Who says social media influencers are just self-absorbed selfie addicts? Okay maybe we said that once or twice. But we didn’t really mean it—especially since they can use their Instafame for good.
The #BeachCleanChallenge campaign, in association with the Marine Conservation Society, was created by a group of models and influencers to bring awareness to just how bad the plastic pollution problem is in the ocean.
By emblazoning their smoldering selfies with the hashtag #BeachCleanChallenge, pretty people are to posting social media while posing on the beach, and showing the trash was found there, which would normally be cropped out (photo above). And that’s trash as in garbage, not the people who you ignore at the bar.
Why the interest in beach garbage? Let’s take a look at some facts.
Not-So-Fun fact #1: 8 millions tons of plastic are dumped into the oceans every year, mostly from random bits of litter. We see you, person who goes jogging with a bottle of water and throws it on the ground, where it then gets into the sewer system and wanders down rivers to end up in the ocean.
Not-So-Fun fact #2: by 2050, as it accumulates, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish.
Not-So-Fun fact #3: most plastic does not really “biodegrade,” the process of being decomposed by bacteria, fungi, and other living organisms; it “photodegrades,” meaning light breaks down the plastic into tiny particles. (So don’t keep your water bottles in the sun!) But this process takes a really, really long time, so as plastic litter floats around the world, it either releases particles into the ocean, or it gets washed up onto beaches and it sits there and photodegrades on the sand. Either way, those particles do not re-enter the planetary lifecycle. They are still plastic, tiny bits of plastic, working their way into the cracks and crevices of Earth, of animals, of you and everyone.
This plastic problem is far beyond the image a sea turtle with a straw stuck up its nose. For an absolutely horrifying education on just how badly we are all screwed, read about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. And now as of 2019, China is not buying the U.S.’s plastic trash for recycling, so there’s a good chance that your plastic water bottles that you threw in the recycling bin will not get recycled at all, either.
However, you’d never think that plastic was a problem by looking at the gorgeous photos of Instagram models posing on exotic beaches, nipples pointed to the sun. So the #BeachCleanChallenge encourages everyone, professional selfie-takers and civilians, to pose on the beach with whatever plastic trash happens to be around. Finding plastic beach trash is probably easier than finding a stretch of sand that is clean.
Have you posed for the #BeachCleanChallenge? Post your Instagram or Twitter posts in the comments below, or email your links to danrenzi@gaycities.com.
