There is an island in the South Pacific called Henderson Island that used to be a beautiful white sandy beach island. It is now called the Garbage Island due to all the plastic that has floated upon its shores from the countries of China, Thailand, Indonesia, Europe, United States, Russia, South America, Japan, and the Philippines. All these countries signed a pledge to clean up their act due to the fact that they produce 60% of the marine plastic waste.
These countries are introducing ways to get rid of plastic in innovative ways:
Dell Computer Company has decided to make their computer laptops from recycled plastic that is found on the beaches of Haiti. By doing this they estimate that they will keep around 16,000 lbs. of plastics out of the oceans. The oceans currently have 86 million tons of plastic clogging the reefs, killing marine life and clogging the beaches.
There are a couple of designers that have decided to start creating some of their designs in recycled plastic. Some sneakers from Adidas are now made of materials removed from the oceans.
Even though an entrepreneur has developed a system to collect waste from under the water of the oceans off the coast of California it’s still not enough to stop the plastic waste in our oceans. We need to start using plastic less, come up with better waste solutions, and clean up what we have destroyed already.