Clean Up Plastic While You Sail
Throughout the summer, every time boaters set sail, the American Sailing Association aka ASA ask them to bring a trash bag onboard and pick up any garbage they see, whether it’s on the water’s edge or in the water. The initiative kicks off the week of Independence Day (July 2), to celebrate the biggest sailing day of the year (July 4), and continues throughout the summer. We here at SpinSheet love this idea and encourage Chesapeake sailors to join Operation Plastic Pollution Purge!
Participants are encouraged to post photos of picking up trash to the American Sailing Association Facebook page. This public service campaign aims to raise awareness of the plastic pollution problem to encourage plastic recycling and proper disposal.
Why Should You Care?
- The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is an 80,000-ton beast of debris lurking in the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and California. It has grown to twice the size of Texas. There are five such plastic islands polluting oceans throughout the globe, threatening wildlife and ultimately the food we eat.
- As the plastic breaks up into tiny pieces, birds and fish think it’s food and eat it. Their bellies get full and they ultimately starve themselves to death, killing our food supply. Some scientists say this poisoning of the food chain ultimately poses a threat to all of us, pointing to links between plastic pollution and cancer, and among other illnesses.
- Eighteen billion pounds of plastic waste blows into the ocean each year. That’s the equivalent of five grocery bags of plastic trash sitting on every foot of coastline around the world.
Plastic Planet
- Every minute, nearly a million plastic beverage bottles are sold around the world.
- U.S. residents use almost one plastic bag each, every day; compared to Denmark residents who each use an average of four plastic bags a year.
- Forty percent of plastic products in packaging are used just once and then discarded.
- Americans throw out an average of 10 plastic bags each and every week.
- The plastic problem is growing at such a rapid pace it’s the equivalent of dumping one New York City garbage truck full of plastic into the ocean every minute of every day.
- One million seabirds die annually from getting tangled in and/or eating plastic
- One hundred marine mammals die from getting tangled in and/or eating plastic annually.
Spread the word about this global plastic pollution epidemic that is hurting our waterways, wildlife and food supply. ASA kicks off its cleaning crusade on July 2, and you may pick up trash any day throughout the summer sailing season.
