Like you, we have been horrified by images of sea plastic pollution. They are awful to look at, mostly because we know we collectively are at fault, harming wild birds and animals, which like children are vulnerable, knowing no better than to eat it or unable to get out of its constraining embrace. What makes it worse in many ways, is that we mostly didn’t mean to. We didn’t realise the impact of our daily lives. We are just managing, struggling with so many stressors whilst trying to do the right thing. The impacts seem too remote, too far away in time. How can I have created that?
We also know that emotional issues create knee-jerk reactions and the resulting often simple solutions can create more damage than good. But simple solutions rarely work for such complex issues as our management of waste and how we value the possessions and the objects which pass through our hands daily.
Margaret Atwood at a recent Women and Climate Change conference put it so eloquently when she said:
“Every idea has a good side, a bad side and a stupid side you didn’t think about”
And so, our personal Odyssey is to understand the situation more fully, such that we can make informed decisions in our personal lives and have the knowledge to influence those in decision making positions to make the changes which are so obviously needed.
We started with a basic set of questions, and these have driven us forwards and we expect will spawn a whole series of further questions as we learn more.
Join us to learn as we learn:
How much plastic is polluting our seas & coasts?
Where is the plastic coming from and how does it get into the sea?
What happens to plastic when it gets there - where is it going to?
How bad is the problem of plastic pollution around our coasts?
What are nurdles and where do they come from?
What is marine plastic pollution doing to marine mammals, fish and birds?
What happens when it is inside their bodies, and what's the impact on the food web?
What chemicals are transported in marine plastics?
What are the impacts on us?
How can we tackle the problem of plastic pollution getting into the sea?
How can we effectively come together to take action at a political level?
Can trawling or creating barrages to remove plastic be effective?
Why do we need plastic in our lives?
Where can we replace plastic in our lives and what are the alternatives?
What can we recycle and why can't we recycle more?
Why can't we all shop plastic free?
Why is single use plastic so bad?
Why are some plastics (packaging) not recyclable?
Why can't all single use plastics be biodegradable?
What's the problem with bioplastics infecting the recyclate stream?
Want to add your question to our list? Post it up on our Clean Seas Odyssey Facebook discussion group or as a comment here and we’ll see what we can do!