Beach cleanup!

The older I get, the less I understand people!

We live in a tiny village on the coast, and of course, we get a lot of fishermen (and ladies and children) who regularly come here and spend a few hours, or longer, fishing for whatever happens to be around at the time! They obviously spend some time before they set off, packing their cooler box with bait, cool drinks or beer, packets of chips or sandwiches, biltong and whatever else helps the time to pass and take their minds off the fact that there is not a lot happening on the end of the line. By the time they leave, they are far too tired to make sure that whatever came with them, goes home with them and our beaches become littered with empty bottles, packets, bait boxes and plastic wrapping. And if that is not bad enough, they leave tangles of fishing line, it wraps itself round bushes, gets knotted round whatever it can find, and is simply abandoned. Instead of sorting the line out, they just cut it lose and forget about it.

Every time we walk, we pick up enough fishing line to knit socks and hats and fishing nets. Some of it with hooks and sinkers still attached.

So I did some research on pollution left on our beaches and it is horrifying!
According to John Kieser (see below), 80% of all marine litter, mainly plastic, originates from land. A great deal of this then becomes entangled around sea birds or seals, causing restriction of movement, strangulation, severing of carotid arteries, infection, and eventually, death. Apart from that, turtles and seals often ingest plastic bags, as the clear ones floating in the sea, look like jelly fish. This of course causes other problems, often resulting in death.

John Kieser is passionate about sustainability. 

I thought you may be interested in the ‘Top Ten’ rubbish finds:
Heading the list is plastic bottle tops, followed by plastic beverage bottles, plastic bags, food wrappers/containers, rope, cigarette filters, straws, stirrers, fishing line, glass beverage bottles, and beverage cans! Another interesting fact is there is also a large number of condoms found, 90% unused and still in their wrappers!

A few years ago I wrote to a company who produce and wrap fishing bait. They used bright blue plastic sheets to separate the pieces of bait, and of course, these ended up dotting the beaches in bright blue patches. When I pointed out that plastic does not break down, their reply was that it was for health and safety reasons that frozen fish had to be wrapped in blue plastic. Why?? To prevent people from eating the plastic, they had to be able to see it!! Honestly! When I wrote back pointing out that people didn't usually eat bait, therefore it seemed a little un-necessary, their answer was….oh yes, they hadn’t actually thought of that, they would look into changing to something more bio-degradable!

a Fishing line Disposal Pipe!

Then I saw a wonderful article in the May 2012 edition of ‘Caravan and Outdoor Life’ magazine about ‘fishing line disposal pipes’ and wrote off to the email address that was given. Back came a mail from John Kieser, Manager Sustainability for Plastics SA (www.plasticsinfo.co.za)  He had seen a similar thing in the USA when he was there and had then become involved in producing them here in South Africa. He had two pipes for us and he would happily deliver them to us here. He arrived last week with the pipes and it was good to finally meet him.

Pipes for us!

The pipes will be placed in ‘user friendly places’ where the fishermen park and unpack and hopefully they will use them and help our environment every time they dispose of their unwanted fishing line. When they are full I shall empty them and fill plastic bags ready for recycling.

The first one is ready for use. Let's hope the fishermen actually use it!

Here’s the best part. There is a company in Cape Town that will take all the old fishing line and when they have enough, they will recycle it into a bench! Imagine the next generation of fishermen sitting on a bench made from throwaway line! One man’s rubbish is another man’s rest!

Hope they take the old hooks out first!