Island of Plastic

1. NarratorOn Saturday morning, Ava and Kofi joined a beach clean on the north coast. A cold wind blew off the sea, and the sand was covered in tiny pieces of plastic.
2. Dr MensahWelcome, everybody. I am Dr Mensah. Today we will collect everything we find, then sort it into buckets, so we can learn where it came from.
3. NarratorAva and Kofi put on gloves and began to walk along the line of seaweed. Within minutes, Ava held up a handful of colourful fragments.
4. AvaThere are hundreds of these, and they are so small. What are they?
5. Dr MensahThose are microplastics. They form when big pieces of plastic are broken up by the sun and sea. Many fish and birds mistake them for food.
6. KofiBut how did they get here? There is no town on this beach.
7. Dr MensahGood question. That is what we are here to find out.
8. NarratorBy noon, their buckets were full: bottle tops, fishing nets, straws, an old shoe, and hundreds of small pieces. Dr Mensah laid everything out on a blue sheet.
9. Dr MensahLook at the labels. Some are in Spanish, some in Norwegian, and some in English. These things travelled across the ocean.
10. AvaSo the rubbish from other countries comes to our beach?
11. Dr MensahAnd ours goes to theirs. The sea carries plastic in huge circles called gyres. Some rubbish floats for years.
12. KofiThat is scary. What can one beach clean do?
13. Dr MensahIt cannot stop the problem alone. But every piece we pick up cannot harm a bird. And we record what we find, so scientists can show governments the evidence.
14. NarratorAva picked up a bottle cap with a picture of a turtle on it. She turned it over in her hand.
15. AvaIt is strange. Something so small, made to be used for a minute, will last for hundreds of years.
16. Dr MensahThat is the real problem. We make things to throw away, from materials that never go away.
17. KofiSo the answer is not just cleaning, but making less?
18. Dr MensahExactly. The best plastic is the plastic that is never made. Reuse, refill and refuse single-use items. And ask shops and companies to change.
19. AvaWhat can children do? We are not in charge of the shops.
20. Dr MensahYou are in charge of more than you think. You decide what you ask for, what you carry and what you tell your families. Many big changes started with a few people who would not stop asking.
21. KofiLike a petition?
22. Dr MensahExactly like a petition, or a letter to the council. Scientists need voices as well as data.
23. NarratorIn the afternoon, the group counted everything. In three hours, they had collected forty kilograms of rubbish from a stretch of beach no longer than a football pitch.
24. NarratorAt the end, Dr Mensah asked each volunteer to make a promise. Ava said she would bring a refill bottle to school every day. Kofi said he would ask the school canteen to stop using plastic cutlery.
25. Dr MensahTwo promises are worth two hundred pieces of litter. Well done, both of you.
26. NarratorAs they walked back to the bus, Ava and Kofi looked at the clean beach. The wind was still cold, but the sand looked golden again.
27. KofiWill it stay clean?
28. AvaOnly if we keep going. But it is a start.

Voices: when recorded voices are on this page they play; if not, your own device reads the words aloud in a British voice if it has one. Slow mode plays at 85 per cent speed.