Waves crashing at the beach – Praia de Faro, Faro, Portugal. Photo: mikroman6 (Getty)
Imagine for a moment that you were an ocean, and people were throwing garbage at you and urinating on your feet. Not very pleasant, is it?
Although June may be well underway, it’s important to highlight one its most important observations for the month: World Oceans Month. With that in mind, we’d like to remind you of the problems of plastic pollution, overfishing and the general misuse of waste in our society that some eco-conscious influencers and beautiful plastic-free babes are taking the time to address.
Challenge yourself to avoid single-use waste — water bottles and coffee cups (mainly the lids and straws you love) — for the rest of the month. Attempt to give our oceans a breather from all the hazardous materials floating within. Maybe even check out an event near you. If it will put you in a bette mindset, we’ve even provided a few startling facts about the ocean pollution to help give you a boost towards getting more involved.
There are floating trash islands bigger than Texas.
Plastic is the most common material found in the ocean (next to water, of course). Plastic, however, doesn’t break down. We’ve gotten so good with single-use plastics we’re discarding them at too rapid a pace for our oceans to stomach. The Pacific Gyre, one of five major islands, is twice the size of Texas. That’s a literal shit-ton of plastic.
Over a million seabirds die from pollution in a year.
If you thought bird poop was a problem, these poor aviators get your straws and cigarette butts stuck in your throats, along with your beer can plastic strangling their necks. That’s not all. There’s also the 300,000 dolphins who die each year from fishing nets, which are also trawling the ocean floor. Plus, there’s the matte of overfishing, which leads to destroyed ecosystems and endangered fish.
Plastic isn’t the only problem.
We use more than 500 million plastic straws each day as a planet, but they’re too small to recycle. However, what if everybody used a metal reusable straw? They’re washable and keep your drink cold on a hot summer day all the way from your drink to your lips. Genius.
Birthdays (and) balloons blow.
You’re old enough now that we can be honest with you: Nobody cares about your f–king birthday. They suck once you’re out of your 20s, and you should’ve been done celebrating them around the age you quit trick-or-treating (10, not 28). Balloons are made of latex, which does all but dispose of itself properly over time. The next time you see a porpoise puking up your birthday balloon, remember only assholes throw themselves birthday parties without biodegradable materials and reusable cups.
Plastic bags are for…well, you get the picture.
It seems California is the only state to totally ban plastic bags. If you’re getting charged for using them at the store, why not just pay two bucks for one you can bring back over and over again until the end of time? Chicks dig a dude with a reusable tote. That’s a fact, Jack.
The Challenge
SO, take our plastic-free, no throw-away cup challenge this month, be it a coffee cup or red plastic summer party cup. Show up with your own and make people see what’s cool. Hey, maybe you’ll get a free beer out of it. Who knows, you might like it enough to keep doing it the whole year.
