It is very common to hear environmental concerns regarding our oceans and rivers. There are many disheartening pictures that capture the volume of trash floating in these ecosystems. These are environments where people swim, kid’s play, fish live, and food is gathered. What can you do to help restore these water systems?
One major solution is litter control. Everyone has the opportunity to pick up litter almost every day and in every place in the world. Discarded trash thrown out of a car will move towards the roadside ditch. The ditch washes down to a stream. The stream drains to a river. The river flows to the ocean. Please consider routine trash pick-ups in your neighborhood, educate each other on the consequences of litter, and pick up any trash you see before it washes away.
Here at U.I.I., there has been a lot of focus on the litter specific environmental problem. If you are interested in research on this subject, contact us!
Have a look at this article that highlights the impacts of plastics on our water systems. Plastics have great benefits, but they can also create problems if abused.
From the article:
Stemming the Plastic Tide: 10 Rivers Contribute Most of the Plastic in the Oceans
Our seas are choking on plastic. A staggering eight million metric tons wind up in oceans every year, and unraveling exactly how it gets there is critical. A recent study estimates that more than a quarter of all that waste could be pouring in from just 10 rivers, eight of them in Asia.
“Rivers carry trash over long distances and connect nearly all land surfaces with the oceans,” making them a major battleground in the fight against sea pollution, explains Christian Schmidt, a hydrogeologist at the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research in Leipzig, Germany.