‘Tons and tons of fishing equipment': B.C. tour operators clean up ocean debris during coronavirus pandemic

Clean Ocean Sailing is a volunteer-based organization that boats to largely inaccessible parts of Cornwall’s coasts to pull plastic pollution out of the ocean and off the beaches using kayaks, rowboats, and physical labor.

A pilot experiment in the Canary Islands seeks to recycle brine waste from desalination plants to grow hydroponic tomatoes. The leftover brine can be harmful for seagrass along the coast, so researchers looked into ways to create a nutrient solution that could be used to raise tomatoes. Though the yield of the tomatoes using the brine solution was lower, they did have a sweeter taste.

Thanks to efforts by the Society for the Protection of Turtles and a band of international volunteers, green and loggerhead turtle numbers in North Cyprus are rebounding. Last year, there were more than 2,400 nests counted, a 10-fold increase since their first survey in 1988. There are still challenges in saving these species due to plastic waste, but more locals are recognizing the importance of turtle conservation.

An initiative called the Southeast Alaska Tribal Ocean Research is the state’s first coordinated testing effort to ensure that harvesters are not selling shellfish that contain paralytic shellfish poisoning. The program keeps track of data from 42 beaches in southern Alaska. However, the program only covers a small part of the active fishing sites in the state, so data is limited. But since the testing program was set up, no one at those sites have become sick.

The island nation of Indonesia is the world's second biggest polluter of marine plastics, which can be disastrous for its tourism industry, setting aside the obvious environmental hazards. But two sisters in Bali took on the problem head on in 2013 with Bye Bye Plastic Bags. After an online petition, the sisters launched massive beach cleanups, awareness campaigns, and community workshops. After enough momentum, the governor of Bali banned single-use plastic.

Across the country, projects that mine landfills for reusable metals and soils are underway. Can such mining prove profitable enough to spur similar efforts on a grand scale? So far, some projects have seen profits while others have not. But as society increasingly values pollution and greenhouse gas reduction, incentives for refuse mining can only grow.

“There were bottles, cocktail sticks, coffee cup lids, razors, toothbrushes," recalls Rachel Yates, a Penzance community member, in describing the looks of a Cornish beach she volunteered to clean up with marine conservation charity Surfers Against Sewage. Shortly after, she joined the charity and led the Cornwall community to achieving plastic-free status through awareness and campaigning efforts, unifying the town in the fight against single-use plastics.

Sometimes bolstered by state tax credits, oyster recycling projects across the United States are encouraging restaurants to save their oyster shells, which are used to restore reefs instead of ending up as waste.

The Athens-based nonprofit Shell to Shore collects oyster shells from restaurants in Georgia to recycle into manmade reefs that will mitigate erosion and flooding.

A government agency in India is turning fishing waste into useful commodities, which help both the environment and the community. Discarded fish parts often littered the beaches near fish markets, leaving a stench and a mess that stigmatized the neighborhood. Now the parts are being processed and sold as fertilizers leading to a cleaner community, less waste, and a much-needed alternative source of income in the fishing community.