Another Day, Another Cleanup

My family and I recently helped the Friends of the Satilla do a clean up at the Satilla River’s 121 boat landing in Blackshear. We found a tire, carpet, and even dirty diapers. Eww! Also, we found a lot more plastic bags than usual. This is not good, because sea turtles can mistake these bags for food and eat them. Their bellies will be full, but they won’t be able to digest the plastic and will starve. However, sea turtles aren’t the only animals that can be hurt by plastic. Sharks can, too! Sharks can get plastic stuck around their heads not allowing them to breathe. They can also ingest plastic bags and starve, too!

Think we’re too far upstream to impact sea turtles and sharks? Think again! Many plastics can float and travel downstream.

SO, WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Because we found so many plastic bags this time, I am going to focus on what you can do to stop these bags from getting into our rivers and oceans and hurting ocean animals.

• If you are at the grocery store, take some reusable bags with you. Our family keeps a bunch of reusable bags in our car, so whenever we need one, we have it!
• If you need to take a bag, maybe get a paper bag instead.
• Put as many items in your bag as you can. That way you will need less bags. Or maybe you don’t need a bag at all?
• Paper or plastic, don’t just throw them away; reuse them. Then, recycle them! Many grocery stores will recycle plastic bags.
• Whenever you can, try not to let go of any plastic bags you have with you. It is easy for them to fly out of car windows, out of the back of trucks, and fly away from you at the river or beach with the wind.

In short, REDUCE your use of plastic bags. If you must take them, then REUSE them and then RECYCLE them!

Thank you SO much for reading.

Also… stay tuned for next year’s project!