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- Bill Francis: What I hope to tell people is that we want to convey a message of hope.
There are solutions out there. Some are cultural, some are from policy makers, some are from
each individual making personal choices and some are from stakeholders getting together,
sitting at a table and agreeing to work together to solve these problems. It's not all doom
and gloom. The more all of us can encourage people to work on solutions and to believe
that "we can make a difference" (the quicker) we will find a way out of this. If we can
put a man on the moon and send rovers to mars, we can solve plastic pollution. We just need
to keep working on it and dedicate ourselves to it.
- Beth Terry: I think it is a complicated issue. But each of us can start looking at
our own personal plastic footprint right now and ask ourselves "what little change could
I make right now and what changes can I make in the future?". When we go to the store,
we should ask ourselves where did this come from and where is it going to go. Is this
particular thing that I'm about to buy, something that actually makes me happy? Questioning
our consumption, but also realizing that this problem is systemic, it is bigger than any
one person. It is important for us to look at our own responsibility in this issue, but
then step out of ourselves and get involved in community actions as well as consumer actions
on a bigger level. One of the things I have on my website is
the "Show Your Plastic Challenge" where people can collect their plastic waste for a week
or more, upload and answer questions about it to figure out how much they are actually
using. I think that is a really cool way to start just to see what your personal plastic
footprint is. But also realized that it is not only your responsibility, it is all of
our responsibility and how we can be a positive influence for other people.
- Nicholas Mallos: Katrina asked me backtracking a bit earlier regarding the feasibility of
an ocean cleanup. I'll share with you Daniella and Katrina afterwards, a document that just
came out of the University of Washington as a collaborative effort. A very short document
which outlines the ecological and technological challenges associated with a large scale cleanup.
I think that document will be made available after this hangout.
In terms of final takeaways, ocean conservancy in the past 27 years has been running the
International Coastal cleanup. While the cleanup is an extraordinary effort and we applaud
their tremendous volunteer turnout. Now we have to recognize that cleanups are a starting
points and not an endpoint. The cleanup is the first piece. For so long we have been
looking from the beach sea work for solutions when in reality the solutions lie from the
beach and the trash can and even further upstream. So, as I noted earlier we all have a role
to play. We need more science, but that does not mean we should be constrained to take
action now. Industry has a very big role to play and when you start shifting that burden
of proof from us as individual consumers to industry to demonstrate that the items they
are putting in to market place are safe not only through their existing life cycles but
now through the end of life cycle and that's ultimately if these end up in the ocean.
And to point Bill's note, that it is not all gloom and doom. I think it is a fantastic
take away because we need to recognize that plastic pollution is not an ocean problem
at the end of the day, but it is a people problem. That means all of us have a role
to play, we can all be part of the solution and it can start with each of us today.
Thank you so much for having me to participate today. It has been a tremendous conversation.