the rest of the group arrives, and we all don our masks and regulators. i make eye contact with autumn, our dive safety officer back on the beach, before emphatically reaching up and patting my head: the universal divers signal for “ok.” looking back at the group, i give a thumbs down – the signal to descend – and start to let air out of my bcd. just as i’m about to go under, one of the group members points behind me and gives a muffled yell through her regulator. reinflating my bcd and spinning around, i see an otter floating on its back less than 40 feet away from our group. we all watch for a moment as she nibbles on some unfortunate shelled creature picked up from the bottom. as quickly as we notice her, she slips back beneath the surface in search of more snacks. i give the thumbs down, and we follow her. 

now 40 feet below the waves, i check in with the group; my nerves are replaced with the natural calm that i always experience when diving. i feel the power of the ocean as i am pushed and pulled by the same forces that move the kelp forest all around me. though the power of the water should be disconcerting, i find it quite comforting, as though i’m being held. on the rock reef next to me are countless red and blue anemones. crabs crawl around them as fish dart from crevice to crevice within the rocks. a lingcod disguises himself into the top of the reef, hidden from prey but visible to me. i can quite literally feel how alive the ocean is. just as we are about to start the swim deeper into the forest, our otter friend pays us a visit. slinking through the water just on the edge of our view, she swims a lap around us before darting to a crevice in the rocks, grabbing her next snack, and heading back to the surface. as i sit in admiration, a snickers bar wrapper floats past my mask.           

for the last few years, i’ve found it increasingly difficult to find refuge from the signs of human impact. whether it be a candy wrapper on the bottom of monterey bay, a plastic water bottle floating in a remote alpine lake, or a tree cut down by boy scouts in a wilderness area, i can’t escape the signs of damage like i could when i was younger. some of that must be an increase in awareness as i’ve aged, but recently, the wild spaces in which i take refuge have felt increasingly used, neglected, and disrespected. for me, moments of awe and deep respect for the natural world are frequently soured by reminders of what we are doing to our planet. as a kid, i couldn’t wait to become an adult and spend the rest of my life experiencing all the places david attenborough told me about. now, in the beginnings of my adult life, it is apparent that many of the places and much of the biota i once hoped to see are already gone. over the course of my lifetime, we’ve added more than 1.5 billion people to the planet, increased atmospheric co2 by almost 50 ppm, and destroyed an amount of wilderness larger than all of alaska (lindsey 2020; ritchie and roser 2021; roser et al. 2013). i’m only 20. 

these realities often leave me feeling depressed, morose, apathetic, and frankly, pissed-off. i’m not alone in this. even in contingents of my least environmentally conscious friends, these feelings are frequently expressed in our conversations. my whole generation is coming of age under the burden of knowledge that our planet is dying. we’re faced with the constant uncertainty of whether we will be able to save it and many of us have already spent years fighting on its behalf. personally, i’ve spent the last eight years working to protect the boundary waters canoe area wilderness. of that, it has taken the last six years and more than $10 million for our campaign to build back to where we were when obama left office. how are we supposed to battle the same broken system on behalf of the whole planet? for some time now, i’ve felt the tendrils of climate despair and burnout taking hold of me. i’ve seen them grab my friends. we’re only 20. 

i reach out and grab the snickers wrapper just before it drifts out of reach. as we go through the rest of our dive, i pick up several more pieces of garbage; an empty coors can, a cloth napkin, and several more wrappers all make their way into the pockets of my bcd. as i take in all the life around me, i can’t help but wonder how much more i would’ve seen before industry took over the bay, but also how much less i would’ve seen in the early 20th century before conservation efforts began. 

monterey bay is a story of incredible ecosystem recovery (sotka and palumbi 2011). since moving here in january, experiencing the culmination of years of conservation work has reminded me of the positive transformation that is possible when we effectively attack our problems. many of us get so caught up in our fights for the places we love that we forget to remind ourselves why we are fighting.  seeing the bay and coming to understand its conservation success has put some hope back in me and reignited that spark of wonder i felt as a kid watching “planet earth.”

