Specific Items
Dolly Rope, Cancer Sticks and Mermaid Tears
DOLLY ROPE (VISPLUIS)
This web of nylon threads is a protective layer for fishing nets. It is meant to tear off during bottom trawling - a method of fishing that just drags the net across the ocean floor, destroying everything in its path. No effort is made by the fishermen to collect the vispluis after fishing like this. Needless to say: this bulldoser fishing method is really bad for marine ecosystems and needs to stop! In fact Belguim has already banned some types of dolly rope, so actions to combat this can be taken, if there is willpower.
CANCER STICKS (CIGARETTE BUTTS)
A single one of these things can pollute up to 8 liters of drinking water! It's no secret that cigarette butts are very bad if left in the environment - so how bad can it be if I drop them on the street in the city? Well, at least old towns have lots of brick roads, partly to preserve the historic aesthetic, but also for flood prevention. The water during rain storms will find its way in between the cracks and into the soil beneath, versus flooding the street, like on asphalt. Now, the issue is that when dropping cigarettes on a brick road and wind comes, it gets forced into those same cracks. Meaning that when it rains, all the water comes in contact with the cigarettes resulting in the pollution of ground water. And in Zeeland at least, fresh ground water is a bit more rare than you might anticipate… this is because we live in a delta, and below the fresh water is salt water. Zeeland is in the predicament of having lots of agriculture here that relies on fresh ground water, while at the same time not having a local source, despite living in the delta of a river!
MERMAID TEARS (NERDLES)
Nerdles are the last bit of plastic in manufacturing tubes… bow down on Nollestrand, the beach behind Panta Rhei and start counting - that is Vlissingens hotspot for nerdles! One of the sources of these nerdles, at least in our area of the Scheldt is the production plant of DOW Chemicals upstream from us in Terneuzen. However, it does seem like DOW wants to actually tackle this issue, and as DOW is a "family member" of the Covenant Clean Scheldt, we want to trust that these efforts continue.
