5 Easy Tips To Have An Eco-Friendly Beach Day
Aug 02, 2022
The sun’s shining, and many of us will be heading to enjoy a fun day at the beach with friends. But did you know that your fun beach trip could actually be damaging the complex beach environment which supports a variety of plants and animals?
With our friends at Ecothes, the home of sustainable fashion, we're going to share five easy ways you can make sure your beach day doesn’t harm the beach ecosystem!
1. Don’t Leave Your Trash
Every year millions of pounds of trash and pollutants enter our oceans. This trash, including plastic bottles and food cartons, can be digested by marine animals or washed up on shores worldwide.
If you’re taking snacks or a picnic to the beach, make sure you collect all your trash and take it home with you or dispose of it in the correct bins. Ensure you don’t leave trash next to or on top of an overflowing bin, as this can encourage animals to digest trash, or the litter can be washed into the ocean.
2. Pack a Zero Waste Picnic
Instead of taking single-use plastics and pre-packaged food, pack your lunch into reusable containers like Tupperware, and take a reusable water bottle.
Using reusable containers will help to reduce the waste you take to the beach and also help to prevent single-use plastics in the long term.
Top Tip: Pack a reusable cloth napkin to reduce single-use napkin waste.
3. Pick Up Litter You See On The Beach
While we’ve discussed taking your own litter home, while you’re at the beach, consider picking up any trash laying around and recycling it!
You can even go a step further and collect data on what you’ve found, which can help the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Trash Free Waters program determine the types of litter entering our oceans.
Top Tip: Take an extra bag with you every time you go to the beach and fill it with any litter you see lying in the sand.
4. Respect Coral Reefs
Avoid touching the reef if you’re swimming or snorkeling around coral reefs, as contact can damage the delicate corals.
If you’re using a boat, check that your anchor isn’t attached to a reef. Instead, look for a sandy patch to anchor.
While not all beaches have coral reefs nearby, it’s still important to treat the ocean with respect. Anything you drop in the ocean will drift out and can hurt marine life further ashore and have negative downstream effects.
5. Wear Eco-Friendly Swimwear
Another simple way to make your beach day more eco-friendly is wearing swimwear made from recycled materials. This can help prevent plastic waste as brands are taking pre-existing materials and re-using them, rather than making new materials from scratch which is more resource intensive.
Approximately 8 million pieces of plastic find their way into our oceans daily, including plastic water bottles, food containers, fishing nets, and microplastics. Plastic pollution is especially dangerous in our oceans because it doesn’t readily biodegrade and will stick around for hundreds of years.
All our one pieces are made with 14 recycled PET bottles, and our bikinis are made with eight recycled PET bottles each, so you can prevent up to 16 bottles from ending up in landfills or our oceans with every bikini set.
Plus, we ship our swimwear in 100% biodegradable bags and 100% recycled mailer pouches, so you can recycle our packaging to ensure no waste will end up in our oceans.
Top Tip: All our new vibes in 2022 are made from 100% recycled materials and 75% fewer carbon emissions than non-recycled swim fabrics!