the leatherback sea turtle and the start of my plastic journey
In 2013 having decided to apply to study Medicine (at the grand age of 24) I was required to complete a piece of AS Biology coursework. I had to compose a scientific assignment on a problem in an area of biology and how the issue was impacted by human intervention. After a little deliberation, and knowing nothing at all about the species, I decided to write on the Leatherback sea turtle.
This was the first time I can remember thinking about plastic pollution. I remember seeing images of these giant Leatherbacks caught up in fishing nets and drowning. This image by Michel Gunther really stuck with me. During my research I also read that one of the greatest threats to survival was marine pollution; turtles often mistake floating plastic bags for jellyfish and eat them. From this assignment, I developed a new-found love for an animal I hadn’t been aware of before - the magnificent Leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) and it started me thinking about both plastic and ‘bycatch’ (the word used for when turtles, dolphins and other sea animals get caught up in fishery nets accidentally). It took a long five years though until I actively began to cut out the plastic. In January of 2018 I made it one of my twelve New Year resolutions to ‘use less plastic’. Ryan bought me the book ‘Life Without Plastic’, written by Jay Sinha and Chantal Plamondon, and with a little research on social media I discovered tonnes of ways to reduce my plastic footprint.
I began with the intention of cutting one product a month and replacing it with a plastic free alternative but before long it became something of an obsession. I discovered multiple ways to reduce our plastic consumption drastically in the first few months, with very simple replacements or lifestyle changes. I’d love for you to follow along with our progress. The task ahead of us - to clean up the plastic we have created as a species and try to live more sustainably seems a colossal task, but working together and sharing ideas in the plastic free community I have discovered will no doubt make the goal more achievable and the journey more tolerable.
I don’t want to write this blog to instruct people how to live their lives, nor to criticise how they live. I strongly believe every person is entitled to their own choices and way of life and it is not for anybody to say that they do something the right way. Many of the alternatives I have found for plastic involve steel, bamboo or paper, and many of them have to be ordered online (because they aren’t stocked locally), therefore these products make their own impact on the planet. No doubt in years to come as these alternatives become more popular (I’m thinking about you bamboo!) we will find that they themselves become over farmed and may cease to be a sustainable substitute; but for the time being I am doing what I can to be more conscious about how I live and the waste I produce.