CofC’s Office of Sustainability does a litter clean up every few weeks while using an app made by the SC Aquarium to collect data. I volunteered to participate in a litter pick up on March 8th and spent around an hour collecting debris from the corner of Calhoun and Coming. I partnered up with one of the OoS interns to take turns collecting trash and logging items in the app. Once you download the app you have to join “projects” for what exactly you’re doing because it’s a citizen science platform that many groups use to track different environmental or biological concerns. The OoS uses “litter-free digital journal” to log the items they pick up. The app categorizes the litter by composition and has options for the user to specify if the given categories don’t match.

In 1 hour, my partner and I collected around 317 individual pieces of litter. Most of these were cigarette butts or tobacco related debris. Because of the location where we collected trash, that wasn’t surprising as it’s a pretty busy street and has lots of foot traffic and there’s a short brick wall at the corner of a lot where people sit and smoke. There were fresh cigarette buts that were still round and orange but we also found lots of old butts that looked like dirty cotton balls picked apart. This corner would probably be a good spot for a cigarette butt receptacle, I’ve even heard of ones that are made using recycled butts.

The next most abundant litter were microplastics. There’s street parking pretty much all along where we collected trash, and there were little rigid fragments that looked like someone smashed their mirror on something, so we picked that up as well as a lot of other tiny plastics like pen caps or buttons. The 3rd most abundant litter was paper and cardboard, most of which was food related. These were mostly things like gum wrappers, straw wrappers, receipts and little scraps of paper.

This is the second litter clean up I’ve done using a Citizen Science app, and it was my first with CofC’s OoS! It was a fun way to be involved with other CofC students interested in conservation while picking up trash that would end up in our waterways otherwise. I like both apps but its nice that this one gives you an option to specify what exactly you’re finding, which also provides better data for the people reviewing the findings.

I have decided to review a documentary called “Blue Planet II: Big Blue.” This documentary is available for anyone to watch on Netflix and is in my opinion, one of the best documentaries for younger people who want to get a better idea of what is in and what is happening with our oceans. This documentary shows a plethora of species and their special behavioral patterns that may not be known that they do to the regular everyday human. These patterns shown show spectacular brilliance in certain species that could be lost if we do not help prevent the continuous poisoning of our oceans through waste and pollution.

This documentary includes the behavior patterns of dolphins and also their intelligence in thorough detail. It shows how the porpoises use anemones and other plants as a personal way of protecting themselves from infection with the special antibodies in the anemones. It also shows many other animals and how they survive through their special patterns of migration and ways of predation that are very fascinating. The documentary shows how orcas temporarily stun groups of fish by their violent tail flaps that stun the fish long enough for them to be eaten without trouble. It also does not only focus on the animals in the ocean, it also shows coastal birds like the wandering albatross. These birds are the largest of any living bird of the present day, and because of the overfishing of seas, the albatross has to work much harder than before to find food for themselves and for their offspring so that they can continue to be a species on this planet. They may spend up to a year continuously looking food for themselves and also ingest plastics which are poisons to their diets. This is a continuous problem and will continue to be a problem if we do not step up as humans to fix our planet.

The filmmakers who produced this documentary are definitely trying to push a conservationist agenda to the audience, and doing so in a way that shows the beauty of our earth and why we should work harder to fix these issues. Possible biases in this documentary could be that the filmmakers did not show any positives that are going on in our economic world today, and focused primarily on making the film about how we have not been doing our jobs recently and how we can improve our earthly situation, rather than show positive ways that we have already been working on bettering our world. All in all, I very much enjoyed this documentary and it was displayed in a way that was more fascinating rather than a bore to watch, and I believe that this documentary could be shown to many other audiences that would say the same thing. This film made me think much harder about conservation, and also made me think much more deeply about just how fascinating our earth really is, and why we should work much harder to sustain it and have this beauty be able to be seen by future generations.