—

works cited

hannah ritchie and max roser (2021) – “biodiversity”. published online at ourworldindata.org. retrieved from: ‘https://ourworldindata.org/biodiversity’ [online resource]

lindsey, r. (2020, august 14). climate change: atmospheric carbon dioxide. climate change: atmospheric carbon dioxide | noaa climate.gov. retrieved march 7, 2022, from https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide#:~:text=since%202000%2c%20the%20global%20atmospheric,mauna%20loa%20observatory%20in%20hawaii.

max roser, hannah ritchie and esteban ortiz-ospina (2013) – “world population growth”. published online at ourworldindata.org. retrieved from: ‘https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth’ [online resource]

palumbi, s. r., & sotka, c. (2011). the death and life of monterey bay: a story of revival. island press.

washington — instead of sleeping in on saturday morning, over a hundred volunteers turned to a day of action in honor of rev. martin luther king jr. day.

volunteers donned red gloves and headed into pope branch park to collect trash –– from plastic bottles to mattresses –– to honor the late civil rights leader. the event was planned for january 17, but was pushed back due to weather conditions. 

this year the total trash collected weighed 11,333 pounds. last year over 4,600 pounds of trash were removed from the area according to anacostia riverkeeper member trey sherard. 

“it’s a day on, not a day off,” dolly davis, president of the pope branch park restoration alliance, said about the intersection between environmental justice and mlk day. 

davis’ grandmother used to say a “community’s cleanliness is next to godliness;” she believes king represented the same message. davis works within her community to educate her neighbors, teaching how to properly recycle, build rain barrels and be more conscious of the environment.

king is remembered for his role in the civil rights movement, and inspires days of service across the country. 

“it really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. we are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny.” king said in a 1976 christmas sermon. “whatever affects one destiny, affects all indirectly.”

davis said she believes in king’s message and wants to bring people together to enjoy the earth and instill his dream in her community. 

davis was one of several community leaders and members of local nonprofit organizations who worked with the environmental group anacostia riverkeeper in an annual event to clean up trash along the pope branch stream, which flows into the anacostia river.

the anacostia river is one of the rivers in the u.s. that was considered “impaired by trash” by the environmental protection agency over a decade ago.

christine burns of anacostia riverkeeper said trash that winds up in the stream will eventually flow into the river. the area in and around the park is often used as an illegal dumping site, she said. during the cleanup, volunteers found 290 tires illegally dumped off the anacostia freeway. 

“environmental activism is extremely important, especially in our watershed, and so using the mlk day of action to get people out here and participate is truly important,” burns said. 

will teass brought his two sons, austen and cole. teass’s company, teass warren architects, participates in the mlk day of service every year.

“i bring these guys along to teach about what we need to do in our community,” teass said. 

the two boys, both in elementary school, excitedly looked for trash with their grabbers and ran back to their father when they found litter. 

davis said she believes the collective efforts of the volunteers are what king envisioned when he spoke about change, but she wants city agencies to step in more and promote recycling and keeping communities clean.

“we shouldn’t be cleaning. we shouldn’t be out here today,” davis said. “we should not have people who [litter] or illegally dump. what we want to happen is to see more and more people to be responsive and responsible on how they recycle and throw away trash responsibility.”

in washington, d.c., a bag tax originated as part of an initiative to clean up the anacostia river. according to a 2008 study by the department of energy and environment, disposable plastic bags were one of the most prevalent forms of trash pollution in the river. as a result, the district created the anacostia river clean up and protection act of 2009. this law was the first of its kind in the nation, according to the doee. it requires any district business selling food or alcohol to charge five cents per paper or plastic bag, with a goal of shifting consumer behavior away from disposable bags. as of 2017, plastic bag usage had dropped 50% to 70% since the law took effect in 2009. 

across the country, bag taxes similar to d.c.’s were beginning to take effect early this year. however, with the onset of covid-19, all progress was halted due to fears that reusable bags would spread the virus. 

in new york, for example, a plastic bag ban was set to take effect on march 1, 2020. after initially delaying the ban 30 days due to a lawsuit, the delay was extended further due to the pandemic. the ban is now scheduled to take effect on oct. 19, 2020, according to the new york department of environmental conservation. 

