Ear sticks and littered oceans

For the seventh time, the city of Zittau and the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences jointly organized Environment Day. This year’s theme was “Plastic Everywhere.” On Wednesday, November 8, environmentalists and scientists addressed the issue of plastic waste polluting the oceans and discussed recycling concepts that offer hope. Girls and boys from Zittau’s climate schools—Christian-Weise-Gymnasium and Weinau-Oberschule—created an exhibition for “Environment Day.”

What does a supermarket shopping bag have to do with a strangled seal in the Indian Ocean? Nothing, of course, you might think? That’s what many thought. During the 8 a.m. lecture by Dr. Gernot Kayser from the International University Institute Zittau (IHI), the tenth-graders from Zittau’s climate schools briefly look up from their cell phones when the baby seal with sad, wide eyes appears on the screen. The lecture hall falls silent; the seal has become entangled in a fishing net and a pile of plastic bags. And strictly speaking, it’s our fault.

Plastic has been produced for over 60 years. When we throw away packaging, it’s gone—at least out of sight. But plastic is extremely durable; what was produced 60 years ago is still around today, hasn’t decomposed, and is most likely floating in the ocean—along with about two million cigarette butts, beer coasters, and plastic cutlery from McDonald’s.

A few people in the audience at the lecture “Macro- and Microplastics in the Ocean” put their plastic bottles back in their bags. We don’t live by the ocean; we don’t see the floating islands of plastic, nor do we see strangled seals. But a quarter of the fish sold in markets in the U.S. and Indonesia contain detectable plastic particles. We don’t know if the fish in the frozen food aisle might be from Indonesia. And that’s just one consequence of our way of life.

After the presentation by IHI Zittau, we went on a field trip to the wastewater treatment plant. In addition to the interested participants of the Environment Day, about 40 children from the Weinau School joined us. The fourth-graders asked the questions the adults didn’t dare to ask: “When can you drink water that stinks so bad?” The SOWAG employees who guided the group through the facility saw a lot of little hands shooting up in response to all their questions.

“Who knows what’s actually in the wastewater?”

“Ear swabs!” “Poop!” “And a little bit of vomit!”

Wastewater treatment is a mandatory municipal responsibility and serves primarily to protect public health. The wastewater flows through the sewer system to the treatment plants. These plants represent the lowest point; all the water flows there. It is then repeatedly purified through a complex process involving many treatment tanks and ultimately discharged back into the Neisse River. However, no drinking water is produced here. At the facility on Chopinstraße in Zittau, only wastewater is treated.

By the way, food waste—such as spoiled pumpkin soup—does not belong in the toilet but rather on the compost pile or in the organic waste bin; otherwise, it attracts rats and causes them to multiply more quickly.

Environment Day, which is entirely dedicated to the topic of plastic, is not meant to be a day of accusation. Not only that. The goal is to raise awareness, inform people, and, above all, present alternatives that offer hope. Major companies like Adidas are leading the way with running shoes made from ocean waste. Zittau is following suit: the environmental advocacy group Greenpeace Dresden wants to start a chapter in Zittau. On December 1, anyone interested can meet at 6 p.m. at Cafe Jolesch, Klienebergerplatz 1 in Zittau.

At Building Z IV, participants were able to recycle plastic with the Dresden-based organization konglomerat e.V. Anyone interested is welcome to join the Kunststoffschmiede at the Rosenwerk in Dresden at any time.

To set the mood for the screening of the film “A Plastic Ocean” at the Kronenkino, there was a community meal (Vokü) featuring vegan burgers in the foyer, along with stimulating conversations about World Environment Day.

The film addressed the die-off of coral reefs caused by humans, our treatment of nature, and the massive amounts of plastic already floating in the oceans—plastic that will likely never be completely removed. Plasticizers leach out of the plastic. Sunlight, seawater, and the passage of time cause the plastic to break down into its constituent parts, turning it into microplastics that are even harder to manage because they’re barely visible.

After the credits roll, there’s only one feeling: helplessness. A discussion unfolds from the stage to the audience. If everything is hopeless anyway, and all that plastic can never be removed from the oceans, what can we actually change? Until project staff member Eric Schön from the Faculty of Natural and Environmental Sciences —and co-initiator of Environment Day—takes the floor and reassures the crowd. He expresses his gratitude for the day and the stimulating discussions. And emphasizes that this is just the very beginning.

In Germany, 40,000 metric tons of waste are generated each year from takeout coffee cups. That’s equivalent to the weight of 33,000 Volkswagens. It would already be a big step forward to fill our delicious mountain spring water into glass bottles and pour coffee into reusable coffee cups.