California Clean Up Day has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it.  It kind of makes me sad that we need such days on our beautiful planet but since it is so, at least some people care enough to have a clean up day.  I was in Sydney on my trip and helped cleaning up Bondi Beach on Clean Up Australia Day.  I also travelled through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, as they call it.  This garbage patch is the size of North America (someone told me) and is fed by all the plastic, glass, wrapping materials, metal, rope, fishing lines and nets ships throw overboard, as well as everything else that’s ends up on the streets, in parks, on playgrounds, picnic areas and out of houses everywhere close to shore or a river that carries it down stream to the ocean.  It’s seriously awful to look at, let alone swim or live in. All my ocean friends have to put up with it. It’s not just the physical stuff, like plastic bits and nets but it’s also the chemicals coming out these bits as they break down. Then there are animals in the ocean who eat this stuff, they even feed it to their young. 1 Million seabirds die every year from ingesting plastic, and that’s just the ones they find on shore.

So, knowing that now, here’s how you can help.  Keep your plastic consumption to a minimum, use glass and recycle it.  Don’t throw your wrappers on the street, or cigarette buds (for the older “kids”).  Bin them!   Take your garbage home and dispose of it responsibly.  Think of the next person or animals who will use this area.  The world has enough plastic in the ocean to cover every bit of land on earth.  Imagine how much that is.  Let’s try and leave a better place for everyone.  Help with the Clean Up if you are in a specified area of California tomorrow.  But no matter where you are in the world you can always bend down and pick up some trash that’s on your path and put it in a bin.  Every little bit helps.

Yours,

Lahni