38. Clean Up Litter
Happy World Environment Day! For this week’s #52climatesolutions, we want you to try a litter clean up with a difference. We want you to observe it and target the source.
It’s World Environment Day and this years theme is #BeatPlasticPollution, which feels like the perfect time to share this climate solution. Plastic pollution is an issue broader-reaching than litter, but the vast majority of litter you’ll find polluting your local ecosystem is made from it. So what can you do about it?
Litter in our oceans can prevent oceans from absorbing and sequestering CO2. It can impact biodiversity in sensitive regions. The presence of litter suggests something has gone wrong in our society. It can imply poorly managed waste (including poor bin placement), poor product design, or the ignorance, negligence and lack of accountability of individuals or businesses. These reasons are important to identify so we can stop litter at the source. It is more effective to repair a leaking tap than it is to continue to try to catch (and manage) the drops that fall.
Don’t get us wrong, we encourage litter clean ups, but we also recognise that solutions go far beyond scouring beaches for trash. The presence of litter also means overall, we aren’t doing enough to reduce the over-consumption that contributes to climate change.
Many litter clean-up groups focus on plastics, which makes sense as ¾ of litter on Australian coasts is plastic. And removing litter from the environment has benefits; it makes places look less spoiled and removes hazards to wildlife. As you probably know, animals can be entangled and injured by litter. Some ingest plastic litter and die as a result. As wildlife rescuers, we have been confronted by how frequently birds are found with hooks in their beaks. Litter clean ups have been and will continue to be important for conservation and health reasons.
However, to prevent littering, we need to apply solutions at the source. Auditing litter helps identify culprit companies that produce or distribute littered products. These vary from place to place, but repeat offenders include the fishing industry, and multi-corporate beverage companies. For some products, the manufacturers might not be immediately obvious, e.g. plastic straws and bags, cigarettes or nurdles. The solutions for these include regulating or banning certain products, requiring manufacturers to take responsibility for the end-use of products (including better design), and supporting businesses that offer better, less litter-susceptible alternatives.
For this week’s #52climatesolutions, we want you to try a litter clean up with a difference. We want you to observe it and target the source. Go for a walk in your local area and pick up some litter. Take a photo before binning it properly. Next, see if you can do a little sleuthing and then write to the companies or industries that produced litter items that you find. If the responsible company is not obvious, ask your local council to act on reducing litter in your area. Consider your own consumption of packaging and plastics and ways you might reduce your reliance on single use, moving towards reuse. Plastic Free July is just around the corner and this is a great time to reframe your relationship with plastic and how you want to move forward. Plastic pollution can feel like a huge, insurmountable hurdle. But friends, there are plenty of ways you can have a positive impact on this very
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Resources and links to get you thinking and talking about how you can help reduce littering and plastic pollution.
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