want to see — if all you do today is pick up a few cigarette butts or refuse single-use plastic, you’re on the right track. It’s daunting to think that our world has changed so drastically over the course of the last hundred years, but we can ensure that the next hundred years has a positive impact on our environment and helps to save the precious natural playground we’ve all grown to love.

Jason Paul has had a long-standing love affair with the ocean. He is a stand up paddleboarding enthusiast and lead editor of InflatableBoarder.com and currently lives in beautiful Panama with his wife and two small children.

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As part of the #breakfreefromplastic global movement, organizations are launching a series of coastal cleanup activities in Asia, Europe, and North America and calling for corporate accountability in conjunction with International Coastal Cleanup Day on Sept. 16.

In a press release, GAIA announced:

Philippines-based member organizations under the #breakfreefromplastic movement begin a 2 week-long coastal cleanup in Manila Bay this week, particularly in the Freedom Island (Las Pinas Paranaque Critical Habitat Ecosystem Area or LPPCHEA). An estimated two-hundred participants will work for 10 days to conduct a massive cleanup of this stretch with the aim of pushing for greater accountability for corporations who are mainly responsible for single-use plastics ending up in oceans, roads, and waterways.

“Through the series of beach cleanup activities on Freedom Island and in other parts of the world, we hope to highlight the role of corporations responsible for the manufacture, distribution, and proliferation of low-value, non-recyclable packaging and the single-use, disposable plastic products that often end up on the beaches and in the oceans. Whether they like it or not, the companies and brands associated with these products are already being associated with plastic pollution,” said  Von Hernandez, Global Coordinator of the #breakfreefromplastic movement.

Fishing communities who live near and around Freedom Island also report that their fishing livelihoods have been dramatically impacted by plastic pollution. Sonny Malubag, once a fisherman and now a director of a local cooperative in the area, decries how plastic pollution has hurt their fishing livelihoods. “I have been a fisherman since 1992. Back then, the garbage problem in our seas was not yet rampant. Now, whenever fishermen cast their nets in Manila Bay, more than half of what they catch are plastic cutleries and wrappers,” he said.

In North America, three #breakfreefromplastic member organizations are collaborating to raise awareness about the problem of beach pollution on Venice Beach, Los Angeles, California on September 16. McDonald’s has been reported to be continuously using polystyrene and expanded polystyrene foam, a highly polluting form of plastic. To shine a spotlight on styrofoam, collected polystyrene will be sent to California state legislators with a call to ban polystyrene and expanded polystyrene for good.

In Europe, groups in France, Germany, Bulgaria, Croatia, Italy, and Macedonia are also preparing for a series of cleanup activities in the region also with the aim of influencing the outcome of the Our Oceans conference slated in Malta on October 5-6.

And #breakfreefromplastic makes its debut In the Russian Arctic with a cleanup event organized by the Slava Foundation on September 27 in the Murmansk Sea.

Learn more about the coastal cleanup in Venice Beach, CA. 

#breakfreefromplastic is a global movement envisioning a future free from plastic pollution. Since its launch in September 2016, over 900 non-governmental organizations from across the world have joined the movement to demand massive reductions in single-use plastics and to push for lasting solutions to the plastic pollution crisis. These organizations share the common values of environmental protection and social justice, which guide their work at the community level and represent a global, unified vision. www.breakfreefromplastic.org.

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