Protect our water resources

- Do you remember the first time that you learned almost 3/4 of the Earth's surface is covered in water? It's incredible, we live on a water planet and our bodies are mostly made of water! Our water resources are pretty precious. But unfortunately, we haven't been taking great care of them. From dumping waste directly into our waterways, to using single-use items, to inefficiently using the water we have! There are many ways we can turn the tide and improve the health of our water resources. So where should we start? Let's look at plastic. Plastic is an incredible material. It's strong, durable, and it lasts forever. Did I mention that it lasts forever? That's a bit of a problem. It's a problem because in nature, there is no such thing as away. When we use plastic, especially single-use plastics, like food wrappers or plastic bags, that plastic sticks around on our planet forever. In fact, studies estimate that a garbage truck-worth of plastic enters the ocean every second. That's a lot of plastic for a little bit of convenience. Plastic pollution also affects water and wildlife across the world. From mountain streams to rivers running to the ocean, to major ocean basins. We are continuing to learn about plastic's impact, including enormous whales dying from starvation because their stomachs were filled with plastic, the health consequences of us having microplastics in our bodies, and ecosystem-level impacts, like beaches littered with plastic, whew! (sighs) That is some pretty heavy stuff, isn't it? But the good news is that people around the world are working on solutions in their communities and workplaces! So what can we do? Clean it up! Thousands of rivers, lakes, and beach cleanups happen around the world each year. These are great ways to raise public awareness while making a positive impact on the local places we live and work! They also produce valuable data on the most-littered plastic products. Apps like Literati globally track which products show up most often, so that we can have data-driven conversations with the companies making those products. Plan a cleanup for your next team-building activity. Prevent leakage; plastic and other garbage can leak from the land to the aquatic environment as a result of poor waste management and littering. By improving waste collection, dumping and recycling systems, we can significantly prevent plastic from getting into waterways. Do some research to see if your town has good waste management practices. And reduce production. The packaging industry is the biggest single market for plastic. Submit requests for more sustainable alternatives to plastic packaging in your workplace, especially for goods like food, beverages, and office products. Close the loop, join the circular economy, in which we reuse or upgrade materials for as many life cycles as possible. That might look like ditching single-use water bottles for reusable cups in your break room. There is so much that we can do together! Let's keep our precious water healthy by making choices that keep plastics, especially single-use plastics, out of our water-based ecosystems!