This past week I was invited to an expedition in Katmai National Park to clean up marine debris with @oceanplasticsrecovery thanks to @maxromey @trailboundsketches 🌊 I began my scientific career studying microplastic impacts on fishes and at times, thought that this work isn't that big of a deal. There are bigger problems than plastic pollution. In many ways this may be true, but when I think about the plastic problem, I think about the inherent connection to the continuation of fossil fuels and how our easing off of fossil fuels into the future for more renewable energies has pushed the oil and gas industry to produce more virgin plastics to make up the deficit in profits. Getting the opportunity to be a part of cleaning up the remote beaches of Katmai really put into perspective the impacts of our poorly managed waste streams in far away places. Plastics have brought us many innovations, but they've also come with inherent problems and unknowns. We didn't and continue not to develop appropriate ways to reuse these materials once first produced. Then, I think about communities and developing countries that want to develop economically at the pace of countries like the US, but with the inherent cost of continuing along our path of plastic use and environmental degradation, with limited-to-no means of repurposing materials. Yet, while the scope of the problem seems so huge and cleaning up these beaches is only a short-term solution, this expedition was also a huge opportunity for learning about upcoming solutions. With organizations like @stina_inc who are part of the research on recycling and waste streams, trinamiX creating portable spectrometers to identify plastic types on-site in an affordable way for small recyclers and communities, and upcoming polymer scientists wanting to find alternative pathways for reusing plastics and ultimately create a market for marine debris, I can see hope for the plastic problem! However, it is going to take all of us to push for policy change in the US to be on the side of new recycling technologies and ending fossil fuel subsidies to make solutions happen. Visit @oceanplasticsrecovery recovery to learn more