So What Happened After The Trip??

Within the first week of the expedition I was ready to go home!! I was seasick for the first five days, I was hot, I was irritable and I just couldn't comprehend why people wanted to study garbage (of course it was the sea sickness that caused this perceptual narrowing). We were 3000 miles from land, hadn't seen any other vessels or signs of human life except for trails of waste! It was everywhere. Trash! Plastic bottles, caps, nets, buoys, toys, toothbrushes, food wrappers, you name it, it was all there- things that were a apart of my life. "oh these ships should stop throwing their dump overboard", "humans are so nasty", "who does all of this waste belong too?" These are all statements that I made until I realized that all of that waste belonged to me. I was a consumer, I was unaware of the consequences of my plastic dependent lifestyle, I was PLASTIC POSITIVE.

After countless hours of travelling, my plane landed back in The Bahamas. My feet touched that sweet island soil and I felt like a Plastic Warrior! I was gonna change the mindset of Bahamians, everyone was going to be plastic free by the end of the year, of course this is what I'm screaming on the inside. It was gonna be me, the one that was going to set the country straight until I realized that the blind would be leading the blind. Once I got back to my apartment it hit me like a ton of bricks, I was such a hypocrite!! How could I point the finger at persons who used plastic when I used more plastic than anyone I knew. There were stacks and stacks of plastic bags under my sink, styrofoam plates and plastic untensils in the cupboard, take away containers in the refrigerator and a handful of straws that I ummmm "borrowed" from the local grocer. I was addicted to plastic and I didn't even know it. It had been a silent part of my culture for such a long time that I failed to realize it.

Since June 2012 my life has changed for the better as I grew more conscious of my plastic use and the negative effects it had on my body and the natural environment. No longer do I depend on single use items like straws, plastic bags, trash bags, styrofoam containers, floss pickers, bottled soda/water or plastic cups. I've learned to say NO THANK YOU! and you can too. So this is where the change began, but trust me it's not ending here. Buckle up and re-fasten those seat belts because we are about to catapult into The Bahamas Plastic Movement!