There has been so much shocking news this week I feel like screaming or crying – not writing.

I’m impotent about yet another mass shooting in the USA when so many people in that country still defend the NRA’s position on gun ownership.

I’m devastated and impotent too about the continued tragedy that is Syria and other international war zones – declared and undeclared.

And the refugee and asylum seeker cause remains heart-breaking and seemingly unsolvable.

However, the story and shocking pictures of the plastic pollution washing ashore in Indonesia and other countries – even my lovely Mordialloc beach after a storm – is something I am qualified to speak and write about – and perhaps make a difference.

 

There Is no Planet B

I’m not alone worrying about the environment especially our waterways,  and increasingly people living near and/or operating seaside small businesses are motivating others to combat the litter problem by inviting visitors to collect a bucket of rubbish in return for a free coffee.

The initiative started in England after a cafe owner watched the BBC’s Blue Planet programme and was so appalled he knew he had to do something.

Social media has done the rest with the latest reports coming from a small town in New Zealand  encouraging people to clean up.

It’s ugly, dirty – and costing us tens of thousands of dollars a year across the Western Bay. In a special series on illegal rubbish dumping, we examine how our councils are trying to fight illegal tipping – and meet good people aiming to help clean up our region.

Mount Maunganui businesses are offering people free coffee for a bucket of rubbish.

Change Habits To Save Habitats
Mairi Neil

Bali’s beaches are drowning in litter
Debris piles so no butterflies flitter
Everything dead
Apocalypse fed –
But the solution’s not storming Twitter.

The main culprit named as plastic
A product we embrace as fantastic
But it resists decay
And won’t go away
The destruction of marine life is tragic!

Fast food a convenience we craved
Marketing gurus constantly raved
Junk created ignored
As rubbish was poured
Into the environment, we should’ve saved.

Who profits from accumulated trash?
Is life on Earth worth less than cash?
Greenies demonised
Consumers fed lies
While pollution spreads like a rash.

What species destroys its own nest
Where standards should be the best?
‘Away’ doesn’t exist
Rubbish isn’t a mist
We create it so must produce less!

‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ a catch cry
This must be reality before we all die
The coral withers
Our PM dithers
Climate change deniers watch Earth fry.

To the tourists who boast loving Bali –
Has your behaviour increased the tally?
Of beach debris
Polluting the sea
Leave only footprints when you dally!!

Bali’s problem is really worldwide
From culpability, no one can hide
It starts with a ‘me’
I hope becomes ‘we’
From today let’s take the Earth’s side.

Take Only Photographs, Leave Only Footprints

We are fortunate in Australia.

We live in a country where there are regular rubbish collections and slogans like Keep Australia Beautiful and Clean Up Australia translate into education programs and public campaigns and there are fines for littering.

Yet we still have people who are too lazy to find a bin or take their rubbish home!

But we often export our rubbish and China’s refusal to accept the West’s trash emphasises how we need to recycle and repurpose our own rubbish, especially plastics, but more importantly we have to reduce and PRODUCE LESS rubbish!

It takes a long time for rubbish to decompose – and some never does.  The damage to wildlife and sea life horrendous.

Take Your Rubbish Home Or bin It

This needs to be the mantra for all of us – whether visiting a local park or a foreign country!

And we could tackle it with humour as this sign in Orkney outside a club did

It is easy to forget how big our environmental footprint becomes when we travel and already many tourist destinations are groaning under the cost of cleaning up after visitors, festivals, special events and the expectations of certain tourists.

Some cruise ships hold thousands of passengers. Can you imagine the rubbish to be disposed of – serviettes, straws, plus bottle and cans…?

Not surprisingly, some communities now regard those huge ships with dread!

I live some distance from the foreshore but close to the railway station and Main Street shops – every day I find discarded rubbish in my garden!

Multiply that problem in places where hundreds and thousands of people live or pass through and we definitely need to remind people of the message I remember from the 70s – POLLUTE AND PERISH…

We don’t have to wait for governments to legislate –

• demand less packaging,
• take your own bags when shopping
• take a reusable mug if you buy a cuppa on the way to work
• use your own refillable water bottle
• be a conscientious consumer