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Not
only the industry produces sewage which
flows in the sea. Each of us uses the sea
directly or indirectly as a rubbish bin.
Our task is to limit the amount and the
kind of rubbish. Most of the substances
conducting into the sea cannot be reused
or broken down by nature and cause soiling,
destruction and in the end death of the
seas.
The marine protection organization Oceana
estimates that worldwide every hour about
675 tonnes of waste gets thrown directly
into the oceans, half of it is made out
of plastic. The extent of pollution can
be judged best between Hawaii and California.
The so called "Great Pacific Garbage
Patch" or "Eastern Garbage Patch"
circles there which is a huge carpet of
rubbish of more than three million tonnes
of plastic - on an area as big as Central
Europe.
Cigarette filters for example need 200 years
to be biologically degraded by nature. They
are very poisonous and can get swallowed
by fish what they won't survive. Cigarette
filters do not belong into the sea.
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Sea
turtles mix up plastic bags with jellyfish
and swallow them. This can cause an intestinal
obstruction or the toxins can infect the
body.
Batteries are extremely poisonous and can
contaminate big areas on land as well as
under water. In most tourism countries of
the third world, batteries cannot be disposed
professionally. Use either rechargeable
batteries or take the used ones back home.
Take also all your articles made of plastic
back home from your holiday because it takes
centuries to degrade them by nature. That
includes all the empty plastic packaging
of shower gel, shampoo, sun cream, etc.
because they also might not get professionally
disposed at your holiday destination.
The "out of sight, out of mind"
expression doesn't work with the rubbish.
Everything we throw away thoughtlessly will
come back to us one day. Even if we cannot
see the rubbish anymore in the water or
wherever - it is still there!
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