@lilies_diary: My Coastal Cleanup

For five years, I have been drawn repeatedly to the region of Aljezur in Portugal, a paradise at the seaside. I love to go walking on the beach in the morning, to feel the wind in my hair and the salty air on my lips. I love the endless expanse of the ocean. I love it so much that for one year now, Portugal has been the home of my choice.

Portugal has its own special charm. A place in which one can forget time, where benevolence is given pride of place over efficiency and Nature has a higher value than elsewhere. But sadly even the most beautiful place in the world cannot escape global problems. Whenever I go for a walk, I see increasing amounts of plastic waste at the water’s edge. Pieces of styrofoam, cigarette butts, fishing nets and straws.

Each week I walk there with my daughter in tow, equipped with a bucket and a sieve. I walk along the water’s edge to collect waste. If you think about the fact that 150 million tons of waste are swimming in the ocean, for many people this looks a bit like a needle in a haystack. But collecting waste is so much more. It is a mindset. It is an inspiration and yes, it even unites people.

I have collected waste all over the world: from Australia to the North Sea. Any yet there is one event in particular which has stayed in my mind – my beach clean-up in Morocco. I was in Taghazout for a surfing holiday and one evening I was walking along the beach equipped with my garbage bag when a local inhabitant spoke to me and asked me incredulously: are you collecting our waste?

I nodded and smiled at him. And suddenly I was no longer alone. The young man helped me to fill up my bag. He voiced his enthusiasm several times over. He kept saying that he had never seen anyone collect garbage here before. He also expressed his regret that many locals just deposited their garbage bags outside without giving any further thought to what actually happens to it. If the garbage collectors do not come quickly enough, cats and stray dogs destroy the bags in their search for food and the wind carries the waste through the streets, down to the sea.

I once read a beautiful definition of „living sustainably“. „Living sustainably“ means thinking about the consequences of how we ourselves act now. And that is it in a nutshell: thinking and asking questions. Very few people know for example that in Germany „recycled waste“ is often exported to India.

Practicing sustainability and Zero Waste helps us to avoid waste. And still we have to be patient with ourselves. We have to understand that it is a long process to find alternatives or alternative strategies to produce less plastic. This might serve as an inspiration to one or the other reader or it might be a first step when I give you three little tips  - three pointers to get you started:

1. Avoid disposable plastic goods!

Beverage bottles, the fasteners of lids, cigarette butts and cotton buds are the „Top 4“ products I always find on the beach. Think carefully about what disposable products you can renounce and for which you can find a more sustainable alternative!

For example, I get by without balloons, straws, plastic bags and disposable cutlery. Instead, I have searched for lots of sustainable alternatives. Instead of plastic bags, I use burlap bags and I use To-Go stainless steel cutlery instead of disposable cutlery. Do not use conventional wet wipes. Make sure your wet wipes are made of cellulose fibers and are bio-degradable – like VEOCEL™ fibers which are made from wood.

2. Consume less!

Everything we buy consumes resources and produces waste at some time. So, it is a logical conclusion and an important step towards less waste, if we simply consume less. This starts with foodstuffs. For example if we stop buying those bars of chocolate wrapped in plastic when we are having a tired phase at lunchtime. It ends with out clothes, and with children’s toys. If you need something, check first whether you can get it Second Hand. If there is no other option than to buy a new product, make sure it has been produced sustainably and fairly.

3. Restrict your consumption of fish!

According to the WWF most of the plastic waste in the ocean comes from the fishing industry. What are known as ghost nets - loose fishing nets – are dangerous for wildlife and they only degrade very slowly into microplastic. If we do without fish, we are indirectly preventing plastic waste in the ocean and saving animal lives.

#ItsInOurHands – no matter what we do, even small steps can help us fulfill a great vision.