additionally, u.s. senator tom udall and u.s. representative alan lowenthal formed the break free from plastic pollution act just a few weeks before the virus became a concern in the u.s. the congressmen are still urging legislative action, according to a statement. 

states and retailers across the country have temporarily suspended the disposable bag bans and taxes to ease fears of contamination by reusable bags. now, i’m concerned about how big an effect the pandemic will have on the previous environmental progress — could it be detrimental? 

according to a report from august, the demand for plastics is expected to increase by 40 percent because of safety concerns. the same study reported that the virus lasts longer on plastic than other surfaces — according to the national institute of health, two to three days — which begs the question: were the ban reversals a premature move, especially after society had finally adapted to using reusable bags? 

a july study also compared the increases of different types of plastics since the pandemic. 

has the plastic industry exploited pandemic fears to further their business? or were ban reversals the right call to make to ensure safety?

i believe reusable bags should be allowed in stores, despite the pandemic. at trader joe’s, for example, the bag tax was recently reinstated temporarily suspending it. they are also allowing customers to bring their own reusable bags if they bag their items themselves. following that precedent, while sanitizing check out counters after the presence of reusable bags, should maintain a level of safety that still follows the initiatives set before the pandemic, both in d.c. and nationwide. the pandemic shouldn’t derail the environmental progress made in the last decade — we don’t have to choose between our own safety and the safety of the anacostia.

asia pulp & paper, or app, a pulp and paper manufacturing company based in indonesia, has created a set of water-based packaging products that are both compostable and recyclable to better serve a wider variety of people and resources.

the company has partnered with villa chicken, a fast food chain based in peru, and has succeeded in maintaining the quality of the food in delivery while still holding onto its sustainable assets. if this product continues to succeed, it may change how restaurants package food moving forward.

it is essential restaurant stakeholders continue to invest in sustainable alternatives to reverse the environmental damage exacerbated by the plastic industry.

“i was young,” perise remembered. “the noises, the movements, the fastness of the waves — all scared me.”

at the time, perise never would have imagined that he’d dedicate his life to protecting the ocean. a decade later, perise is now inspiring a movement in his hometown of buea, cameroon, to combat plastic pollution and protect the ocean.

growing up, perise noticed that his hometown had a lot of problems with plastic waste.

“i saw plastic pollution everywhere,” perise said.

plastic pollution is an issue prevalent all throughout cameroon, since cameroon as a whole has a poor waste management system, perise says. because his area lacks strong waste management, perise observes massive piles of plastic in his neighbors’ yards, on the side of the road, and even clogging waterways. 

wanting to make a change, perise’s first move was one that seemed daunting for a single person, but perhaps also the most practical: picking up the plastic waste in his community. perise hopped door to door in his community, collecting thousands of plastic bottles from the streets.

perise sends most of this plastic to his local plastic collection agency. in more recent years, though, he’s found more creative ways to repurpose the thousands of bottles he collects. through the parallel projects, last year perise brought 3,000 plastic bottles to douala, cameroon, to help construct an ecoboat with the nonprofit madiba and nature. mabida specializes in repurposing plastic bottles to create usable boats, donating them to local fishermen.

perise’s plastic collection efforts have not gone unnoticed in his community, and locals even call him the “plastic man.” perise’s goal is not just to collect plastic in his community, but also to educate his community on plastic pollution and build a mass movement to improve cameroon’s waste practices. for the past few years, perise has visited local schools to deliver presentations on plastic pollution and ocean conservation.

perise finds that education is a key link to making change in his community. 

“raise awareness in the communities, then they will want to put pressure on the governments,” perise said.

through education, perise has developed a mass movement of locals who want to see better waste management practices in their community. they understand that recycling and consuming less plastic are only small portions of the solution, as there needs to be structural changes made by governments as well.

