By Lynn Wilder, Apalachicola Riverkeeper Board member
I remember one of my friends telling me years ago that she hadn’t noticed all of the different shells on the beach until she took a beach walk with me. She sees them on every beach walk now. The same thing happened to another acquaintance about birds. I certainly don’t know all of the names of sea life or birds, but I notice them.
The same thing happens when you start noticing trash. There’s a lot of it and it pops out of the landscape at you. Unlike seashells, it’s not something we pick up and admire. It’s not something we classify by origin, life cycle, or migration route.
If we do notice a plastic bottle or candy wrapper on the ground, what happens when we just walk by? It’s easier to un-see it, right? Odds are it won’t end up in a landfill or be recycled. But it will migrate. Into a bird’s nest. Into a wetland. Into a river. Into a bay and an ocean. Into the food web. Into us.
What if we didn’t un-see litter? How long would it take to stop and pick it up? What if we put it into recycling bin or a trash can?
What if someone took a walk with us and started noticing, too?
What if?
Much of the litter I pick up seems to be plastic. Here are a few facts about plastic that I can’t un-see.
- Since the 1950s, plastic manufacturing has doubled roughly every 15 years. It has outpaced nearly every other man-made material.
- Half of all plastic becomes trash in less than a year after it’s made.
- Plastic exists in the environment for hundreds of years.
Here’s my challenge to all of us: Notice trash when you are out and about. Don’t ignore it. Pick it up!  Every time we take a walk, we can help stop plastic migration. Into a bird’s nest. Into a wetland. Into a river. Into a bay and an ocean. Into the food web. Into us.
References:
Roland G, Jenna RJ, Kara LL. Production, use, and fate of all plastics ever made. Sci Adv 2017;3(7):e1700782. Â Â https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/7/e1700782
Ilyas M, Ahmad W, Khan H, Yousaf S, Khan K, Nazir S. Plastic waste as a significant threat to environment – a systematic literature review. Rev Environ Health. 2018;33(4):383–406. doi:10.1515/reveh-2017-0035