Valentine's Day is the perfect opportunity for us to reflect on the relationships in our lives; the ones that are benefiting us, and the ones that are doing more harm than good.
Pictured: Dave Ludgate AKA Subowti.This February, Clean Coasts are calling for people all over Ireland to end their relationship with single-use plastic items.
Cork-based Clean Coasts volunteer Dave Ludgate AKA Subowti is one of the biggest supporters of the #2minutebeachclean campaign in Ireland.
Dave of “Subowti” describes himself as someone who cares about the world he leaves behind for the next generation and generations to come.
His passions lie in water sports and the environment, as he spends most of his time stand up paddleboarding the River Lee and picking up the litter pollution.
Most of the objects Dave picks up are plastic items, such as bottles, food wrappers, food containers and more, including some retro rubbish items and Dave uses social media to raise awareness about the amount of plastic that can be collected along our coast.
These plastic items can harm marine life, as they can get entangled in plastic items or ingest them.
Recent statistics show that Ireland is the number one plastic waste producer in the European Union, with 54kg of plastic waste per person produced each year, as well as being the country with the fourth lowest recycling rate.
The #BreakUpWithPlastic initiative aims to raise awareness of the impact of plastic pollution on our planet and marine environment by asking people to stop opting for single-use plastic.
Speaking about the campaign, Sinead McCoy, Clean Coasts said:
“We once again are asking people to stop and think how they are using plastic and to educate themselves about plastic and its impact. If we continue with the use of plastic as a single use item, we will continue to create immense waste issues and high demands on our natural environment. We need now more than ever before to discover ways to move away from the overly convenient individually packaged lifestyle we have adopted and find a way to break up with single use plastic.’ Sinead continued to say, ‘We realise it can be difficult to make the break from single use, so for anybody starting the journey towards new, reusable, long-lasting loves, we have tips and hints on our website to get you started."
Throughout the month of February, to celebrate Valentine’s Day, Clean Coasts, alongside the Think Before You Flush campaign, will be sharing tips and resources to help people around Ireland to end their toxic relationship with single-use plastic and find themselves a better match.
Clean Coasts and the Think Before You Flush campaign will be hosting an Instagram Live session on 14th February at 12:30pm to discuss the impact of plastic on the marine environment, how to reduce plastic within our communities and actions that can be taken to protect our ocean from home.
