Embracing Earth Month: The Transformative Power of Coastal Cleanups with Sheila from Life Essentials Refillery

Walking along the coastline, I've often felt a sense of responsibility for the scattered remnants of human leisure activities. It's a reminder that our enjoyment of nature comes with a duty to protect it. I'm Sheila, owner of Life Essentials Refillery, and this Earth Month, I'm taking that responsibility to heart by emphasizing the critical importance of coastal cleanups. Tune in as I discuss how small actions like picking up litter can create ripple effects across our ecosystems, ensuring safer habitats for marine life and more pristine beaches for us all. 

During our chat, I'll share firsthand experiences and the startling revelations that come from actively participating in beach cleanups. Let me tell you, it's more than just picking up trash—it's about witnessing the truth behind our environmental impact and fostering a healthier planet. From the immediate benefits to our coastal regions to the long-term advantages for our global community, this episode is an uplifting journey towards understanding and action. Join me in celebrating Earth Month with purpose, and remember to reach out to us at Life Essentials Refillery across all platforms as we strive to make a tangible difference—one piece of trash at a time.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello, lovely listeners, and welcome to Zero Waste Imperfectly. I'm your host, sheila, and I am the owner of Life Essentials Refillery. We have two locations now one in Weston Chapel and one in South Tampa, florida. It's Earth Month. It's exciting. Everywhere you look, people are doing great things for the planet, and some of you might be wondering why are we doing things like a coastal cleanup? So that's what I want to talk to you about today. It's going to be short and sweet and we're going to talk about why coastal cleanup and other cleaning events are important for everybody. So, first and foremost, it's just good you are helping. If you go do a coastal cleanup, you are taking trash that is going to end up in the ocean away. So that means you are preventing all that litter from going into the ocean and tangling animals. You've seen the pictures online with a sea turtle wrapped in the plastic from a six-pack. We're avoiding stuff like that. We're avoiding the possibility of everything breaking down into microplastics and then we eventually ingest it. So let's get rid of this garbage before it floats out there. So we are also protecting things the entire ecosystem, the beaches, the mangroves, the coral reefs. We're making sure everything stays healthy by removing any contaminants before it enters the waterway. Next thing is there's a lot of things that float into the ocean that have harmful stuff in it. Let's say it's I don't know a container of oil or sunblock or who knows what else. All these things are pollutants and they are floating out into the area that the critters live. We don't want that. We want to prevent that from happening. So all of that is the foundation of a cleanup. You go, you take the trash out, you prevent it from going in the waterways.

Speaker 1: 1:35

But there's other benefits too. I have met people, and so in the area that we live in, plastic straws are no longer allowed at the beach and I have heard so many people say I've never seen a straw at the beach. I don't know what the big fuss is. There are no straws at the beach Until you actually participate in an event or on your own and mindfully walk the beach. That's right. There is where you will see exactly what's polluting and littering our beaches, because there are straws at the beach. There are lots of straws at the beach and cigarette butts and beer bottles and soda cans and lids for beer bottles, and you name it. You will find it if you participate in a coastal cleanup. So I highly recommend it because it is eye-opening.

Speaker 1: 2:21

And what's another benefit that we get from doing a coastal cleanup? Well, we get the clean beach. There is nothing worse than people coming to Tampa. Well, here we're in Tampa area. So people coming to our beach in Tampa and saying it was just disgusting no one wants that.

Speaker 1: 2:35

We want people to come visit Florida and say our beaches are amazing, our water is clear, our coastal and marine life all looks healthy, and we do that by preventing all of this litter from entering our waterways and living in the sand. We don't want that. So we just visited a park here in Tampa it's off Gandy Boulevard, or, yeah, gandy and there was so much garbage that there was no way that you could walk there or even encourage your children to come with you, because you'd be afraid they'd get hurt. And that's just not what we want. We want all of that stuff out of there to protect everything that lives there and protect the people that are going there.

Speaker 1: 3:10

So that is the spiel for why I think coastal cleanup is really important. So if you have the opportunity and there are a lot of cleanups this month because it's Earth Month participate in one Clean up, or even on a regular basis. If you go to the beach or out anywhere, pick up the trash, you see, because eventually it does make its way to the water. Well, happy Earth Month and thanks for listening, and you can find us on all platforms at Life Essentials Refillery. Have a great day.