What if I told you that you can care about the sea while being nestled in the trees? Or that you can raise awareness from the seat you’re currently sitting? Caring for our oceans while land locked can look like organizing litter street sweeps, encouraging local restaurants to go plastic-free, or even using social media to talk about ways we can all help the planet. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach, so follow what feels best for you! 

Organizing litter sweeps has an immediate impact, connecting people in the moment, making it a great way to raise awareness quickly . It’s estimated that one garbage truck of litter is dumped into our oceans every minute. Now imagine if we all picked up one piece of trash every day–we can make a huge difference! The beauty of organizing events like a litter sweep, is that it teaches individuals the impact of their choices. For instance, new cleanup volunteers may have never picked up a piece of litter before, where now, they will likely be encouraged to integrate litter collection within their daily lives, walks, trips and beyond. The tools we offer community members to interact with conservation goes beyond a single moment, or cleanup, and becomes permanently added into their tool box!

Local businesses provide another great opportunity to encourage others to protect our environment. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, restaurants in the United States produce 11 million tons of plastic waste each year. If you could influence one restaurant in your area to no longer use just one plastic item, you would make a significant impact! Helping a business cut back on plastic straws, bags or cutlery, can be a huge help for our ecosystems and future of our planet. Education is everything, as most people don’t know the impact that plastic has on our environment and how the businesses they support contribute to the waste. To protect our planet, we need to help our communities understand the importance of their footprint, and teach them how to make seemingly small but impactful changes is a great way to do so! 

Everyone is on social media these days, and to put it quite frankly, many people post to social media platforms to combat boredom and to gain attention from others in their community. Imagine what could happen if we funneled these efforts into something impactful.  While we will always post for fun, think about what we could accomplish by making a conscious effort to post for our planet alongside it. For example, sharing posts about how good it feels to help our planet by picking up litter, the stuff you found shopping second hand, or informational posts about the benefits of reducing waste are all ways that we can show up to advocate for our planet. Social media allows us to connect with our community from anywhere, making awareness efforts doable and accessible for all to share. For tips on organizing cleanups, talking to local businesses, or raising awareness in general, you can connect with me through email at  jill@theoceanhq.org. Thank you for being you! 

Thank you for reading our latest Sea Stories article! To learn more about our other programs, you can explore the rest of the Ocean HQ website or connect with us on social media @theoceanhq. If you want to learn about a certain topic, suggest a guest, or sponsor the journal—-we would love to hear from you! To learn more about Jill Simons follow her on Instagram @becomingintention.