“Save the turtles,” they mockingly drawled, rolling their eyes, as I clambered to collect the empty cans casually strewn about the boat deck and attempted to stuff them into an empty grocery bag. “Just sink them!”
Growing up in Connecticut, the Long Island Sound played a massive role in daily life: from middle school field trips to the beach where we would test the water quality and study marine life, to my first summer job working as a lifeguard, to playing hooky so we could take a quick road trip to go surfing. But as the years passed, almost all at once, we began to take it for granted. Jokes aside, I knew that nobody around me actually wanted to hurt marine life, and all of us love the ocean – at a bare minimum, isn’t it worthy of our respect? Why doesn’t anyone seem to care more?
Drowning a can or bottle takes about ten seconds, but this seemingly small action will have repercussions that will last for decades, if not centuries. According to an article by the news site Acciona called Sustainability For All, Cans made from aluminum can take between 10 and 100 years to decay, “depending on the thickness, and which generates iron oxide.” Iron can trigger algae blooms; if allowed to grow out of control, these blooms can kill fish, mammals, birds, and “the human illnesses caused by [algae blooms], though rare, can be debilitating or even fatal” (NOAA). If that’s not reason enough, fertilizing the ocean with iron can end up producing nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas. Even something as tiny as a cigarette butt can last for up to 10 years, contaminating between 8 and 10 liters of water (Acciona) and killing any animal that attempts to ingest it, but can’t digest it. These statistics surrounding discarded aluminum cans are just scraping the surface. Meanwhile, plastics can last for up to 1,000 years. Glass can last for up to 4,000 years.
I wasn’t alone in trying to pick up our garbage that day on the boat, but neither was the kid who wanted to simply sink the cans. Some people didn’t seem to care either way. Rather, they seemed content to kick back, and merely watch on as we argued over convenience versus conservation. As teenagers, I realize that priorities are often skewed. But as the next generation, carrying such a lax or even hostile attitude toward such a heavily problematic issue is something that we, quite frankly, cannot afford to continue.
According to an article called Marine Plastic Pollution by IUCN, among other garbage, plastic currently accounts for “80% of all marine debris found from surface waters to deep-sea sediments.” Historically, plastic hasn’t been around for very long; the first human-made plastic was only created in 1862 (4Ocean). Since then, its use and applications have changed dramatically. Plastic wrap emerged in the 1930s, styrofoam appeared in the 1940s, then both low and high density polyethylene materialized over the years – all of which quickly became part of everyday life. Back then, they were commonly used for things like food packaging, building insulation, prosthetics, and even cutting boards. While this all sounds great, the downside, namely microplastics, weren’t fully understood until the 1970s. In terms of the ocean, when plastic is left in the open, “the sun is able to crack them and break them up into fragments,” which then convert each item into a “host of microplastic debris” that marine species most frequently confuse with food sources. “As small as a piece might seem, it is estimated that it would need five years to disappear” (Acciona).
Nowadays, despite the extensive knowledge we have surrounding this material’s harmful and lasting effects, rather than limiting usage, it has become more prevalent than ever before. The plastics industry spends “millions of dollars each year to convince policy makers… that solutions to plastic pollution lie in anti-litter campaigns” (Clean Water Action). However, this is clearly not working. The problem is only getting worse. Fast. Instead, the solution lies in education.
Big Blue Ocean Cleanup’s Clean Ocean Education, for instance, is just one example of how we can get started doing so. Through a series of lesson plans and key videos, the program aims to offer 7 to 14 year olds an “understanding of how ocean pollution impacts the natural environment and inspires them to protect it.” Plastic Oceans, another program, offers various education plans, such as workshops, activities, among other facilitation experiences for elementary, middle, high school, and college students. The Ocean Conservancy offers a plethora of outreach and education programs. Despite how amazing these programs are, the one thing that they have in common is that they are only implemented if an instructor chooses to do so. It isn’t enough. Teaching about the ocean through mainstream education is the only way to ensure that each student both hears and understands the message, and carries it forward. Importantly, this message should not be directed towards a political agenda, but instead serve purely to educate children about the fact that our actions do, in fact, have very real consequences. As adults, many lives are rooted in routine and actions are, at the very least, exceedingly more difficult to change. However, if we shift the way education regards this issue by beginning the conversation at a young age, we might be able to make a real change towards our collective future.
The ocean supports our way of life for every single species on the planet. In order for us to have a fighting chance at combating the issue of marine pollution, we have to teach our younger generations. Realistically, why don’t kids nowadays care more? Saving ocean life shouldn’t be the butt of someone’s joke, or is something that we can remain casually nonchalant about. If money could be reallocated to teach young people about the vast implications of our actions, we could finally start on the path to truly making a difference.
Works Cited:
“A Brief History of the Plastic Crisis.” 4ocean, 1 Apr. 2020,
https://www.4ocean.com/blogs/live-the-mission/a-brief-history-of-the-plastic-crisis.
“Clean Ocean Education.” Big Blue Ocean Cleanup.
<https://www.bigblueoceancleanup.org/clean-ocean-education>
“Educational Experiences for Schools.” Plastic Oceans International, 15 Sep. 2021.
<https://plasticoceans.org/education-experiences-for-schools/>
“Marine Plastic Pollution.” IUCN, 20 July 2022,
https://www.iucn.org/resources/issues-brief/marine-plastic-pollution.
“Outreach & Education.” Ocean Conservancy.
<https://oceanconservancy.org/trash-free-seas/outreach-education/>
“The Problem of Marine Plastic Pollution.” Clean Water Action,
<https://cleanwater.org/problem-marine-plastic-pollution>
“The Waste The Planet Cannot Digest: How Long It Takes To Decay.” Acciona,
<https://www.activesustainability.com/environment/waste-planet-digest-how-long-it-takes-to-decay/?_adin=02021864894>
“What Is a Harmful Algal Bloom?” National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
<https://www.noaa.gov/what-is-harmful-algal-bloom>