Nearing the end of the semester I find myself actively considering my actions so much more than I ever did previously.  Before taking this and another environmental course this semester, I had never had much education regarding sustainability and environmental concerns beyond a general approach.  It was never actively on my mind when I would go shopping or go on late night drives just for fun.  Now, when I go to shopping, I am always recognizing how much waste we produce, how everything in grocery stores is plastic, how much I feel the need to buy when I go shopping for “back to school”, etc…

What really opened my eyes to this was the Carbon Footprint activity and the “Story of Stuff” video we watched.  These two lessons, amongst many others, flipped a switch in my head that made me want to take steps in my own life to help our community and ultimately our planet.  The Carbon Footprint activity made me realize how much nonsense driving I do, just because I like to drive.  I have reduced my driving so substantially that I hardly ever take it out of the driveway.  The “Story of Stuff” opened my eyes to my shopping patterns and the speed at which I go through clothing.  I have always loved shopping and clothing, but have been much more aware of what I buy and how I buy it.  I’ve learned new concepts regarding how fast fashion is far from ecofriendly, which is something I probably would have never thought about while shopping in the past.  Even things as simple as when I go to the grocery stores, I bring reusable bags for myself and my friends as well.  I encourage late night walks instead of drives, as that had always been something my friends and I would do for hours on end to clear our heads.  By making it apparent to my friends that I care about this issue, I feel both encouraged to keep sharing what I learn as well as keep taking these steps to hold true to my word.  By making an active effort with my friends to act on these issues, I feel like they hold me accountable for my own as well so I don’t come across as hypocritical.

Although these actions are very simple and seem like they won’t make a huge difference, they are so easy to do everyday that it makes me wonder why anyone wouldn’t.  I am planning to continue taking steps towards a greener future for myself, and taking courses to educate myself on what I can do further.  Gradually adding different approaches to living, shopping, traveling, etc. is easy and has the ability to rub off on people as well!  Something that has made these actions so easy to remember and carry out is being in a city like Charleston where I frequently see different activities going on promoting a more sustainable lifestyle, different policies coming to be to create change, and people sharing their thoughts and ideas on how to make Charleston a better, greener space.

Throughout this semester I have seriously been trying to cut down on my plastic usage. For the last couple of years I have been somewhat conscious of my plastic usage, but this semester I have really been trying to use the smallest amount of plastic possible. Throughout my transition to less plastic it has been extremely fulfilling to know that I am making a difference in the worlds emissions and pollution problems. It is also difficult because my roommate uses an extremely large amount of single use plastic items and just refuses to change his ways no matter how much I lecture him. He grew up in a household where they used a large amount of single use plastics so he just does not know any other way and just struggles with changing. It is hard to have all these single use plastic items in our house and kitchen and avoiding them, but it has progressively gotten easier for me to not be tempted to use those items.     

I have learned from this experience that it is astounding how many people and restaurants use single use plastics. A large amount of restaurants give people straws without even ask their customers. Also a majority of restaurants use plastic cups or lids rather than compostable materials. Having so many restaurants which only have single use plastic options makes it extremely difficult to avoid plastic usage completely, but I have been able to reduce my plastic use significantly. Every time I have had the option of using plastic or avoiding it I have chosen to not use it, but so many restaurants bring drinks out with straws without even asking you. This resulted in me thinking that at times I was failing in avoiding plastic use, but I have to realize that those instances are not my fault. I think I will be able to keep reducing my plastic use, it is just difficult to completely avoid using plastic. For example gatorade only comes in plastic bottles so it is essential impossible to avoid plastic use there, but usually I reuse my gatorade bottles.I have also cut down on my gatorade consumption since cutting down on my plastic use. My oldest brother is extremely environmentally focused and he just recommended that I drink water from a reusable bottle and then only drink other drinks that are not put in plastic bottles. It is also just small things you have to give up, like not using plastic coffee stirrers and small tedious things like that make the whole process of cutting down on plastic difficult.