On any given day collecting a large bag of plastic from off Bermuda’s beaches is easily done.Plastic has been one of the leading sources of pollution on our beaches and the North Atlantic Garbage Patch, in which Bermuda is situated within, has recently become a spotlight for scientists and environmentalists keen to raise awareness to this increasing problem of plastic.Several organisations have come together to bring awareness to the community of reducing waste and using less plastic. .Earlier this year the Bermuda Arts Centre at Dockyard encouraged artists to create art out of the trash collected from the beach. The outcome was some colourful and imaginative artwork that caused quite a stir, especially with many of the students who visited the Arts Centre during the exhibit.It was on one particularly advantageous day that Vanese Flood Gordon, Waste Management’s education officer, gave an impromptu presentation to students from Jan Shaw’s Year 5 class from Saltus Grammar School and students from West End Primary, whom she had just taken to Black Bay to do a beach clean up.“It’s great doing the beach clean up but it’s what’s in the ocean that we are concerned with. Some of the items that we’ve found have had teeth marks in them from fish that are eating these things. The plastic also breaks down into very small pieces and that’s out in the ocean,” explains Mrs Flood Gordon.Mrs Flood Gordon is part of an alliance called the Marine Debris Taskforce that brings together all the resources of environmental charities, such as Keep Bermuda Beautiful and Greenrock, to create awareness and change people’s practices about their use of plastic.During last month’s Annual Exhibition, the Perils of Plastic art exhibit was put on show. The exhibit also featured a large display of plastic that had been pulled off our beaches. The stark reality of the situation should be enough to encourage people to start living as plastic-free a life as possible.“We’re starting by asking people to get reusable plastic bottles and reusable bags but actually use them,” says Mrs Flood Gordon.“We don’t want people to walk away in despair,” she adds, “but we’d like to get the kids to write letters to plastic manufacturers showing them pictures of our beaches littered with plastic and encourage them to use less packaging. Manufacturers might not see this in Michigan but you can see how it is an issue in Bermuda.”For the students, the idea that this colourful plastic and debris is polluting our ocean was devastating.“I decided to show them (the students) some video clips that depicted the Pacific Ocean, and our own Atlantic Garbage Patch,” explains Mary Tatem, the literary coordinator at West End Primary. “I came across a fairly recent study being conducted off of the Island. This excellent video sparked much discussion, major concerns, some problem solving and even tears, when our students watched it. It also brought about writing of all sorts persuasive, personal narrative and poetry.“The class decided they wanted to go to a beach to pick up plastic trash, and to determine how much of a concern plastics in our ocean might be.”West End Primary recently adopted Black Bay Beach and the students set up a meeting with Mrs Flood Gordon to do a beach clean up and learn more about the affect plastic has had on the ocean. Along with written pieces, (see below for two student essays), the children also decided to create their own plastic art in response to the pieces they had seen displayed during their visit to the Art Centre.“We are doing our part to spread the word of the importance of reducing, reusing and recycling plastic waste in order to maintain cleaner beaches, and help in doing away with the breakdown of plastics in our ocean,” says Ms Tatem.Mrs Shaw’s Primary 5 class was tasked with collecting plastic off the beach to also create a piece of artwork inspired by the idea of the Perils of Plastic exhibit. The students decided to create “Fisherman and Fish of the Future”.“The children are interested in doing anything arty and so they created it for the show and it was put on display,” says Mrs Shaw. “When we went to see it in situ Vanese happened to be there and did a little talk.”The class had been interested in the issue of plastic in the ocean since a presentation was done by the 5 Gyres group during a recent assembly at the school.“We’ve been interested in reducing trash in the school and anything to do with trash and how to reduce it is great to do something fun like this to connect it to.”Students found all manner of plastic items during their beach visits, including Connor Somerville, nine, who found 14 flip flops all for left feet. “I couldn’t find any for the right!”He adds, “I didn’t even have to go down to the beach before I saw all this plastic.”Michael Bucaro, nine, says his trip to Horseshoe Bay made him sad for his future as a fan of climbing trees.“I found a toilet cleaner bottle, a coke bottle and this thing that no one knew what it was and a toothbrush. There were a lot of toothbrushes. It makes me think that there will be too much plastic soon. Plastic bags blow up and I like to climb and if there’s a whole lot of plastic bags blowing around it’s not so easy to climb. Plastics get stuck in the water and something that eats jellyfish like turtles don’t like plastic bags because they will eat it and they might die.”Jaylen Simons and her sister Rianna, both nine, recently convinced their mom to stop buying plastic cups while helping to create the classes’ masterpiece.“Cleaning up the beach helps the fish but also shows how much we’re using and how we throw things away,” says Rianna.Jaylen, who recently joined the school’s eco-club, adds: “It really made us think about what things are made of. So much is plastic and I want to stop this plastic!”Student Connor Phillips, nine, made his trek to Spittal Pond to find pieces to create the classes fisherman.“I went down to Spittal Pond with my dad as he knew that it had not been cleaned since Hurricane Igor,” explains Connor. “I picked up trash and looked for colourful plastic. A lot of people think that plastic will go away but it doesn’t ever go away. If we’re not careful we will have a world filled with plastic. When we eat fish we are basically eating our own plastic.”