Plastic does not stay on the beach. Here are seven things you can do today, plus the gear and habits our team uses when a cleanup dive turns into a lionfish hunt.
Plastic Pollution Solutions: 7 Things You Can Do Today
Plastic does not stay where you left it. A bag from a parking lot, a bottle from a boat, a wad of monofilament from a pier can all end up on the same ledge as a lionfish. On cleanup dives with Friends of Our Florida Reefs and DX Divers, the ZooKeeper team has pulled fishing line, hooks, banding, cans, plastic bags, wrappers, and even a plastic princess handbag off the Ant Beds reef. Finding debris was not the hard part. Fishing line is almost everywhere you look.
Everyone can do something about that. Millions of people already are. These seven steps are the practical ones. A few of them do not require a tank.
- Cut single-use plastic before it becomes reef trash
The easiest win is the plastic you never buy. Bags, water bottles, straws, cups, utensils, takeout containers, and dry-cleaning sleeves are used once and then become someone else’s problem. Refuse what you do not need. Carry the reusable version of what you do.
Start with a ZooKeeper Reusable Bag. It is water-resistant, washable, folds flat, and costs $4.95. One bag in the car beats a handful of store bags that end up in a canal. Pair it with a refillable bottle and a coffee cup you actually like, so you are not negotiating with yourself at the counter.
When a shop still hands you plastic by default, say what you want instead. Businesses change faster when customers ask out loud.
- Back rules that cut plastic at the source
Personal habits matter. They are not enough. Plastic production and weak waste rules still dump more into the system than divers can pull out.
Support local bag and foam bans, extended producer responsibility bills that make producers responsible for packaging at end of life, and national efforts such as the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act. Internationally, groups are still pushing the United Nations for a global plastics treaty with real limits, not voluntary pledges. Plastic Pollution Coalition’s policy toolkit is a solid map of what has already worked on bags, foodware, and microplastics.
If you only have ten minutes, email your city or county commission about pier and beach rules. A lot of the line we cut off coral started as a lost rig, not a factory spill.
- Recycle the plastic you still use, and know what your city actually takes
Recycling is not a free pass, and it is not fake either. Widely cited figures still put global plastic recycling around 9 percent. The rest is landfilled, burned, or loose. When a bottle or container is truly recyclable where you live, put it in the right bin. Rinse it. Skip the wish-cycling. A greasy clamshell can spoil a whole load.
Earth911’s directory is a useful starting point. Then check your local hauler. South Florida rules are not the same as a beach town two counties away. Film, fishing line, and soft plastic usually do not belong in the curbside cart. Line often has its own bin at piers, tackle shops, and some marinas. Use it.
- Get in the water, or on the sand, and take something out
A cleanup is the most direct thing a diver can do. You can walk a beach with a bucket, join a pier cleanup, or roll off a boat and work a reef edge.
We have done it both ways. On the August 21, 2022 reef cleanup with Friends of Our Florida Reefs and DX Divers aboard the Lady Go, the team logged line, hooks, weights, banding, cans, wrappers, and plastic bags. The write-up is here: 8.21.2022 Reef Cleanup Results. The short version: a mesh bag fights you. Hooks snag. The bag drags. A rigid tube with a screw-off end dumps clean.
That is what the ZooKeeper Lionfish and Marine Debris Containment Unit is built for. Patented, puncture-proof, made in the USA, negative buoyancy, and a slotted funnel so you can load a spear or stuff debris without a hand fight at 40 feet. Sizes run from Mini (about 8 to 10+ lb) to Pro-XL (30+ lb), $109.95 to $234.95. The 250th Special Edition is the same tool in red, white, and blue.
Bring the right opening for the job. The Lobster and Marine Debris Rubber Funnel ($15.95) flexes so you can drop in line, cans, shells, crab, and lobster, then get your hand back out. It is not for lionfish. Spines puncture rubber. Read The Rubber Funnel Is for Lobster. Lionfish Know Better. before you mix the two. Standard ZooKeeper funnel for lionfish. Rubber funnel for everything else on a cleanup day.
Hands-free matters when the site is a mess. A Spear Holder ($39.95) and a Zook Strap ($14.95 to $34.95) keep the tube and the spear on you instead of on the sand.
