LITTER BUGS ARE WREAKING HAVOC

WE ARE ALL led to believe that most land waste ends up in the middle of the oceans, thus putting our marine life at danger. This cannot be denied when we humans are fully responsible for all litter whether it be on land, or litter drifting in our oceans hundreds of nautical miles away.

Researches have concluded that at least 80% of litter floating in our oceans daily is from land waste. When debris – plastic bags, bottles, cigarette butts, etc – is thrown down on the ground, it gets washed into storm water drains and directly into our waterways, then enters our seas.

The lifespan (decomposition time) of some commonly littered items on land: Cigarette butt: 1-5 years Plastic bag: 10-20 years Chewing gum: Not biodegradable (it’s the second most common form of litter after cigarette butts)

Aluminium can: 200-500 years Glass bottle: 1 million years

One must think logically, that when litter gets washed into storm water drains and waterways and eventually into the sea, sea waves and ocean currents play a pivotal role and eventually wash most of all this debris back on to our beaches, obviously polluting our beaches.

Only a small fraction of land waste does float into the sea and then into the oceans far from our beaches.

The real polluters that are fully responsible for ocean litter that is killing our marine life and putting our human lives at risk, is fishing trawlers and ships far out in the oceans.

Few of us are aware that ships dump their waste directly into the oceans daily. I know this for a factl A few years ago on board a luxury cruise liner, I decided to take a walk around on the upper deck at around 1am.

At the stern of the ship, I looked down and was horrified to witness all sorts of debris being dumped into the far oceans in the dark of the night.

This debris comprised plastic bags, tins, plastic bottles, glass bottles and most probably food waste as well. All this I witnessed with my own eyes – the cruise staff must have thought all passengers were in their cabins asleep at the time. I have brought this to the environmentalists’ attention globally, but all want evidence to my findings in providing some form of photos or a video to prove my case.

This means the real culprits polluting our oceans are getting away with their bad habits daily – ships out at sea and in the far oceans away are the big polluters, not only us on land.

It’s shocking to think that 400 million tons of plastic have entered our oceans since 1950, of which 37 million tons of litter is buried in the sea beds each year and 250 000 tons of litter floats on the ocean’s surface.

We all have a responsibility on earth when it comes to disposing of litter in a proper manner – and that is in a dirt bin.

If only the careless-minded behind all this litter, land or sea, will see the broader negative impact litter has on our daily lives and what destruction litter in the future will play – it’s scary to even think of it.