Spread the word

Hello everyone and thank you for your interesting and inciteful discussions on this MOOC!

This year many of the questions in Week 6 of the MOOC were concerned with the issue of marine litter, so this will be the focus of my final blog post.

The first way that each of us can make a difference to the amount of litter that is ending up in our oceans, is to be responsible about what we are throwing away:

• check what items can go in your recycling bin. Many local councils will also recycle glass and compost now so do your best to make that extra effort and use the facilities that are available;
• carefully consider where you are disposing of waste. As a general rule, only toilet paper should be flushed down the toilet; sanitary items, baby wipes, and cotton wool products do not easily break down and should always go in the bin. Read more about the ‘Think Before You Flush campaign’ run by ‘Surfers Against Sewage’ here.
• unfortunately waste cannot always be reduced, reused, or recycled, so when it finally becomes trash, think carefully about what you can do to reduce the risk of it causing harm in the marine environment. See Abbie’s excellent blog this week about how to reduce the risk of plastic bags being mistaken as food by turtles and other marine critters. Cut up plastic beer rings and bottle cap rings before throwing them out as these can ensnare seabirds. Most of the plastics used to make these ‘ringers’ are now photodegradable, but this process still takes a few months and could still do harm before they even begin to break down.

For those of you that want to go that extra mile and help to reduce the amount of litter that is currently being dumped at sea, you can join or organise your own Beachwatch events (run by the Marine Conservation Society) that help to keep Britain’s beaches clean. Or if you are like me, you can litter-pick every time you go to the beach!

You are all now ambassadors for the future health and sustainable use of our oceans, so let’s spread the word and let others know what can be done to protect our marine environment.