Plastic Bags and Bottles

Working in the dive industry, you cant fail to be aware of what a huge problem plastic is to the environment and the oceans we depend on.

We do what we can at our dive centre. We offer free water refills to limit the amount of plastic bottles created. We make sure our favourite take-away spots have re-usable containers for our food, we have spares in the dive centre for customers to use too. And we tell our divers what we do and why we do it too. In shirt - we do what we can....its a small island which makes it easier to see the waste created.

Im horrified on a daily basis however when I go shopping (with my re-usuable bags) at the seemingly reckless use of plastic bags.... and it occured to me that people on holiday have as much responsibility as the locals to minimise their impact. While many Eurpean cities are banning free plastic bag use it can be easy to forget when on holiday.

I wrote the following article to remind travellers how easy it is to reduce their impact.

Please take a moment to have a read and consider what you do when you are on holiday too or pass it on to the holiday makers visiting your dive centre....every bag refused is a victory!

Master Divers | Koh Tao| Drastic Plastic!

What your club is doing sounds great, a real contribution to the enviroment that your club dives in. I am also a big fan of recycling my materials. I think what you have written should be a reminder and an inspiration to other dive clubs all over the world

I remember when I was diving Koh Tao and other sites in Thailand that all my water came in plastic bottles, but there was no place I found to refill them at the time (2001). I applaud your efforts. It was a bit sad to see piles of discarded plastic bottles in open pits. Not sure if they were just covered over or collected and recycled back then.

A lot of supermarkets around me are offering 2 cents for every plastic bag that is reused. Its catching on slowly but surely.
Most people just don't know any better.