“So like, who’s getting in the drain this time?”
– A question that was never asked but I sure wish it was.
Fun Fact: the 2nd of February is World Wetlands Day!
OSC’s Reef Keeper community service group made it a point to celebrate this day right by hosting a plastic patrol around the school neighborhood followed by a brand audit as a statement addressing plastic waste in our school community. Plastic pollution has become a global issue that needs to be addressed immediately to reduce further permanent damage done to our ecosystems. The transfer of plastic between countries has not helped this issue, especially given how the trends lean toward high-income countries shipping their waste to low-income countries where they get sorted and recycled, with the majority ending up in landfills, at cheaper costs. Sri Lanka has been dealing with such issues in the recent years as well but we have had our own share of plastic production and consumption to add to the burden. Having ranked as the “fifth-largest plastic polluter” in the world is not really an accomplishment worthy of praise or triumph. The lack of economic penalties to restrict plastic consumption and production as well as the lack of alternatives being provided to general society make it difficult for our country to progress towards sustainability.
With that said, as a school we have put in our efforts to encourage people to be aware of the impacts their daily lifestyles and consumption habits can have on the environment. The patrol/audit was designed to contribute towards cleaning up our environment and about 50 students, parents and teachers participated. I was glad that I went because I was one of the two seniors who showed up to the event, Joshua being the other. We started at about 9am and finished the neighborhood patrol by around 12 pm and spent about 2 hours sorting out the waste collected. We were given rice bags, reusable gloves and clear instructions on what was to be collected and what to avoid. We were then separated into 3 big groups and each group set out on three different paths from the back entrance of the school. I was part of the group that was led by one of the Reef Keeper service leaders, Talia Shea, and we took the longest of the routes. We picked up a large number of glass bottles (Arrack), aluminum cans (mainly Lion beer), tetra packs (Milo), an abundance of toffee wrappers (Center Fresh) and CFL bulbs, chip packets, batteries, etc. It was interesting to see the reactions of pass-Byers who seemed to be curious and pleased by our actions, with one man even saying “good job” to my group and me. There was many a time when I had to get into a dry drainage path to collect waste which was quite nasty but hey, everyone did it. We covered about a 5 km distance and once we returned to school, the waste was separated into different piles and a count was done for what was collected. The data from the sweep is being contributed by the Reef Keepers to the Break Free From Plastic initiative.
Overall, I was really glad to have contributed to this worthy cause and it’s just one of those small things that make a difference when done by many. On that note, I’m writing this while on quarantine because of COVID-19 and to whoever that reads this, try and consume as little as possible during these months please and don’t panic and overconsume because this is not the apocalypse so there’s really no point in you buying more than what is necessary to survive.
Till next time 🙂