#SustainableSunday: Clean up the ocean...

Several weeks ago, for #SustainableSunday, I shared with ya'll a list of documentaries on Netflix that had some sort of eco vibe or just a general global sense and that I felt needed to gain a bit more exposure.  Since posting that list, I've watched oodles of other documentaries about pollution (like Plastic Paradise and others), but living in the midwest, I usually just see fields of garbage and not the oceans full of trash on which the documentaries focus.  However, last week I was lucky enough to escape the midwest to visit my daddy in beautiful, sunny California for spring break and I got a bit of a rude awakening.  

Here's the deal: while I don't love to always be in the ocean, I love the ocean.  I love whales, I love sea turtles, I love seahorses, I love fishies.  I love most things that are connected to the ocean and on this trip, I discovered that I love sea glass. 

I made a couple of solo beach trips to forage for sea glass ('cos you know, it is still a form of pollution and I'm happy to take it off the beach) and my first few trips were pretty successful.  However, the wind changed and instead of finding glass mixed in with pebbles on the shore, I was finding trash.  A ton of it.  I picked up what I could with my pockets and the bag I was using for sea glass, but I ran of of room pretty quickly.  Among lots of unidentifiable things, I found beer bottle caps, plastic water bottle caps, lip balm containers, plastic bottle rings, a straw that I'm pretty sure came from a Capri Sun, a sliver of vinyl flooring, and the handle to a plastic beach shovel. 

Seeing a trend here?  There's a metric crap ton of plastic floating around out there!  Argh!  And to top matters off, upon sitting down for a quick break, my dad pointed out that my feet were covered with oil (see photo below).  OIL, I thought?  That's weird.  The jury is out on this one, but a series of Google searches have told me 1) That there are natural oil reserves below the sea floor that sometimes bubble up and 2) That big corporate ships like to clean out their oil tanks while they're at sea and the slicks drift in with the tide.  Luckily, it is easily removable with olive or canola oil.  I would love some more information about what this truly is. 

In any case, this week for #SustainableSunday, I just want to ask you to please try to cut down on your usage of single-use plastics and if you cannot cut down on it, please dispose of it responsibly!  Also, if you see trash while you're out and about in the world, take a moment to pick it up!  My trash to glass ratio photo below really freaks me out!