Their temperature, chemistry, currents and organisms - are the drivers of global systems that make the Earth habitable for humans. Our rainwater, our drinking water, the weather, the climate, the coasts, much of our food and even the oxygen in the air we breathe are all ultimately regulated by the ocean^.1

For this reason, the UN General Assembly declared June 8 as World Oceans Day in 2008. The concept of World Ocean Day was first proposed at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro to raise awareness of the vital role the ocean plays in our lives and how people can help protect it^.2 On this year's World Ocean Day, we should all rethink our lifestyles and change our own behavior for the benefit of our environment, the oceans and our livelihoods. After all, the oceans are one of the most important ecosystems on our planet.

Every schoolchild knows that trees use photosynthesis to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, among other things. But what many people don't know is that plants in the sea also carry out photosynthesis. Microscopic algae and even bacteria, even in fresh water, produce oxygen. As 70% of the earth is covered by water, about as much oxygen is produced here as by all the forests on earth combined^.3

The oceans thus serve as the lungs of our planet.

They also store 50 times more carbon dioxide than our atmosphere and absorb around 25 % of the CO2 emissions caused by human activities each year. They form an important part of the biosphere and make a significant contribution to climate regulation^.4

Over the last 40 years, the oceans have stored more than 90 percent of the heat caused by human greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, the oceans are becoming increasingly acidic and warmer^.5

The supply of oxygen to the earth from the sea is therefore endangered by global warming: warmer surface water absorbs less oxygen than colder water and it also increases the stratification of the ocean. This can affect the absorption of heat and carbon dioxide by the oceans and also influence the formation of natural disasters and their intensity^.6

The sea is full of garbage. And that is down to us humans. Plastic is a particularly big problem: it is estimated that 60 to 80 percent of the waste in the world's oceans consists of plastic^.7

Plastic that ends up in the oceans contributes to the destruction of habitats and the death of marine animals because they mistake plastic for food and die with full stomachs or become entangled and strangled in it. In total, at least 2249 different marine species are affected worldwide. Many of these species are also on the Red List of Threatened Species due to littering^.8

However, biodiversity is crucial for maintaining a healthy marine ecosystem.

Marine pollution often originates on land. Regions far from the coast can also be partly responsible for marine pollution. On the one hand, through the rivers that connect the inland with the oceans, and on the other hand, litter discarded on land and plastic (ocean bound plastic) can easily enter the sea through wind and tides^.9

It is difficult to break patterns and seems almost impossible to completely avoid plastic in everyday life. But by making small changes to our daily routines, we can all have a big impact in the long term and protect our oceans. And there are opportunities:

Using less plastic has always been and will continue to be one of the most important measures we can take to make our daily lives more environmentally friendly.

At the market, in farm stores, farmers' stores, specialist stores, organic supermarkets or "unpackaged" stores, it is possible to save on packaging by having all products packed in your own cloth bag or the container you have brought with you. For example, you can buy fruit and vegetables loose or drink water and milk from glass bottles.

Try to avoid using disposable crockery or cutlery that ends up in the bin after just a few minutes of use. A little more washing up after a picnic or party is good for both the environment and your wallet.

Or see which products packaged in plastic you can replace with loose products in your bathroom. Many cosmetics and shower products also contain microplastics. Behind names such as polyethylene (PE) or polyquaternium (PQ), most people overlook what is hidden in their shampoo. And these liquid synthetic polymers are not only bad for us, they are also difficult to break down in the environment. Shampoo and soap can be bought in solid form at any drugstore. So you can save on plastic without having to do without products.

Becoming aware of your own consumption and looking for ways to avoid plastic is a first step towards sustainability. It is often the small things that you can change without having to sacrifice quality of life. The sum of these small steps then has a big effect. Where do I buy things? How are they packaged? How can I avoid this? What are the alternatives?

The average service life of a to-go cup is 15 minutes. However, the plastic coating used takes centuries to break down into smaller and smaller pieces. What remains are tiny particles less than five millimeters in size. These microplastic particles spread everywhere^.10 To counteract this, perhaps bring your own cup to your next visit to the café, or ask for a reusable one. In many cafés, this effort is even rewarded and the coffee in your own cup costs less.

