{"id":7458,"date":"2016-01-08T13:43:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-08T13:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.p4.greenpeace.org\/post\/new-years-plastic-resolution-5-simple-ways-to-help-the-ocean\/"},"modified":"2019-11-06T09:49:33","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T08:49:33","slug":"new-years-plastic-resolution-5-simple-ways-to-help-the-ocean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/story\/7458\/new-years-plastic-resolution-5-simple-ways-to-help-the-ocean\/","title":{"rendered":"New Year’s plastic resolution: 5 simple ways to help the ocean."},"content":{"rendered":"

We are turning our oceans into plastic soup. It\u2019s been estimated recently that about EIGHT MILLION TONNES<\/a> of plastic ends up in the ocean each year.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Cooks

Greenpeace volunteers head from Sydney’s Botany Bay up the Cooks River to pick up rubbish. The initiative is driven by the Sydney Greenpeace Local Group and takes place on the first Sunday of each month at various locations around Sydney.<\/p><\/div>\n

Plastic can be amazing. But when it\u2019s reduced to disposable, throwaway items, there\u2019s a big problem \u2013 there simply is no \u2018away\u2019 to throw it to. And plastic hangs around for a very, very long time. A lot of plastic rubbish finds its way into the ocean. Most of that you will never see, as it\u2019s broken down into tiny particles. But these \u2018microplastics\u2019 have been finding their way into ocean food chains for a long time, and now they are starting to turn up in the fish you eat<\/a>, and in the sea salt<\/a> you sprinkle on your chips. Bigger bits of plastic meanwhile are eaten by seabirds<\/a>, fish, turtles<\/a> and whales<\/a>, which die with stomachs full of plastic, assuming they\u2019ve not been unlucky enough to get ensnared and killed by plastic<\/a> before then.<\/p>\n

There are some massive solutions needed, but the most important one is obviously for less plastic to be thrown away in the first place. And that\u2019s something we can all help with. Every bit of plastic not used, not thrown away, or not left lying around is a good thing. The simple idea here is \u2018Reduce, Reuse, Recycle\u2019 \u2013 in that order. Sure we\u2019ve heard it hundreds of times, but it\u2019s never more true than it is with plastics.<\/p>\n

But since it\u2019s the season for New Year Resolutions, here\u2019s a quick list of 5 things you can do to help make the problem of plastic less drastic.<\/p>\n

1. SAY NO TO SINGLE USE PLASTICS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Take your own shopping bag<\/a> with you. Use a reusable drinks bottle<\/a> or hot drinks mug. Pass on plastic cutlery<\/a> or unnecessary straws<\/a>. Avoid overpackaging.<\/p>\n

2. AVOID MICROBEADS<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s pretty unbelievable, but the same plastic used to make carrier bags is found as tiny microbeads<\/a> in cosmetics. This ends up down the drain, and in the ocean. It\u2019s madness, and corporates and governments<\/a> at last seem to be waking up to that \u2013 but check before you buy!<\/a><\/p>\n

3. RECYCLE<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to tell you not to litter, because that\u2019s obvious \u2013 right? But if you do use plastic a) buy stuff that\u2019s already recycled, and b) recycle it afterwards. If you\u2019re local area doesn\u2019t have recycling facilities<\/a> \u2013 then do feel free to go kick up a stink about it.<\/p>\n

4. DO A BEACH CLEAN<\/strong><\/p>\n

The fresh air is good for you. And every bit of plastic removed from the beach is a good thing, and might mean one less dead seabird or turtle too. You can find out more here,<\/a> or just do your own plastic pick up, even if you only have a couple of minutes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

5. CONVINCE A FRIEND OR FAMILY MEMBER TO DO ALL OF THIS TOO<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a good chance you\u2019re already doing this stuff. But don\u2019t stop there. Less plastic and less waste is good news for all of us, and the planet, so spread the word!<\/p>\n

Willie Mackenzie is part of the biodiversity team at Greenpeace UK<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are turning our oceans into plastic soup. It\u2019s been estimated recently that about EIGHT MILLION TONNES of plastic ends up in the ocean each year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":13903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70,73],"tags":[67,85,86],"p4-page-type":[59],"class_list":["post-7458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nature","category-social-and-economic-systems","tag-consumption","tag-oceans","tag-food","p4-page-type-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7458"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26202,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7458\/revisions\/26202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7458"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=7458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}