Plastic Beach
Sam Stringfield
Plastic. Without plastic we couldn’t exist. It’s what we use to catch food, to make water, to build our houses. Plastic is at the center of our lives, yet we know nothing about it.
Trust me, I’ve asked. None of the Elders can say who makes the plastic or even where it’s coming from. The alchemist seems to believe plastic is something created by beings from above and sent down to Earth for use by human hands. But most people, like Mom and Dad, aren’t particularly curious about it’s existence at all. They just know that all plastic comes from the ocean and all plastic will eventually go back to the ocean.
That’s the mindset I had a couple days ago, too, until I stumbled upon the cache. This cache, it changes everything. Everything I’ve known has been turned upside down in a matter of days.
I found the cache two days ago while on a typical search along the beach. I was looking for some heavy, sturdy material to build with. There’s a lot of plastic on the beach, but the larger pieces can be a bit more difficult to find. Two days ago I was having particularly bad luck and as a result I was forced into searching more remote parts of Plastic Beach.
After most of the day had passed and I was still empty handed I decided to come back tomorrow and see if the tides had washed anything up overnight. On the way back I took an unusual route, I blame my mood, and that’s when I saw it in the distance.
I guess the sun was in just the right position that evening to reflect off the top of the cache and into my eyes. When I got to the spot of the reflection, I was greeted by an unusual metal cylinder sticking halfway out of the sand. I tried tugging it out of the ground but to no avail - only after digging around the sides did I discover the object was cemented in place. There was no moving it.
Of course I was perplexed by this strange object sticking halfway out of the ground. I had never seen anything quite like it before. And to be found in the spot I had stumbled upon, out of the way from anything important, was even more intriguing. Almost like I wasn’t supposed to find it. But I had, and now it was my job to figure out what it was.
Upon closer inspection I noticed a seam running across the diameter of the tube, about halfway down the side. It took me a bit to figure it out, but eventually I was able to unthread the upper half of the cylinder from the lower half. The sun was starting to set at this point and I was anxious to get home, but I was even more excited to see what was inside.
Removing the lid revealed the true prize. There were various objects inside the small cavity including some small figurines and coins, but my attention was immediately drawn to the stack of photographs in the middle. I had seen photos before, but never ones this clear. The ones I had seen were always so blurry and washed out - I could hardly make out even the faces in them. These photographs were as clear and bright as the day they were taken.
The first was a picture of a family sitting on a piece of cloth. A woven basket was nearby and in the middle was a plate filled with food, or at least that’s what I assume. I’ve never seen food in the shapes of the food in that first picture. The family was sitting on a beach similar to the one I see everyday except for one difference - there was no plastic on their beach. I’ve never seen a beach with just sand, like the one they were on.
The next was of the two kids swimming in the water. They’re facing the camera while a bunch of other people splash around in the background. Again, no plastic in sight. And I would never swim off Plastic Beach for fun. If you stay in too long, the water can leave you with rashes and sometimes burns.
The last two were really peculiar to me. One was of the parents each holding a clear cup filled with a reddish liquid. They’re touching the cups together with big grins on their faces. In the middle is a bottle with a paper label still on it. Nothing in the picture looks dirty - they must have brought everything with them instead of scavenging it off the beach. Not even their clothes showed any wear.
In the last photo the whole family is again together, but this time they’re sitting on the bumper of a car. The car looks brand new; I can see the reflection of the sun off its shiny paint job. No rust, no flat tires, no broken windows. Like they were the ones that drove it there. What really threw me off in the last picture was the background. I knew the background. The lighthouse. It was still standing in the photo. The lighthouse I knew had been toppled since anybody could remember. And one other thing that I almost missed. In their background there is only the lighthouse. In mine there’s a series of massive rusted buildings, each with chimneys that touch the clouds.
It was this last photo that made me realize this family had been here. At Plastic Beach. But if that was the case, why did it look so different? They must’ve been here a long time ago, before the rusted buildings were built. Does that mean they were here before the plastic too?
They were here before the plastic. But how was that possible? If the plastic has always been here, like everybody says… Well, that can’t be true. The plastic couldn’t have always been here. No, somebody made it.
Flipping through these photos I can see it now. Everything this family had was new. Everything they had new I had found thousands of washed up on this beach. The bottles, the plastic cups, the clothing, the cars. The plastic hasn’t always been here. These humans, they made it. They’re the ones who threw everything in the ocean.
I showed everybody in town the pictures I found. I tried to tell them what I had figured out - that the plastic came from all the humans before us. I tried to tell them, but they all just asked “why does that matter?” Even Mom and Dad hardly gave my finding a second thought.
So I’ve been asking myself, why does it matter? Why does it matter that the humans created all the plastic? There’s not anything we can do about it now. In fact, we benefit from all the plastic on the beach. Without it, we would have nothing. No homes, no food, no clean water.
Yet I also wonder, what would life be like without all the plastic on the beach? Would we be here? Would we be able to survive without it, or are we barely surviving now? Maybe we would thrive with clean beaches. Just maybe.
These photos have got me thinking, and not just about the plastic. These photos showed me there was a before. A before, when Plastic Beach was just a beach, when rusted buildings weren’t crumbling into the ocean, when people swam for fun. If the humans created the plastic, then they must have created much more.
One thing is for sure: this is just the tip of the iceberg. Maybe with enough time, the rest of the mystery will be uncovered. Maybe with time I’ll learn how it all went so wrong.
Behind the Scenes
I think the inspiration for this story is obvious - Padre Island. This experience was so conflicting for me. On one hand I was on a seemingly endless beach that looked like something straight out of a textbook, but on the other hand it was impossible not to notice the sheer amount of plastic, of all shapes and size, that had piled up on the beach as well. I couldn’t help to think that no matter how many people picked up trash off the beach, there would always be twice as many putting trash back in the ocean. In a way, everybody’s plastic footprint is on this beach and will stay on this beach, forever.
However, that does not mean all hope is lost. I also believe humans and nature alike will learn to adapt to this new landscape. This begs the question, after centuries, or even millennia, what will Padre Island look like? Surely by that point plastic will be as natural a thing to find on the beach as the sand itself.
I like to imagine humans using discarded plastic as a resource, just as we do with wood or ore. To them, the plastic would just be a part of life. And maybe, given enough time, humans would no longer remember how the plastic ever got there in the first place. Yet there will always be a way to uncover the truth. Thanks for visiting Plastic Beach.
Until next time,
Sam
HOUSEKEEPING
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Kes the Photobean
P.S.
Since Week 17, Sam and I have traveled through New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Nevada, hitting all the national parks along the way. That's 8 national parks! Our adventures have only gotten more and more crazy, which makes sharing them that much more exciting.
Buuuuut more excitement also means more work - just to paint a picture, I still need to edit around 50-100 more photos before next week's update. That being said, I'm really excited to share the beauty of the Southwest.
All this is to say thank you for being so patient and supportive with each post.
So, thank you once again and see you next week!
Hmmmm….. one could look at all the plastic washing up on the world’s beaches as a horrible environmental catastrophe - or, one could look at it as human progress. On one hand, the world can choose to conserve nature and live symbiotically. On the other hand, the world can look to the natural world as a means of exploitation towards advancement and progress.
"It's a casio on a plastic beach". That's an interesting premise on using plastic as a resource in the future. I hadn't thought of that. Great story Sam!