Between 1985 and 1988 scientists became aware of the Great pacific Garbage Patch, also known as Garbage Island, which is an island of debris floating in the Pacific Ocean. By 1995 even more people became aware of this floating mass of plastics, chemical sludge and other garbage, that was the size of Texas (roughly 700 000 km square). By 2011 there were 5 of these gyres, the North Atlantic Gyre, the South Atlantic Gyre, the North Pacific Gyre, the South Pacific Gyre, and the Indian Ocean Gyre.

Boylan Slat, the 23 year-old Dutch inventor, came up with a passive system to collect the plastic pollution in the oceans and in 2013, at the age of 18, he began The Ocean Cleanup, a foundation that develops technologies to extract plastic pollution from the oceans.

Most of us are not entrepreneurial inventors, which begs the question, what can we do? The initial answer is to reduce all plastic use; however with our global reliance on plastic, this may seem impossible. Plastics is an epidemic, it is in everything. The keyboard I am typing on, the bus I’ll take home has plastic, our furniture and devices contain plastic, it is even in our beauty products.

There is plastic in our cars, clothes, and parts of our household appliances. So the answer is to reduce our plastic use and recycle as much as possible, not only the larger plastics, but the smaller items that cannot be reused or recycled.

Fifty percent of the plastics we use daily are single-use, namely straws, and plastic bags. A good start is to refuse these single use items. When grocery shopping bring cloth bags or jars for refill instead of using a plastic bag at the bulk bins – as more and more people are doing this, stores are becoming accustom to it, and most will subtract some weight for your reusable container at the checkout. While at the checkout, use your own bags to carry the groceries home. If you do end up taking a plastic bag, bring it back the next time you shop as most grocery stores do have a return it policy for their plastics.

At the coffee shop, bring your own reusable mug for your coffee or a mason jar for your smoothie – several delis and coffee shops will give a 5-10% discount for bringing your own container. Bring reusable utensils so that you can easily refuse the straw, plastic fork, and stir stik. In the bar, is the plastic sword that holds a lime wedge really that important, just say no.

There is a lot of plastic in our homes whether we are aware of it or not – in our sleek furniture, modern clothes, there are even tiny plastics called microbeads in our skincare products. For the furniture and clothes, short of only buying wood furniture and clothes that are 100% wool or cotton, the only thing that can be done is to dispose of them properly.

Make clothes last as long as possible and give old clothes to charity shops or friends. With furniture use it as long as you can, and try selling it on Craigslist when you are finished, someone else may still have use for it. Practice with donations and Craigslist and help keep things out of landfill.

In terms of microbeads, many countries have or are planning on banning the sale soon. However products containing them will still be available for purchase at online shops such as Amazon. The easiest way to avoid microbeads is to avoid using the Dirty Dozen cosmetic ingredients.

1) BHA and BHT

2) Ingredients “CI” followed by a five digit number

3) DEA-related ingredients – also MEA and TEA

4) Dibutyl phthalate

5) Formaldehyde-releasing preservatives

6) Parabens

7) Parfum (a.k.a. fragrance)

8) PEG compounds – ingredients with the letters “eth” (e.g., polyethylene glycol)

9) Petrolatum

10) Siloxanes – ingredients ending in “-siloxane” or “-methicone.”

11) Sodium laureth sulfate

12) Triclosan

We can avoid plastics in our skincare products by avoiding the ingredients above, however one must also consider the packaging of their products. Be aware of packaging with excessive or unnecessary plastics; try to avoid buying soap wrapped in plastic and opt for natural soaps in a paper sleeve, stamped or without any packaging. Most body lotions are available in a convenient plastic pump or tube, be aware of the brands with thick or unnecessary plastic.

Although plastic is recyclable, it is best to reduce consumption and to re-use what is already in your house. Plastic can only be recycled a finite number of times; while glass can be recycled many, many times.

The next thing we can do is to raise awareness. On a personal note, the first few times I refused the straw and then pulled a metal one out of my bag there were some looks, there are fewer now and sometimes servers think it is so great that they take a small percentage off of the total. Similarly the first few times I pulled camping utensils out of my backpack at a street food vendor, many thought it was strange, now I am applauded. In stores I often take my reusable container I am about to fill to the check out, the weigh it empty, write it down, and subtract it from the total weight when I’m paying. All of these activities are becoming more popular and the more people that are seen doing them, the more awareness it will raise, even if it is just at a small market, it still raises awareness to a few people.

In terms of the plastic that is already on our beaches and parks, join a local beach clean-up with Surfrider or Clean Shorelines, simply practice the #2minutebeachclean or #Take3ForTheOcean which encourages locals to clean up their local areas for two minutes, take a picture of their ‘haul’ and tag it with #2minutenbeachclean while #Take3 encourages people to take three pieces of trash off of the beach and properly dispose of it.