Small Hands, Big Changes

Every year, millions of tons of plastic end up in the sea. Plastic does not disappear: it breaks into very small pieces that fish and birds can swallow. Many young people around the world have decided that they cannot wait for adults to solve the problem.

In one coastal town, a group of ninth graders started a project called "Clean Shore". Once a month they meet on the beach with gloves and bags. So far they have collected more than two hundred bags of rubbish. They have also counted the items they find, and they have shared the numbers with the local council. Their main finding surprised them: the most common items were not bottles but bottle caps, straws and tiny pieces of plastic.

The students have not stopped at cleaning. They have visited younger classes to explain the problem, and they have asked shops near the beach to use paper bags. "If every family uses one less plastic bag a week, the beach will look different in a year," says Maya, one of the founders. "Cleaning is important, but we should also make less rubbish in the first place."