Building on the success of our Plastic Free July event of 2023, we again encouraged everyone in Ballydehob to reduce their use of plastic - indeed, to try to go plastic free for a whole month!
Businesses supported the event by giving discounts on drinks if customers brought their own cups:
The Plastic Free July event organized by Ballydehob Tidy Towns on the 24th of July was a great success. More than 70 guests attended interesting lectures on plastic in the oceans and their negative effects on marine life.
David Puttnam, as first guest speaker, talked about the rubbish floating down the river near his house and the effect it was having on the biodiversity in the Ilen estuary.
A speaker from Ballydehob Tidy Towns informed the visitors about the five garbage patches which
are polluting our oceans with an altogether estimated size of around 14 million square kilometres.
Only 1 % of the already approx. 200 million of tonnes of dumped plastic can be seen on the surface,
the rest is in the deeper sea or already broken into microplastic and nano plastic particles. The
Mediterranean Sea is highly polluted and 90 % of the sea life is affected there.
After the screening of the short film “Our Toxic Romance with Plastic”, made by The West Cork Artist
Chris O´Connor, who was also present, Nic Slocum of Whale Watch West Cork talked about his
experience with sea life suffering from our plastic waste. Puffins and other seabirds build their nests
using pieces of dumped fishing ropes and nets. Lots of young birds entangle in them and strangle
themselves to death. Many seabirds, seals and other sea life mistake plastic pieces for food and are
dying of hunger because their stomachs are full of plastic. Lots of mammals are dying because of
entanglement in abundant fishing nets.
The last speaker was Stephen Redmond, who was the first to complete the Oceans Seven Challenge.
Often the endurance swimmer had to swim through garbage for hours, the worst was the English
Channel.
We'd like to sincerely thank all our speakers, the audience and, of course, our volunteers who made this event such a success.