“the plastic pollution crisis in cameroon is far from just a lot of people consuming plastic,” perise emphasized.

unexpectedly, perise’s audience has reached far beyond his local town of buea. several of perise’s photos of plastic pollution in cameroon have blown up on social media. perise believes that only minimal attention has been given to cameroon’s plastic pollution because photos of the crisis have not reached the internet. perise is vocal on social media about the environmental issues that his country faces, in hopes to draw more attention to cameroon and to inspire other young people to start similar movements in their communities.

perise is an active member of the environmental nonprofits greening forward and thinkocean, two organizations that seek to foster a movement of youth from around the world who are passionate about the environment. (in full disclosure, perise is also a friend and colleague of the author in the organization thinkocean.) perise’s story has become so inspiring that for the un world oceans day event this year, perise presented as a keynote speaker alongside some of the world’s most famous environmentalists like bill mckibben and jean-michel cousteau.

despite the global recognition and opportunities he recently has received, perise knows he wants to stick to environmental advocacy in cameroon in the long run. his goal in the future is to work more directly with the cameroonian government to ensure the structural changes in environmental and waste management that his country needs, such as creating more plastic recycling facilities and banning plastic packaging.

until then, perise plans to further expand his local grassroots movement against plastic pollution, in addition to inspiring young leaders around the world to the same.

perise’s rule-of-thumb is this: “if you’re passionate about something, connect with like-minded people around you.”

the report brings an honest interpretation of the current state of the recycling industry and just how many levels in which it is faltering. especially since countries in eastern asia have started to refuse accepting recyclables from the united states, according to media reports. in a press release from the public interest network, which operates more than 15 organizations including the u.s. pirg, several states have been “failing to both reduce unnecessary waste and to adjust to a changing recycling landscape.”

according to alex truelove, u.s. pirg education fund zero waste program director and report co-author, the main thing he wants people to take away from this report is that it is going to take multiple facets to fix the waste problem.

“we can’t rely on recycling alone to fix our waste problems. our systems were not designed to process many of the items we dispose of — single-use plastics in particular,” truelove said. “to truly achieve a zero waste society, or anything close to it, reducing our waste and transitioning toward more reusable materials have to be the priorities moving forward. recycling plays a role, but it should be a last resort, after reduction and reuse.”

at the 2019 planet forward summit, tom szaky, the founder and ceo of terracycle, addressed how recycling is not enough in solving the waste problem. it is also going to take clean-up efforts and rethinking single-use items in its entirety. 

“recycling is the solution to the symptom of waste but not the cause of it,” szaky said at the summit. “it’s not plastic that’s the problem it is using all this stuff once.”

truelove offers what he thinks needs to be done in order to solve the waste problem.

“a mix of good public policy and corporate action. from bottle bills to single-use plastic foam bans, we know better policies can reduce waste and drive corporations toward better practices,” truelove said.

“we also know that meaningful corporate actions can influence the market and lay the groundwork for better policy. we need more of both,” he said. “consumers cannot be expected to move the market alone, we need to enable them to make better choices.”

policy change is another area that needs work to help correct the problem, according to truelove.

“there are also opportunities to work with other countries to establish international laws and better practices, like ‘prior informed consent.’ in other words, agreeing to divulge what materials we’re sending to other countries,” truelove said.

even though there are still plenty of materials that are being exchanged on the global market, truelove said, plastic continues to be an issue.

“plastic is the outlier, and i don’t envision that market recovering because plastic — especially disposable plastic — remains low-value and hard-to-recycle. that’s why we need to reduce our use of single-use plastic, first and foremost,” truelove said.

—

see the full state of recycling national survey (pdf).

we address why composting is so important to the environment, and esf’s history when it comes to sustainability on campus. the program is off to a fast start, and we believe the campus’ total diversion rate could be close to 47% by the end of the spring semester.

she assures us that through food and flies, or the distinct lack thereof, composting is attainable for anyone, whether at home, work, or on a college campus. 

we broke it down so that you can break it down too.

“plastic creates pollution right from when it’s made, and then continues to create pollution,” moore said. “it never goes away.”

moore used the 120 billion disposable coffee cups americans discard annually as an example, citing the clean water action’s rethink disposable program. she explained that alongside the 2.2 billion pounds of waste created by the coffee cups, and the strain on finite resources such as fresh water and trees, this throwaway habit also results in 4 billion pounds of carbon dioxide emissions every year.

the throwaway culture that has developed over the last half-century costs the environment as well as the economy: people discard first-use plastic packaging worth the equivalent of $80 billion to $120 billion annually, according to a report from the ellen macarthur foundation.

furthermore, environmental damages caused by plastic pollution, along with the greenhouse gases emitted by plastic production, cost at least $40 billion annually, according to the report.

so how do we counteract all this waste? the report offered the circular economy as the solution to plastic waste in all sectors. the circular economy’s mission is to move society away from its current reliance on disposability and unsustainable resources by redesigning products and systems in order to minimize waste and pollution.

