Ever since I was a little kid, one of my favorite places to visit in Sri Lanka was the beach. Before my family and I moved here, visiting the beach was always something I looked forward to doing when I visited Sri Lanka. When I was really young I loved building sandcastles and playing in the water. Around the time I turned 10 I loved doing gymnastics across the sand. In more recent years, I’ve really enjoying snorkeling and seeing a whole new world below the surface of the water.
The first time I went to the beach after moving here was sometime in June. I went with my parents and we took my dog since he’s never been to the beach before. We let out dog lead the way We crossed the train tracks that divide the beach to the carpark and I immediately saw an empty EGB bottle maybe a few feet away from the trash can. I picked it up and put it in the trash, thinking nothing about it. I continued to walk towards the shore when I saw another plastic Cream Soda bottle. I again picked it up and threw it in the same trash can where I threw the last. As I walked towards the water I noticed that the sand was occupied with so many different pieces of plastic. There were yogurt cups, empty chips bags, plastics straws, and frayed pieces of rope.
I’d always seen on the news how the beaches in Sri Lanka were becoming much more polluted. But I never realized how bad it was until I really saw it myself. I didn’t think it was very sanitary to be touching all these so I decided to leave it be and let my dog play around.
On the ride back home my family and I discussed what we saw on the beach, and we unanimously agreed that there was too much litter on the beach. After further discussion, we agreed that we should go to the beach again the next day with the purpose of picking up the trash.
We were lucky that the day we came that there was another beach cleanup group who were there for a while. So a lot of trash was already picked up. But we still managed to fill a large shopping large with trash
My family and I continued to do this every weekend, and we’d bring different people to join us as well. It was something to look forward to as it was a good time for us to bond as a family away from phones and other distractions. We even made a game of it; Seeing who could collect the most in an hour and who found the most interesting things.
This experience really taught me the impacts of my plastic consumption. I generally thought that I was an environmentally conscious person. But there are some habits that create so much waste and I didn’t even realize. From this, I’ve made more decisions to reduce my plastic waste. these changes include
- Buying produce from farmers markets
- Bringing our own bags to supermarkets
- always bringing our own bottles to drink from
- actively refusing a straw
- Bringing our own boxes to pack food.
Learning Outcomes:
LO3: Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience.
LO4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences.
LO5: Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively.
LO6: Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions.