SOLUTIONS
Given that ocean pollution is one long-term major issue affecting both the environment and it's dwellers alike, there is no doubt that any progress or action taken, regardless of its size, will positively contribute to blowing back the life into the soul of our oceans. What follows is some effective measures we can take as individuals, communities, and internationally.
INDIVIDUALS AT HOME
Opt Out of Consuming Plastics
One significant ocean polluter is plastics which include bottles, bags, and micro-beads. As of now, 90% of plastics are not recycled and therefore, cutting down on the use of such items can indeed help contribute towards a cleaner and healthier ocean, rather than contributing to the threat to marine life.
Cleanup Events
Organizing a cleanup with friends and family at your local beach is one great way to strengthen your relations with friends and family while also helping the environment and the ocean. Although it might seem worthless, every item you pick up and properly dispose of, the less waste goes into our oceans.
Practicing the Three R's
The three R's - reduce, reuse, recycle - are a great protocol to follow when disposing waste products. In most countries around the world, each trash can is assigned to hold a specific kind of waste... Discarding your waste in the assigned can will effectively contribute into recycling and hence, reusing.
COMMUNITIES TOGETHER
Support Aspiring Engineers
Donate to hard working engineers who seek to help the environment, support them emotionally and financially though their donation links or things of the sort. Help them with their projects and spread awareness of it, don't let their work go unnoticed. Help them start a community and a group of helpers and aid them meet other people like them so they can work together to reach our goal of a cleaner world.
Stay Motivated
Don't let activists efforts go to waste on bringing awareness to our problems, never let the motivation die. Always push to keep these problems in mind, because the more we forget the more the problematic it will become. With a joint effort we can all keep each other at the same pace and bring more people to strive for the cause.
Show Big Businesses That It's Profitable
Most businesses see recycling or efforts to clean the environment as a financial loss, show them that its not and help the few companies that do these campaigns buy purchasing their products, Show them that it is profitable, buy from businesses that reinforce environment safety over the ones that don't as a motivation that maybe being environmentally safe is a financially beneficial.
INTERNATIONALLY
Government Enforcement
One large-scale measure is stricter government rules that control, using a quota, the number non-biodegradable products a certain company or factory can produce a year. This helps in cutting down on the amount of plastic used, and hence, the amount of plastic being dumped blindly into our oceans. Several regulations have already been passed by various authorities to help protect beaches, minimize ship pollution, reduce marine debris, and restrict ocean dumping.
Proper Sewage Treatment
Looking into the different methods we can cycle sewage water in order to properly treat it would save millions of aquatic lives, that is of course while having all countries implement this new system. Adding on, exploring new Eco-friendly treatments such as recycling sewage sludge to carbon-phosphorous fertilizer would positively affect both agriculture and the environment.
Use of Renewable Resources
Implementing renewable energy resources such as biomass energy, hydro power, geothermal power, or wind energy helps to limit ocean mining and decrease noise pollution, to a certain extent, around the ocean. Moreover, limiting agricultural pesticides and encouraging organic farming by the use of Eco-friendly pesticides has proven to aid in our journey towards a greener and healthier planet.