Not the beach season: how a 70-year-old English grandmother saves the coast from garbage
Someone is sure that the life of the elderly is monotonous and flows between walks in the park and communicating with grandchildren. Perhaps this is true for some pensioners, but not for the 70-year-old Briton Pat Smith. The woman believes that she has enough strength to help the whole planet and contribute to solving the problem of plastic garbage in the oceans.
Cornwall resident Pat Smith, like many of her elderly peers, spent her days near the TV. But this came to an end when a woman saw a program about the pollution of beaches with plastic garbage, which took on catastrophic proportions. That night, Smith couldn't sleep, and the next morning she decided that she had enough strength and time to act.
Pat has set herself the task for 2018 to clean one beach from garbage every week. Cornwall residents supported the pensioner's initiative and actively participated in the action. The plan turned out to be fulfilled — in a year Smith, who was helped by her grandchildren and neighbors, cleaned 52 beaches of her native county.
It would seem that the task has been completed and it remains only to maintain the order brought to the coast, but Pat Smith didn't want to stop there. The woman launched the "Last Straw" program, whose task is to inform people about the dangers of disposable tableware and plastic bags and convince them to give up these unnecessary and dangerous things.
Smith considers straws for drinks to be the most serious disaster, which are an excellent example of the useless use of plastic polluting our planet. Every year, straws kill a huge number of marine life, while their "life" exceeds the human.
Pet and its supporters are convinced that people will be able to give up straws without any problems or replace them with safe analogues made of natural materials. A cocktail through a straw is just a whim, but it can cost the lives of whales, fish, birds and shellfish, who are helpless before the invasion of plastic.
By her deeds, an elderly British woman proved that each of us, regardless of age, can make a feasible contribution to the salvation of the planet. Even if one person's strength is not enough, his example can always encourage others to take action, and in this case we are talking about impressive strength.
Keywords: UK | Sea | Environment | Plastic | Beaches | Tableware