Grilled seafood platter with a side of Plastic, please!

Singapore is well known for being a clean and green Garden City. Better yet, the National Parks Board is rolling out plans to transform Singapore into a "City in a Garden". 

But what about our waterways? 

Over the weekend I went to Lazarus Island, which is one of our Southern Islands. 

Yes, this beautiful beach is actually in Singapore

So beautiful on the surface, and visibility that day was about 6m, considered great for the waters here! 

But below the surface...  

Within 20 minutes of snorkelling, I collected all of this:

There was much more rubbish lying on the sea floor that I could not fit into my bag. Judging from what I collected and saw, most of the rubbish was made up of PLASTIC food wrappers and drink cups.

And this is what I saw at Marina South Pier where the public ferry leaves for the Southern Islands:

And so you might wonder why this is important. Like, it's just trash right? Once it sinks below the surface, it's gone! NOT REALLY. Plastic actually gets into your food. See my previous post on Spastic Plastic to see how.

Still not convinced? In this video, you can actually see tiny pieces of plastic making their merry way into plankton.

And here's an article about it too: Tiny plastic particles are polluting our waterways, and potentially our seafood.

So yup, if you eat seafood, there's a good chance you are ingesting plastic as well. Even if you don't eat seafood, fish meal is fed to food animals like poultry and cattle so it may well be transferred to you through them.

What should you do then? If you're out at the beach or diving, pick up the plastic that you see. It doesn't take that much effort! And of course, reduce, reuse and recycle. More ideas here Spastic Plastic.