An incredible amount of water is needed to produce textiles. It is estimated that 2700 liters of fresh water are needed to produce a single cotton T-shirt, which is as much as one person drinks in 2.5 years. The dyeing of textiles during their production actually causes around 20 percent of global water pollution^.11

So before you buy something new, you should ask yourself - do I really need this item? Questioning yourself and your purchasing decisions can help you to change your behavior patterns and consume more consciously without compromising your quality of life.

The same applies to behavior after purchasing decisions and consumption. Disposable tableware and aluminum cans often end up in the environment after outdoor events because they are carelessly thrown away by visitors. Whether you are doing water sports, going on a boat trip or visiting the beach with friends, please clean up when you leave the beach and don't leave litter lying around. Small objects in particular, such as bottle caps or drinks can rings, are often overlooked, but can have deadly consequences for marine life. Smoking a cigarette on the beach and not throwing the butt in the garbage cans provided may seem like a trivial matter, but it takes several years for nature to decompose.

The list of pressures threatening the largest interconnected ecosystem, the ocean, is immensely long. These include overfishing and unwanted bycatch. Over 300 marine areas have already been declared dead in the last 30 years^.12

The reasons for the decline of many species lie in decades of misguided fishing policies, including those of the European Union: there are too many fishing vessels, fishing quotas are too high and far too many fish die as unused bycatch. For example, stocks of large fish such as tuna, shark and cod have already been reduced by 90 percent as a result of industrial fishing. In addition, current fishing techniques are causing too much damage to marine ecosystems. Without restrictions and protective measures, the weight of plastic waste could exceed that of fish in the sea by 2050^.13

For a long time, fish was regarded as a food that is irreplaceable for the omega-3 fatty acid balance. The media now regularly warn against eating fish. Due to the increasing pollution of the oceans, heavy metals and microplastic particles accumulate in fish meat and end up on our plates. In fish farming, on the other hand, chemical substances and antibiotics are part of the animals' daily "feed"^.14

If you don't want to accept this deplorable state of affairs, you should rather consume omega-3 fatty acids and important proteins via vegetable oils, especially linseed oil and rapeseed oil, or via linseed and walnuts for the good of our oceans.

Germans recently consumed around 5.75 billion plastic bags per year. If each of us did without plastic bags, we could save around 68,000 tons of waste per year in Germany without any of us having to sacrifice our quality of life^.15

Inspired by other pioneers in this field and by the massive plastic problems that we had to see with our own eyes through private travel and working with our Indian manufacturer, we too were inspired to think and wanted to make a change. On the one hand, to put an end to senseless littering and, on the other, to revolutionize the way people think about waste as a valuable and recyclable resource. That's why we developed the Fitz & Huxley OCEAN line, which currently includes backpacks and hip bags made from ocean bound plastic.

Ocean Bound Plastic (OBP) is plastic that is collected from rivers, coastlines and beaches. Plastic waste that is still lying on the banks of rivers or beaches today and can be collected relatively cheaply will be lying on the seabed tomorrow, where it can only be recovered with a great deal of effort and expense. We have therefore made a conscious decision to use OBP as a preventative measure before the plastic reaches the sea.

For this project, we have teamed up with the NGO Plastics for Change, which has been fighting plastic pollution in India for many years. This plastic waste is sorted, cleaned and finally shredded into flakes before being woven into new yarn and then into a robust, durable fabric, which we in turn use to make our bags.

This recycling process not only helps to keep the oceans clean. It also helps to reduce greenhouse gases and protect our climate. Because: one tonne of recycled plastic saves 2 tons of crude oil and up to 1.6 tons of CO2, which would be generated for the production of new plastic^.16

By buying a backpack, you are of course not saving the world, and this is just one of many approaches to protecting our environment. "Don't buy more, buy better" has been our philosophy since the company was founded.

If we stop the littering of the oceans, this will have a number of positive effects on our planet. We protect marine animals that get caught in plastic waste, for example, or ingest plastic as supposed food, which they then cannot digest and die with a "full stomach". But we are also protecting us humans - because we ingest microplastics from the oceans via the food chain.

Let's start making conscious consumer choices together today, reduce plastic, recycle plastic and put an end to overfishing our oceans. Only then can we protect this ecosystem, which is so important for our planet and the climate, together ...