Want a date on the calendar? Pier and reef cleanups, including DX Divers Deerfield and Pompano pier days, sit on our reef cleanup events page. International Coastal Cleanup and local beach groups are worth joining too if you are not the one holding the boat.
- Stop microbeads and reef-hostile products at the bathroom sink
Microbeads are tiny plastic bits in some scrubs, toothpastes, and body washes. They rinse straight into the sewer and out toward the reef. Check labels for polyethylene and polypropylene. Beat the Microbead keeps a product list.
Divers have a second version of this problem: sunscreen and wash on the boat. Choose reef-friendly formulas, skip the plastic bottle when you can, and do not rinse product straight off the swim step. Our eco-friendly partner shops note includes Scuba Screen, which uses aluminum packaging and reef-conscious formulas, and Nudi Wear leggings made from recycled bottles. Small swaps. Real ones.
- Tell the story with proof, not a lecture
People tune out a speech. They remember a photo of a tube full of line, or a kid who just learned where a plastic bag actually goes.
Share what you pulled. Tag the shop, the pier, the nonprofit. Host a living-room screening of A Plastic Ocean, Bag It, or Addicted to Plastic, then hand someone a reusable bag on the way out. If there are kids in the room, start with our children’s conservation resources: PADI Aware coloring sheets, the “ugly journey of our trash,” and the single-use plastic pledge. If they can’t reuse it, refuse it.
Follow the work on Instagram at @lionfish_zookeeper and see who is actually in the water on the ZooKeeper team page.
- Fund the groups doing the unglamorous part
Beach photos are easy. Permit battles, education, and weekly cleanups are not. Oceanic Society, Plastic Pollution Coalition, 5 Gyres, Algalita, and the Plastic Soup Foundation all work this problem from different angles. Friends of Our Florida Reefs supports the reefs between Miami-Dade and Martin County. REEF runs lionfish education and removal programs we work alongside.
ZooKeeper puts 1% of annual sales toward nonprofits focused on lionfish control and marine conservation. That is laid out in Why Choose the ZooKeeper. Buying the tool and writing the check are both useful. So is showing up.
What we see on the reef, and why the tube beats the bag
Plastic is only part of the load. On a typical South Florida cleanup the bag fills with:
- Monofilament and braid wrapped on coral and sponges
- Hooks, sinkers, and leaders
- Cans, wrappers, and bags
- Banding and the odd toy or purse that rode a storm drain out
Lionfish are often on the same structure. A female can release on the order of two million eggs a year, and they eat the parrotfish and other grazers that keep algae off coral. Pulling fish and pulling trash on the same dive is not a stunt. It is the job. More on the reef side of that equation is in Coral Reef Conservation.
Mesh bags snag hooks and drag in current. Stringers are a sting waiting to happen. The ZooKeeper is a puncture-proof PVC/ABS tube with a one-way slotted funnel, a rear drain, and a screw-off top so you can dump line and lionfish on the boat without a wrestling match. Clear, color, and vinyl-wrapped finishes are in the shop. If you are building a cleanup kit, start with the containment unit, add the rubber debris funnel, and strap it so you cannot leave it on the bench.
A simple week if you want a plan
- Day 1: Put a reusable bag and bottle in the car.
- Day 2: Check what your recycler actually accepts.
- Day 3: Read one label and drop a microbead product.
- Day 4: Email one local official about pier line bins or a bag rule.
- Day 5: Pick a beach, pier, or reef cleanup and put it on the calendar.
- Day 6: Send the cleanup results post to one diver who still uses a mesh bag for trash.
- Day 7: Buy the tool you will actually carry, or donate to a reef group.
The seven ideas above are a start, not a finish line. The point is to do one thing that removes plastic or keeps it from arriving. If you dive, bring a tube that can hold line and lionfish without puncturing. If you do not, carry the bag, refuse the straw, and show up on Saturday with a bucket.
Gear for the cleanup dive
- ZooKeeper Lionfish and Marine Debris Containment Unit
- 250th Special Edition Containment Unit
- Lobster and Marine Debris Rubber Funnel
- Spear Holder
- Zook Strap
- ZooKeeper Reusable Bag
- Predator Sling Pole Spear
Related on the site