“if we turn off the tap of plastic production, use, and waste management, we’re only left with real materials — reusables that can be used an infinite amounts of times,” moore said.

moore explained that addressing the production, distribution, and widespread use of plastic is crucial in order to make a long-term impact on both plastic pollution and climate change.

while recovery measures such as cleanups and recycling are important, they are “band-aid solutions” that don’t address the root of the problem, moore said. “you can’t get all (of the plastic) out if it keeps coming in.”

“only 9% of plastic ever created has been recycled,” moore said. “we are overflowing with plastic. recycling is not enough.”

mike schoniger, a business owner who oversees the loading and unloading of shipping containers in the port of los angeles, witnessed the limits of recycling firsthand, explaining that the “sheer volume” of recyclables is the issue. he said that because the united states lacks recycling centers, and china has refused to continue receiving and processing recyclables from the west, materials are now stacking up in shipping containers with nowhere to go.

“i’ve seen trash trucks picking (the recyclables) back up and taking them to (a) landfill,” schoniger said.

to mitigate the recycling backlog, the u.s. has started exporting recyclables to india, vietnam, malaysia, and indonesia, the new york times reports. schoniger warned that these nations do not have the infrastructure to deal with the influx of materials, and worried that it will result in illegal dumping.

“i don’t think their environment can tolerate it,” he said of the countries chosen to bear the burden of america’s waste.

“we all just think as far as the curb. we as consumers look away from our problems,” schoniger said.

moore said she knows that when it comes to plastic waste, out of sight should not mean out of mind, and that she fears the trash our species has accumulated so far “will become a layer in the earth, and (a) mark in history of when we didn’t know better.”

at upstream, moore works to stop issues like the recycling overload through measures that “stop trash at its source.” upstream works with venues, corporations, communities, and individuals to institute the circular economy on three levels: throwaway free places, throwaway free communities, and throwaway free living.

moore’s awareness of the far-reaching impacts of manmade trash began with her upbringing in staten island, new york, where, “you can’t walk on the beach without shoes because there’s so much trash,” she said.

now, at upstream, she co-leads the united states’ branch of a #breakfreefromplastic working group, recruiting new partners and orchestrating the vast web of organizations connected to solving the plastic crisis.

moore said the organizations she collaborates with “range from people working on the frontlines fighting oil production to people working (on the issue of) microplastics.”

moore explained that this multifaceted approach is crucial because every problem plastics cause is interconnected. she emphasized the importance of “collaborating to amplify each other’s stories.”

“we are all fighting the same fight. stopping a pipeline in louisiana is going to stop plastic waste in the philippines,” she said.

a recent victory that upstream collaborated on was the development of a disposable-free dining ordinance that will make berkeley, california, a leader in establishing throwaway free communities. the ordinance requires all takeout containers to be compostable and all dine-in dishes and cutlery to be reusable, while also adding a quarter surcharge to every disposable coffee cup to incentivize people to bring their own cups.

moore said she hopes to develop a widespread “culture change” that will shift people’s relationships with the items they use.

“i believe humans are incredibly adaptable. if all single-use plastics were banned, humans would adapt in a week and it would become the new normal,” moore said.

moore is raising her five-year-old daughter to embrace a waste-free future. she and her daughter buy groceries in bulk, use cloth napkins, and make their own toothpaste in mason jars.

“being throwaway-free is completely normal to her,” moore said of her daughter.

when asked what her biggest hope is for the world her daughter will be inheriting, moore answered immediately.

“i would love if she could walk on the beach and not see plastic.”

—

narrator: riley jaskola.

music: symphony no.7 in a major op.92, 2^ movement, allegretto by ludwig van beethoven. performers: leonard bernstein & wiener philharmoniker.