More Plastic than Fish in the Ocean? Time to Act!
KEEP MARTIN BEAUTIFUL
More Plastic than Fish in the Ocean? Time to Act!
Is there really more plastic than fish in the ocean? That’s a really alarming claim, and fortunately it’s not true – yet. A new study, though, says it will very likely be true by 2050 if we don’t take action.
Project MainStream, a collaboration between the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the World Economic Forum, with analytical support from McKinsey & Company, finds that we’re producing and trashing plastic at a very high rate. In fact, it’s so high that the trash could eventually outweigh the fish population.
Where does all this plastic come from? Look around us. We humans are the source.
Every time we toss plastic along a road or waterway, this litter has a high likelihood of reaching the ocean and contributing to the 150 million metric tons already there.
There’s good news in Martin County, though. According to Keep Martin Beautiful’s annual Litter Index, we’re doing better than ever at keeping our roads and waterways clear of litter.
In June our volunteers – Kenzie, Cassia, Kehlen and Ava – spent a day and a half canvassing our county. They drove through residential neighborhoods and commercial plazas, on major thoroughfares and along coastal byways, and in rural areas off the beaten path to identify and track litter hot spots.
Using a scale from 1 (“little litter”) to 4 (“very littered”), they assigned a Litter Index Score to measure our overall cleanliness. And guess what? The numbers tell an encouraging story:
2022: 1.504
2023: 1.439
2024: 1.358
2025: 1.262!
Thanks to the efforts of volunteers, residents, and local partners, that’s three straight years of steadily decreasing litter.
So, good work, Martin County! But it’s important to realize that the job is never done. Keep Martin Beautiful programs like Adopt-a-Road and Adopt-a-Street give volunteers a way to join together and reduce litter and trash in our county throughout the year. We still have a few key roads and streets that would love to be adopted! And our International Coastal Cleanup is coming this September, with lots of volunteer opportunities.
Connect with us at Keep Martin Beautiful for ways that you, your family, or business or organization can help us keep pushing those litter numbers even lower and do our part to save our oceans. For more info go to keepmartinbeautiful.org.
Tiffany Kincaid's opinions are her own and may not reflect Friends & Neighbors viewpoint.
