
by Marmo Notara*
When the summer comes to an end, the feeling that I will have to abandon the daily luxury of swimming really depresses me.
Yes, I am somewhat obsessed with the sea. There is something magical and therapeutic about the sea whether swimming or relaxing on the beach.
It is a common phrase to hear older people saying that “the Greek beaches were much cleaner, and the water was crystal clear in my days”.
This is something that really upsets me and fills me up with various thoughts.
What are the reasons that may affect the quality of the sea and the beaches?
What can we do about it?
Is it the human behavior that has such a negative impact on the environment?
How can we to change that?
And as I am walking on the shore of a deserted beach during autumn months, I am picking up plastics instead of seashells!
I am wondering how all these microplastics have ended up here? Have they been left here by beachgoers due to the inadequate waste disposal facilities and bins near the beaches?
Rubbish found on the shores have different origins and surely humans cannot replace every kind of pollutant but at least we can re-think the way we handle our rubbish on the beach.
The way we dispose our waste on the shore may minimize littering significantly. Simple things like putting our rubbish to the dedicated bin or taking our rubbish with us in a bag can make a difference.
But let’s go one step backwards, before consuming. If we think what we buy to consume we can choose products with less packaging. Or we can give the bag back and place the products in our reusable bags. We can stop buying plastic bottled water and bring our own bottle with us, bring your own thermos to the beach bar for your coffee or cocktail.
All we need to do is to start asking questions to ourselves and try to find ways to simplify our consumable manners.
We must rethink our habits and change the way we behave and we consume. Buying plastics and then recycling them is a good thing to do, however thinking that only a small percentage of this recycled plastic finally ends up in a new bottle makes us think that this is not enough. If we want to live in a place where garbage will not be everywhere in the near future, we need to realize today the impact of littering to the planet.

By changing our littering behavior and start thinking that the responsibility to keep the area clean is ours and not the responsibility of others, we might reduce the percentage of plastic being the most common litter in Greek coastlines.
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*Marmo Notara is LR’s Global Technical Client Care (GTCC) Team Manager. Marmo is managing one of the two GTCC teams in Athens and is dedicated into providing solution to the every day operational challenges of our LR clients. (GTCC)