One year ago, participants of the “Onda Sustentável” (Sustainable Wave) project created a video with the public school students of Ubatuba in São Paulo, Brazil to raise awareness about the immense problem of ocean littering.
The “Onda Sustentáve” (Sustainable Wave) project is an environmental education project designed by Marina Kauai's Blue Flag Management Committee, together with Ilha Anchieta State Park Board, Coco e Cia Co-op, the Litoral Norte Marine Protected Area and the Commercial Association of Ubatuba, and was carried out as part of the Environmental Education activities required for marinas by the Blue Flag programme. Marina Kauai has been a Blue Flag marina since 2017 and is located in the city of Ubatuba in São Paulo, Brazil.
The main goal of the “Onda Sustentável” project is to raise environmental awareness in order to preserve the local biota and provide a connection between the local community, the natural environment and protected areas.
For this purpose, the kids of the Ubatuba public school have been learning about ocean littering topics in a playful and investigative way, including how to avoid buying material that can cause damage to the environment and the environmental effects of humans throwing trash on the street or in the sea.
The video that has been created as part of the project, therefore, addresses themes of “marine debris”, "waste disposal" and "conscious consumption" from the viewpoint of the public school students of Ubatuba. The idea was that the video would become a manifesto made by children, leaving them free to express their perceptions and desires based on what they have experienced and learned.
“In 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the sea!”, “Did you know that when we throw cotton buds in the toilet, it can go to the sewage, from there to the rivers, and then to the sea?” and “If someone litters the beach sand, when the tide rises, this litter can navigate to the sea and to other beaches”, are some of the issues that the kids discuss in the video.
Finally, the children state their personal strong opinions about this urgent issue, while emphasizing that everyone can rethink their own habits. In addition, they express their wishes for the future: a clean ocean for people to swim in, and clean beaches for them to play on!
Thanks to the the voluntary work of André and Isabela Kerber, this video has now been equipped with subtitles, enabling it to be distributed globally.