By David Okul
Marine pollution is one of the serious environmental issues the modern world is facing. Plastics and other wastes are choking our oceans. CleanMyBeach App offers a practical solution to tackle the plastic waste problem. The free Android application allows individuals and organizations worldwide to interact with members of their local communities through public beach cleanups, increasing the scope and influence of any beach cleanups that are completed through visual integration with Google Maps and social media.
A young environmentalist, Arjun Sharma, developed the application after realizing that local beach cleanups were less coordinated. He says, ‘I hope that the app can raise awareness about plastics and pollution in local communities, while simultaneously being effective on a global scale.’
Since the start of the year, the platform has helped complete dozens of cleanups.
But how did we get here?
Oceans are an essential component of the earth’s system. The earth is a blue planet, as the oceans make over 70% of the surface. Among its most important functions include producing oxygen (70% of the oxygen on our planet is from it), and it is the home of a crazy variety of species.
But marine pollution is threatening the system. In particular, plastic pollution is literally choking the planet. At the current rate, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish by the year 2050.
The life span of a plastic bag is 15 minutes. Think about it. A product made to last for centuries is only usable for 15 minutes. It is time to stop using single-use plastic as they have devastating consequences to the marine ecosystem.
Additionally, the potential dangers of microplastics are scary. Get this, every plastic ever manufactured still exists. And it is mainly in the oceans. The sun and bacteria break the plastic into smaller pieces called microplastics. The scary part is that microplastic is getting into the food chain as the sea life ingests it.
If you are a frequent eater of seafood, you should know that about 67% of seafood contains microplastic. Although scientists haven’t confirmed that microplastics have negative effects on human health, the toxic chemicals in plastic could only mean that microplastics are bad for our environment and health.
It is time to clean up the oceans using tools like CleanMyBeach Application.
It will be illogical to ask the world to ban the use of plastics completely. However, we can do away with single-use plastics. Several countries and states are implementing a ban on single-use plastics. These bans are great news, except that coronavirus has stalled the implementation of the restrictions.
Even if we are successful in banning all the single-use plastic, our oceans are still polluted. The Ocean Conservancy estimates that 150 million metric tons of plastic are circulating in the marine environment. The addition of eight million tons enters the system each year.
Someone needs to collect the enormous trash from the oceans. Governments and big organizations can organize extensive a sustained cleanup of beaches, but you can contribute to the cleaning too. Do not say that you and your friends can have little impact on the cleanup. Every gram took away from the oceans count!
That is where developments such as CleanMyBeach Application come in handy. It enables you to create, join, or organize beach cleanups with ease. Try it today!
Although the application is only available to Android users, for now, Arjun Sharma says that he is almost releasing the iOs version of CleanMyBeach Application.
David Okul is an environmental management professional with over 10 years experience on donor projects, conservation, forestry, ecotourism, and community-based natural resources management. When not working on active environmental management projects, I spend my time writing for Silvica on a variety of topics. The views on this blog post are personal.
