Most of us have become more and more environmentally aware and do our best to try and help the situation, although until the big polluters of the world really tidy up their act the problem will never end. However, every little hopefully helps.
Government figures suggest that UK households have recycled 44% of their waste although it seems we are not always too sure about where our recycled plastic actually ends up, which is a bit concerning, as it would seem some of our plastic was reportedly sent from the UK to Turkey.
Obviously, this is a global problem, as noted by photojournalist David Hicks in his photographic collection ‘Beach Shit’ What you’re looking at in these images is a remote beach off a desert in Oman. So remote that it hasn’t got a name! So, to David it was shocking that it was so full of flotsam and jetsam, or in other words, shit that’s just washed up from the sea that has just been dumped overboard somewhere. The point of this is that if this is a remote beach, imagine how many other bits of shoreline are covered in rubbish in the world? Too much rubbish. Too much pollution.
Raising awareness is always so vital to influence people’s attitudes, whether this is achieved through the
power of art and photography and then hopefully through people’s actions. As we all welcome the British summer, possibly with a little trepidation concerning our unpredictable weather, pollution on our beaches and landscape becomes even more newsworthy, nevertheless we all love the seaside. Rushing to the coast brings a smile to all our faces and many individuals have highlighted the plastic pollution here too and are doing their bit to highlight the problem and stop thoughtless litter pollution.
Luke Douglas-Home, is another strong character in this challenge, known as The Coastline Runner, he completed a quest of covering the whole of the Norfolk coastline collecting plastic rubbish, 1kg for every 1km run, was the aim, whilst expressing his concerns for climate and ecological action.
Luke said ‘The average Briton throws away almost 100 kg of plastic every year and every minute one truckload of plastic enters the sea. This must stop’
It is so important that this message is shared from all different angles of society and the arts is always such an influential channel to help share the word – let’s all do our bit for a better, cleaner world.
