In the category of “Humans doing awesome things for our planet,” we have a young woman picking up the trash golfers leave behind.

Link and video

Why this student collected more than 50,000 golf balls out of the ocean

My two cents?

Regular people are fined for littering our highways and our towns, why aren’t golfers fined for littering the world with golf balls?

Not only do golfers leave golf balls behind when playing at clubs, but many golfers never think twice before hitting golf balls from their boats or from beaches directly beside the ocean. They’re never fined for actively polluting the oceans. These golf balls break down into micro-plastics which are ingested by fish and birds.

Since we know golf balls are super cheap, and most golfers don’t mind losing a few, what I’d like to see is every golfer pay a clean-up fee whenever they play golf. It wouldn’t matter to me if they were playing nine holes or eighteen, they need to pay a clean-up fee for the luxury of leaving their trash (golfballs) all over the country and all over the world.

I’d also like to see signs up in golf clubs explaining how many golf balls are lost every year and what golf balls to the environment. The signs wouldn’t have to be incredibly intrusive. They could easily be the size of “save water, reuse towels” signs which are now in many hotels (including classy hotels).

Not only would this help bring awareness to the problem (I’m sure many golfers don’t think about how many golf balls are lost and how this affects the planet), but the fee would also pay for someone to spend each day cleaning up the mess these golfers leave behind.

Bottom line, hobbies, and sports are fun for kids and adults, but we need to understand we must clean up after ourselves and leave the world a little better than how we found it.

 

Until next time… Be safe, be kind, and take time to love one another.

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