Currently, people already ingest some imperceptible plastic components when we eat fish, due to the great pollution on the coasts, with waste of various kinds, and especially the one that is a paradox: the indiscriminate discarding of the same fishing lines.

I learned this the hard way and live the previous weekend, when I attended the second “fishing” of the Cabos collective, a group of volunteers, dreamers and creatives who leave the comfort of their offices or their classrooms, to embark on the difficult task of raising awareness among fishing crews, who were born and adults in absolute ecological indifference, and those who, through a competition with various economic prizes, manage to return to the sea to pick up what their colleagues or probably they themselves have launched, when the net or nylon rope no longer served them.

So suddenly I saw real plastic snakes, gigantic and very tangled, springing out of the sand, in the ports of the peninsula such as Santa Rosa and Anconcito., that some large ship was thrown into the sea, the currents pushed it towards the shores and buried them to the detriment of humanity. I saw countless tires salvaged from the seabed, as well as metal materials and various species retrieved thanks to the work of a group of volunteer divers, and that same Sunday morning, in which some animals trapped in plastic even untangled themselves. And in the midst of the search for “loose ends”, of which there must not be one left, as the Cabos slogan says, the amount of garbage that the sea returns from the irresponsible attitude of those who believe that the ocean is a huge dumping ground.

Do we use resources like plastic with the awareness and moderation required because it is difficult to biodegrade?

“What kind of planet are we leaving to our children?” asked one of the promoters of this new catch of plastic waste, which, in the context of existing pollution, is, unfortunately, only a symbolic result that reached the scale, at the end of the day, at 9.2 tons, from many of which are expected to be recycled for other uses. Yes, I agree with the thinking: What planet are we leaving, as the consumption generation that we are? Do we use resources like plastic with the awareness and moderation required because it is difficult to biodegrade? Do we separate the packaging that we use now into a pile, 90% plastic, so that we can recycle it?

I greatly respect individual rights and freedoms, but I protest when this individuality and freedom affect my right and desire to live in a less polluted world, perhaps less pretentious, but more authentic. Humanity becoming responsible for itself, once and for all.

Applause to the Cabos collective, its members and those who support it in various ways. Maybe there are those who see them as “loquitos” who go around collecting the nylon discarded by fishing on the beaches of Ecuador, while many “experts” continue to throw it away, at the same time. But those environmental volunteers will undoubtedly sleep better than many irresponsible consumers. (OR)