I first started SCUBA Diving way back in the later part of the 80's during a two year military posting to the horn of Africa, well in what we called its armpit, the Republic of Djibouti. Back then and as it is sadly come to be expected the main residential zones were awash with trash. With little to zero refuse collection taking place that was only to be expected. The smells on our Monday morning run were enough to keep us awake for the week ahead. Fast forward to a time I no longer dressed in green or shaved my head. Life was good in the mid 90's. I was living and working on the island of Tenerife as an underwater videographer, touting my wares to visiting divers. Filming people as they hand fed stingrays or sea turtles on small wrecks. Every now and again for sure I would see trash but it wasn't something that impacted the shoots over all. From Tenerife I moved to Micronesia and spent 8 incredible years diving predominantly throughout the reefs of Yap Island and Palau. It wasn't until I moved to Bali in 2010 that I realized the scale of the plastic pollution issue, especially within the Ocean realm.

As much as Bali beckons folks with its aged image of being a hedonist destination offering yoga retreats with relaxed beaches and incredible surfing waves, it is, in the modern day, way less inviting. That veneer of the past has since worn very thin, enough so that the ordinary traveler can now get a very real idea of the sad state of play in Bali with regards to its trash problems. Given the lack of trash collection many of the small villages use the ravines in the mountainous interior as a place to discard their trash. It's not until the first torrential rains of the rainy season that we see the extent of the issue.

These trash filled ravines aided by the onslaught of heavy tropical rains empty into the Ocean with many of them in the South doing so via the main tourist beaches of Kuta and Seminyak. It's hard to get enthused about a place when you bear witness to a multiple kilometer long tourist beach literally covered in trash. It takes a monumental effort to get cleaned and leaves a very bad taste in the mouth to anyone who witnesses it. Micronesia wasn't without its problems though to be fair. Islanders who once used Banana leaves as plates had since transitioned to plastic covered or styrofoam plates and plastic utensils to keep their hands clean. It's all well and good to utilize these items but to discard of them in the same way one would the Banana leaves, ie just toss them aside, is where the problem arises.

Sadly it now brings me to a time where the issue I face is something I see daily, at every beach, jungle or rural setting I visit. Plastic trash is everywhere. It's in the bushes, lining the streams, in the jungles, on the beaches and floating in the Oceans. More insidious are the micro-plastics. Tiny specks of plastic that have over the years been broken down to such a size that they permeate pretty much every aspect of the marine food chain. Often mistaken as fish eggs or coral spawn they account for a growing percentage of wildlife fatalities due to mistaken identity and subsequent ingestion from seabirds to Whales and everything in between. So broken down now are plastics that in some locations it has been said that they hang in the air and are being breathed by man. Maybe now that the ultimate predator on Earth may start to suffer could initiate a change in plastic waste management? Who knows?

So Who's to Blame?

It's too easy to blame household names for the trash that mankind, for the most part, is responsible for.

It's so easy to pick a household name, find some branded trash and attack the manufacturer. That allows us, man(kind), the easiest 'out' available, and our track record when it comes to our negative impact on planet Earth underscores our penchant for such. Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Suntory, MacDonalds, Burger King and the list continues are no more guilty of trashing this planet than Smith & Wesson, Colt, Heckler and Koch or Kalashnikov are of shooting people. Simply put the responsibility lays fair and square on the shoulders of the end user. Our responsibility with regards to plastic trash passes onto the next entity in the chain once we have discarded of our components and items responsibly, key word, responsibly.

Given our penchant in our search for an 'out' we can also point the finger at 'Mother Nature'. Typhoons, Hurricanes and other forms of natural disaster also account for a huge amount of plastic distribution. A vast number of shipping containers are lost at sea each year. Should they disgorge their contents, as many do, this simply goes toward reinforcing the issue.

I personally don't think it's fair to point the finger at manufacturers when it comes to their product whenever seen in a negative light. I wouldn't call what they have is a responsibility to address the problem. I would suggest that it's more a marketing necessity for them to be seen to be taking a proactive role in efforts that address the plastic pollution issue. A lot of folks may simply whisper "Yeah that's just a way for them to purchase back some credibility with the general public" In my view it's them stepping up to the plate, realizing there's an issue and showing willing to be a part of the solution.

At the end of the day we all have to do our part. "Yes" I believe that manufacturers should place more financial backing into issues, campaigns and NGO's / NPO's who are tackling the issue. Numerous entities exist in the realm of environmental stewardship facing the issue of plastic pollution head on. Filtered Sands Okinawa is just one of them. This is my endeavor to address the micro-plastic pollution issues in the sands and beaches of the island. Beyond the standard beach trash cleaning activities I organize or simply carry out with my family I'm looking to develop a simple, effective and efficient device to filter micro-plastics from beach sand. Many entities are tackling the micro-plastics issue by extracting it from the Ocean itself. I'm looking to tackle the coastal seas, some of the most important areas for wildlife, from the interface between land and sea. I'm in the early days yet, but watch this space.

"Only we humans make waste that nature can’t digest".

Charles Moore - Oceanographer