VOA常速英语:吸管运动：收集曼利湾遍布的塑料垃圾

These volunteer divers are snorkel fishing in Manly Cove in Sydney, Australia. But they’re not looking for fish. They’re diving for plastic, all kinds of plastic, but mainly straws. It’s part of a volunteer effort to clean the cove, called Operation Straw. So when we started these projects, we actually just genuinely wanted to count how many straws and other plastic items we’re finding in the ocean. So I was really surprised at how many people wanted to join in, and I think it’s because it’s such a feel-good activity to be able to get in and do something about the problems facing the world. Harriet Spark founded Operation Straw when she came across this octopus in the Cove clutching plastic straws. We actually once found an octopus. So there’s lots of octopus in this Bay. It’s full of beautiful marine life.

And we found an octopus holding plastic straws in its tentacles, and we actually had to pull them out. So that was a bit of a depressing tug-of-war. The group volunteers their Saturdays to dive in the cove and pick up trash. I found 23 today, which is not my record. My record is up in the 60s. But it was a pretty good hit. The effort has inspired 40 local businesses to do their part by ending their use of plastic straws. Hugo’s situated down here on the water, and Operation Straw is in effect, and they’re collecting straws all the time down here. And we know that we’re one of the restaurants not supplying those straws. During Operation Straws initial summer of work in 2018, the team pulled over 2000 straws out of Manly Cove.
To put that in perspective, Australians use 2.9 billion straws a year. Oh, you can see the change this far. Fewer plastic straws there, you know, bait bags, plastic food packaging, everything else, just as bad. But it shows that you can make a difference by implementing change. Every little bit helps.
Kevin Enix VOA News.