Plastic in the world's oceans - we need a change

Painful dead animals with plastic in their bodies , turtles that mistake plastic for their natural food source, or Dolphins that live in plastic nets stick in your mind. Surely everyone has seen one of these or a similar image somewhere.

Today I want to give you an insight into the Topic: Plastic in the world's oceans give.

Hardness Facts about why you should care about the issue and what you can do as an individual to make a difference.

❗ 1 km2 Sea now contains approx. 100,000 pieces of plastic waste

❗ It takes Decades until plastic is degraded by natural influences in the sea. plastic bag needs approx. 20 years , Styrofoam 50 years and a PET bottle 450 years until it is completely decomposed.

❗ During the decomposition of plastic, toxic ingredients released

❗ 300 million tons of plastic are produced every year , of which more than 10 million tons in the Oceans . Mostly through rivers that carry the garbage directly to sea, but also from boats or tourism.

❗ Ever heard of Garbage swirls There are now several of them worldwide, the largest of which has now reached It's six times the size of France . These are accumulations of garbage at sea, practically entire garbage islands.

❗ 30 plastic objects per km2 were also discovered by biologists during waste counts in our North Sea documented.

I myself was 2019 in Bali . “It’s not as bad as everyone says, with the garbage,” I thought at first. But if you take a look behind the houses throws a few meters Away from the well-known tourist spots , moving around the island a bit and not just lying by the well-kept hotel pool, you will be left breathless. Mountains of carelessly discarded garbage , tons of plastic in bushes and ditches. For every purchased accessory, a wafer-thin Plastic bag , in supermarkets and at the stands, small quantities of food Packed in portions in small bags - plastic on every corner as far as the eye can see.

Also our Dominik is that during his Surf holiday You may already know what happened next, he founded Oceanmata, to make a difference.

By the way – the Garbage problem there is not only far away in Indonesia . In August 2020 I was on Majorca And here, too, a similar picture. A picturesque beach, a beautiful sea at first glance, but if you dive beneath the surface and dare to look up, you're not sure where to surface without being covered in trash yourself.

So during my snorkeling tour I decided to create my own little Underwater Clean-Up to start - and quickly realized that it would take more than my two small hands to get the amount of garbage under control.

At sunset on the cliffs, far away from the tourist crowds, I watched a Plastic bag that comes with your fellow PET bottle rocked back and forth by the waves and asked myself the question: How can it be that we treat our earth so carelessly?

From previous family holidays, I always had the beautiful and clear sea with its underwater creatures in mind. That there were other Waste separation habits or here and there careless handling of its Disposal There is always a perception of the existence of such a thing. But we are now at a point where the Amounts of plastic waste have increased so much that the Influence on our lives or those of our children cannot yet be foreseen today.

Plastic waste is poisoning our oceans and threatening our planet. We must act.

The Habitat of marine life is destroyed, plastic that seabed covered, for example, lowers its Oxygen content and will inevitably become a dead matter on which no life can take place. Plastic parts on the sea surface take the sunlight its place and thus also influence the lives of corals and other microorganisms .

More and more animals in the sea are eating plastic and die with full stomachs or suffocate beforehand.

Human health is also polluted by the chemicals that accumulate in marine life and enter our organisms through the food chain.

If we do nothing, predictions say there will be more plastic in the ocean by 2050 than there are fish in it. If at some point there are no more fish , that is only the beginning of the end - if you remove one link from a chain, the link above it is also directly affected. Not only are fish a staple food for many people and they would then probably starve, the whole ecosystem would be confused.

In short: If the sea dies, we die too .

STOP! You want to help?

Just as one drop can make the cup overflow, you too, as a small individual, can begin to make a difference. It's basically the other way around, by catching the drop first. All it takes is you – really!

👉 If you When you buy everyday items , find out what material they are made of and use materials that do not contain plastic !

👉 Do not throw garbage into the environment, when you are out and about, but take it home with you or dispose of it properly and not in nature!

👉 If you cosmetics buy, make sure that no Microplastic items contain, for example, also called polyethylene. By scanning the products with the App "Toxfox" or "CodeCheck" You can check it out. In our blog about sustainable Christmas gifts, we also featured a Munich-based company that produces great natural cosmetics. Check it out here !

👉 Maybe you want to own small Clean-Up Project Why not start collecting trash in your community? Plus, get a dose of fresh air and exercise!

👉 Support our Team Bali at his work - in the form of a virtual wheelbarrow full of garbage, for example!

And the easiest way: Live mindfully throughout your life, educate the people around you about how to handle plastic and the alternatives if you notice that there is a need for education.

Many people are often not even aware of the impact that own actions can have, and many simply make mistakes out of carelessness or ignorance. You've probably heard the phrase:

"Just because I stop doing this or that, others will continue doing it anyway. I alone can't change anything."

But this is exactly where the change begins - in each of us.

Your Natalie