Protecting the ocean, shorelines, and ourselves by reducing the use of single-use plastics.

Project Highlights

Over 8 million metric tons of non-biodegradable plastics waste enters our oceans each year. These plastics, including beverage bottles, plastic bags, plastic straws, and food containers, have a tremendous impact on coastal, marine, animal, and human health, and in turn affect recreation, tourism, and the economy.

In effort to stem the trash tide, the Martin County Board of County Commissioners passed a resolution in April 2019 to preserve and protect local waterways by supporting the voluntary reduction of single-use plastic straws, polystyrene, and plastic use in general.

To that end, an educational outreach campaign to educate K-12 students, the public, and businesses on the harm created by plastic pollution and to support breaking the plastic use cycle by utilizing alternative practices and products is being created. The goal is to reduce and ultimately eliminate single-use plastic to preserve, protect, and enhance our local waterways and prevent plastic pollution from entering the marine environment.

These actions aim to protect and preserve shorelines and ecosystems that provide vital carbon storage, habitat biodiversity, water quality improvement, and natural barriers to sea level rise and storm surges.
 

According to the United Nations, at least 800 species worldwide are affected. Fish, seabirds, sea turtles, and marine mammals can become entangled in or ingest plastic debris, causing suffocation, starvation, and drowning. Humans are not immune to this threat: While plastics are estimated to take up to hundreds of years to fully decompose, some of them break down much quicker into tiny particles that we ingest.

Marine litter costs billions of dollars globally, resulting in revenue losses to the fishing, tourism, and shipping industries, as well as costly coastal cleanup efforts paid for with tax dollars.

We can’t recycle our way out of this problem - only 5% of all single use plastic is recycled. Our focus must be on reducing plastic use and turning to reusable and  biodegradable goods. 

According to the Ocean Conservancy plastics impact nearly 700 species in our ocean and when animals ingest plastic, it can be life-threatening.