This is a small example of the plastic waste that gets left on our beaches and why we need to be reducing plastic waste.
We were very lucky to be staying at a beach hut on the beautiful Mudeford sandbank last week for an annual break. It is a truly tranquil place to be with harbour views to Christchurch Priory and sea views to the Isle of Wight. There is no doubt that this is a wonderful place to visit and generally clean and unspoilt. Unfortunately, on a walk around the sand spit we started to notice the amount of small pieces of plastic rubbish and decided, having found a plastic bag floating around, to spend a few minutes picking some of it up.
Our collection included innumerable plastic bottles, ice cream spoons and wrappers, plastic coffee cup lids, plastic toys, fishing wire, wet wipes, buttons, plastic bags and even a plastic dinosaur! Needless to say, we then carefully disposed of it in the appropriate bins provided.
Whether unwittingly, by carelessness or simply a total disregard for the common courtesy of putting rubbish in a bin; we are perhaps all guilty of letting this plastic waste pollute our world. The scary thing is that the really small bits, some you may not be able to see in this photo, may easily be digested by local wildlife, including fish that we may then eat. Reducing plastic waste is important for us all.
There is, of course, no easy answer to this issue but we can all take steps to improve our behaviour. And this is not rocket science; we should, where possible, all be reducing plastic waste by using products with recyclable or refillable packaging; when bags are needed then use bio-degradable types; ideally use products with no packaging and dispose of all waste properly!
One can hope that the example of such brilliant young people such as Greta Thunburg may help develop a new generation that has more consideration and awareness of the impact that lazy attitudes will have on our tomorrow.
However, we have noticed though that things are changing and there is light at the end of the tunnel for the next generation. Recycle and refill shops are popping up everywhere including Two Rivers Refill in Christchurch (http://tworiversrefill.co.uk/) and proving to be very popular. Lots of takeaways have swapped from plastic to wooden utensils and many coffee shops are producing reusable, or bio-degradable, take away coffee cups and cartoons including a local café to us ‘Browndog Coffee’ (https://www.facebook.com/BrownDogCoffee/). This is all positive progress that cumulatively is reducing plastic waste and changing our world for the better.
We started Pamper Moose out of a desire to do our bit towards reducing plastic waste. One day I walked into the bathroom and couldn’t believe how many plastic bottles there were and thought there must be a better way to package our beauty products. We have created a range of ‘naked’ – solid products that have no packaging and products in recyclable aluminium tins. Our range includes: body scrubs, body butters, bath bombs and lip salves.
Thank you for reading our thoughts on why we should be reducing plastic waste and hope that you’ll join us on this journey. Take care.
