Better Environment Better Tomorrow

Posted 5 June 2018

Better environment, better tomorrow

Today it is Environment Day. This day aims to raise awareness of the importance of respecting and doing your bit for the environment. Of course, environmental care deserves a 365 days a year approach, though this day puts the environment a bit extra in the spotlight. This year the main theme is Beating Plastic Polution.

It probably hasn't skipped your attention yesterday, a pilot whale died of plastic bags that jammed his stomach. After a five-day effort to save the whale, he died last Sunday because of plastic rubbish. An autopsy found some 80 pieces of plastic in his stomach, weighing approx. 8 kg. This plastic made the whale sick and unable to hunt. 

5 Facts about plastic polution: 

1. Approx. 8 million tons of plastic - bottles, packaging and other waste - are globally dumped in the ocean every year, killing marine life and entering the human food chain.

2. An estimated 5,25 trillion pieces of plastic, weighing 290.000 tons is distributed across the ocean. 

3. Up to 1 million seabirds and 100.000 marine mammals and sea turtles die each year from eating plastic. 

4. An average 36,8 pieces of plastic were found among fulmars (gull-like birds that breed in high Arctic Canada and on islands in the Bering Sea).

5. Small ocean animals, like fish, ingest tiny toxic plastic particles that past to us when we eat seafood.

3 Simple ways to care for the environment:

1. BYOB (Bring Your Own Bag) Why waste a plastic or paper bag every time you go to the grocery store? Bring your own bag and conserve resources every time you shop. 

2. Recycle. Like they say "if you can't reuse it, refuse it". 

3. Unplug! 40% of electricity used to power home electronics, is consumed while the products are turned off. Switch if off and safe the environment and your wallet. *

These are just three simple ways to help maintain the environment. Every little bit helps. #BeatPlasticPolution

Sources: Reuters.com, stories.visualeyed.com/garbage-island, * according to the Environmental Society of California, zestbooks.net, worldenvironmentalday.global.