On Saturday my boys and I joined the International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) at Salmon Bay. I left feeling deeply concerned by what I found.
At first glance our beaches looked deceivingly clean.
But once I looked a little closer the sheer volume of trash washing up and being dropped by day trippers became glaringly obvious.
Above the high water mark in the grassy dunes Styrofoam pieces, ear buds, fishing tackle and bottle caps lie as thickly as the grass itself, half buried in the sand.
Bend your head and study the shoreline closely. Lines of tiny nurdles lie there in the thousands.
Nurdles are melted down to create plastic products.
These potentially toxic microplastics make their way into the food chain when birds, fish and other filter-feeding marine creatures mistake them for eggs and miniature jellyfish.
They could eventually end up on our plates.
Nurdles are ridiculously difficult to collect once set free in the ocean. Four years ago 2.2 billion nurdles were spilt into Durban harbour.
Very likely the nurdles I found came from that spill, but they could just as likely have floated here from a far flung corner of the globe.
More than a billion washed up on the shores of Western Australia after the spill at Durban.
I started collecting them but I felt like I was going to war armed with a toothpick.
Next time we will need to go armed with a sieve and a bucket and ideally, an army.
But then I realised that there is a collective living right here that cares deeply about our coastline.
If every resident who frequents our beaches spent half an hour collecting every time they went to the beach it would surely make a sustainable impact.
Personally, I plan to make this part of every beach trip going forward.
Growing up, my mom would always carry a bag for rubbish when we walked on the beach and she still does.
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Before you consider buying a new puppy I advise you weigh the costs carefully.
Some costs are fixed, like the cost of purchase, yearly shots and dog food.
But others depend on who’s smarter, you or the dog?
If, for example, you (like me) get a German Shorthaired Pointer, a dog with a clever nose, you must include the cost of roughly 4 blocks of butter, a pack of frozen burger patties, a pot roast and a roast chicken every 2 months.
I am not sure yet if this cost escalates or reduces over time. I will report back once I have more data.
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