Alina Singh, Grade six
Sedgwick Middle School, West Hartford
Imagine walking along the beach covered with trash. Fortunately, there are programs to fix this. 4ocean is making a difference in the lives of humans, animals, and most importantly sea animals! 4ocean has opened my eyes by connecting me to the world of nature.
The world has a waste problem. Eighty-five percent of people on the planet know about this, but hardly anyone cares to look at the damage the trash is doing to our earth. Every year we dump a massive 2.12 billion tons of waste. If all this waste was put on trucks they would go around the world 24 times. The largest collection of garbage in the ocean is already around twice the size of Texas and it continues to grow. Did you know that at least 700 different marine species have been hurt or killed by plastic? At least 1 million marine animals have been killed. Most plastic in the ocean comes from China and Indonesia. Together, the two countries account for about one-third of the plastic pollution on this planet. Similarly, 80 percent of plastic pollution comes from just 20 countries, including the United States. A fact that might shock you is that there is more plastic in the ocean than fish!! At this rate, the ocean is not going to be clean and there will be no more living sea animals in the future.
4ocean is a wonderful group that is working to clean up the ocean. The group’s purpose is to “end the oceans plastic crisis”. They have already cleaned up 7,823,919 pounds of trash. They cleaned up 31,549 pounds of trash from the rivers in Bali. They have also cleaned up 6,646 pounds in Haiti. The company uses the trash to make high-quality products such as water bottles, bracelets, reusable bags. I honestly think that recycling the trash can prevent the ocean from future damage.
4ocean’s founders are Alex and Andrew. They have been around the ocean for almost their entire lives. They both grew up in the coast of Florida, swimming, diving, fishing, and surfing. After becoming friends in college, they saved up their money for a surf trip of a lifetime to Bali. When they arrived, they found a beach that was completely covered in plastic. The waves were also filled with trash, delivering more garbage in front of their eyes.
4ocean has opened my eyes to the world of nature. It has inspired me to think more about the environment and more about cleaning the ocean. I love swimming and I would not want to be swimming in a dirty, nasty, green, crowded beach. If no one cares for the ocean, and if global warming causes the ocean to rise quicker, then the whole world could soon be underwater with the nasty, green, garbage.
I support 4Ocean because it is making a difference in our world and in our lives! One way we can help is by selling pencils for fifty cents each and supporting 4ocean with that money. Even if only 5 schools per state in the world help clean up the ocean, our world would be a cleaner, better, safer place!
