Packaging waste is a huge problem. There are tons of trash piled up on land, and even more in the world’s oceans. It is obvious to almost everyone that this problem needs to be solved. However, most people would say that they definitely don’t throw trash in the ocean. As a community, people all around the world have donated to help the cause. TeamSeas is a nonprofit organization that is collecting donations to help rid the oceans of trash. They are also helping to build environmentally friendly devices that collect trash from the worst trash dispensing rivers. However, this will continue to be an ongoing problem with a temporary fix if nothing is done about the root cause. There are many things people can do to reduce waste that goes into the rivers. Some say to save the turtles by not using straws, others recycle boxes or bags by bringing them back to grocery stores. These methods do work a little, especially in packaging waste. With everyone doing their part in reducing the use of packaging, packaging waste will decrease. However, in my opinion, the issue is that packaging is not going to decrease. If anything, more goods will be produced in the future and more packaging is going to come with it. Therefore, I believe that the real solution to the problem is to end all waste, not just packaging waste, that makes it to the oceans. But where does all this waste come from? Surprisingly, most of the trash in the ocean comes from one percent of the ocean’s rivers. Those rivers are also the ones next to low status, and low economically successful towns. There are plenty of videos on the internet that show what these places look like. There are hills and paths that are inaccessible to garbage trucks, making the only viable way of removing trash, the river. With this being only one percent of rivers, it does not seem like it could be too hard to clean up these areas and make it so those towns have other ways of removing their trash. One solution could be to flatten out the area just enough for garbage collection to go around. Another futuristic idea would be to have drones come and pick up the trash. Clearly, there is a river in the area, allowing for water power. This could charge a small number of drones, letting the trash removal be environmentally friendly. Another solution would be to incentivize the people in those areas to drop off their trash in an allocated location. This would make it easy to remove the trash after it is all in one place. With enough donations, a small portion could be given to the people who bring trash to the dump. Overall, there are many possible creative solutions that need to be built. Our oceans depend on it
Essay by: Chase Guymon
Gilbert Classical Academyl