Admit it: when you hear the words "marine conservation" and "ocean advocacy", you almost always see a beach cleanup in your mind.
The question is: why do people do it? Why clean the beach, when you can find a lot of trash in other places like city streets, roadsides, and residential areas? Do beach cleanups really help the environment? What do you even do on a beach cleanup?
If you want to know all the answers to these burning questions, read on:
What Are Beach Cleanups?
A beach or coastal cleanup is a conservation initiative that involves removing trash and debris in and around beaches. Simply put, it's when you get down and dirty to pick up trash from the beach.
Beach cleanups can range from big, organized activities attended by hundreds of people to simple, individual acts of picking up rubbish while vacationing at the beach. Either way, the idea is the same: you get a garbage bag, pick up trash from the beach and dispose of them properly. Bigger coastal cleanups segregate the garbage and recycle plastic items like bottles, cans, and flipflops.
These activities help the beaches “breathe” and keep our marine life safe from plastic pollution.
Why is cleaning our beaches so important?
Coastal cleanups are important because beaches are the last frontier before the trash gets washed away to the ocean. Once garbage reaches the ocean and sinks to the ocean floor, it would take ten times more effort for people to fish them out.
Currents can also take these trash to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, where they’ll accumulate and choke the life out of our seas.
Worse, plastic waste can break down and turn into microplastics when they reach the sea. Microplastics are very small--- they’re less than 50mm in diameter and can, therefore, harm more marine life.
Have you heard about whales and dolphins dying from eating too much plastic, or birds getting trapped from nets and plastic bags? That’s what happens when we don’t clean our beaches, so it’s vital to do beach cleanups regularly.
Do Beach Cleanups Actually Work?
When you put your back into it---absolutely! If you think it’s impossible to clean our beaches, just check out the video above. What started as a two-man initiative ended in the clearing of around 9,000 tons of garbage in Mumbai, India.
Today, the Versova Beach Cleanup is considered to be one of the biggest and most successful beach cleanups in history--- so successful that sea turtles have returned to nest on the beach after nearly two decades!
What You Can Do To Help
Beach cleanups are one of the easiest ways to help keep our oceans clean and safe. Try going out to the beach during the weekend and spend a couple of hours collecting trash. You won’t believe the amount of garbage people leave around in beaches!
Another way to help the cause is to support groups that advocate coastal cleanups. For every purchase of our eco-friendly and sustainably sourced accessories, 10% of the sales go to charities and groups that organize beach cleanups. It sounds like a small amount, but a little goes a long way, especially when it comes to helping the oceans come to life again.
Clickhere to find out more about our products and how you can help in our mission to keep our oceans clean and safe!
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