World Environment Day 2023 is a reminder that people’s actions on plastic pollution matters. The steps governments and businesses are taking to tackle plastic pollution are the consequence of this action.
There are reportedly 170 trillion - yes, trillion - plastic particles currently floating around our oceans, finding their way into marine food chain and, ultimately into us. One hundred and seventy trillion. In other words, a million x milllion. Or, 170 followed by 12 zeros! That's a scale that's hard to conceptualize. How do you even put that into perspective?
Scientists estimate that those 170 trillion plastic particles present in the oceans have a combined weight of about 2 million tonnes. If you had a train with a standard freight boxcar that was carrying the entire 2 million tonnes of plastic it would be pulling around 26,000 cars and be nearly 420 km long. That's a train as long as the distance from San Francisco to San Diego, or London to Edinburgh!
Without urgent policy action, the rate at which plastics enter the oceans could increase by around 2.6 times between now and 2040, the study also found.
Plastics tend to find their way into our oceans from the land via rivers, storm drains and littering. Once plastics enter the ocean they tend to break up into tiny particles rather than decompose. Once they're nano-particles they're practically impossible to clean up. So they float there, leaching toxic chemicals or gobbled up by unwitting marine life and thus entering the food chain.
Despite this pessimistic outlook, humans can make a change and stem the tide of plastic entering our oceans. But, individual efforts at the consumer level is not going to be enough with more single-use plastics being created than ever before. Real change is going to take immediate enforceable international standards and corporate responsibility,
It is time to #BeatPlasticPollution.
Coral Sure Sunscreen tubes are made from all eco-friendly “green” bio-plastic which is 100% recyclable. This bio-plastic is created by farming sugarcane on sustainable land in Brazil, thousands of miles from the Amazon rainforest. The bio-plastic is then used instead of the fossil fuel sourced material to create flexible squeeze tubes while maintaining the performance characteristics of traditional polyethylene. The bio-plastic is also 100% recyclable, meaning the tubes and cap can be recycled and mixed into Post Consumer Regrind, just like any other polymer.
Recycling is only the second best solution. First, we need to cut down on our plastic consumption.
Our tubes are 100% recyclable. We know it's not a perfect solution, which is why we are always looking for enhanced biodegradable alternatives that are environmentally friendly but have the characteristics necessary to contain the sunscreen formula.
Not just on World Environment Day, every day.
We have to work together to protect and save the oceans for the sake of our future survival on this planet. Through our membership with One Percent for the Planet we've pledged to contribute a percentage of our annual sales to environmental causes.
A portion of our profits support Oceana. Oceana is the largest organization in the world solely devoted to marine conservation. Their vision is to make our oceans as rich, healthy and abundant as they once were, creating the ideal environment for marine eco-systems like the coral reefs to survive.
Do yourself and the planet a favor this World Environment Day. Free shipping for the rest of June.
To celebrate you doing your bit against plastic pollution not just on World Environment Day but every day we are offering our valued customers free shipping on all products site-wide with code “RECYCLE23”. Every little helps and your first start to make a difference could be with a mineral sunscreen.
About
EPO9 was formed four years ago by a collection of surfers, scuba divers, snorkelers, swimmers and outdoor enthusiasts who worship the sun but really care about, and want to protect, the oceans and marine environment which brings us so much joy. Eponine Labs, LLC was incorporated in June 2022. Its mission is to manufacture a sunscreen that is truly non-toxic to the marine eco-system and will afford the user the highest standard of skin protection from the sun's harmful UV rays.
People chose Coral Sure Sunscreen for its broad spectrum protection and non-toxic, moisturizing properties. Learn more at www.epo9coralsure.com
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