An Insta-famous couple who share impressive travelling snaps shed light on plastic pollution after they went to the same beach a year later and found it littered with rubbish.
Marie Fe and Jake Snow usually fill their page with stunning, scenic photos of their adventures around the world, but when they returned to Indonesia’s famous Pink Beach in the Komodo National Park for the second time, they knew they had to share a less attractive scene.
The couple had visited the beach in 2018, where they snapped an impressive, bird’s-eye view photo of themselves lying in the pristine sand by the clear ocean.
However, when they returned recently to the very same spot, they were met with a different landscape. The beach was covered in trash believed to have washed up from neighbouring islands.
They shared an eye-opening ‘before and after’ style picture on Instagram, noting it had changed from a ‘pink beach’ to a ‘plastic beach’.
The caption read:
It’s #EARTHDAY today and this is the reality of the horrible situation we find ourselves in ! Even the most secluded and untouched beauties of the world like this Pink Beach in the Komodo Islands are being drowned in plastic!
We never imagined that upon return to our favourite beach in the world we would find such a disturbing scene! It really broke our hearts to see the amount of rubbish that had washed up on this once beautiful beach.
Click right to see the devastating transformation:
Marie and Jake pointed out that changes need to be made before plastic-covered places become the norm. Although moves are being made to reduce single-use plastic, it is a dire and urgent problem, and the process needs to happen fast.
The couple also encouraged other Instagram users to share pictures of any trash-covered landscapes they should come across, rather than photoshopping them to make them appear pristine.
They wrote:
If we don’t act now, this will become a normality! Our beaches our oceans and our world will be covered in plastic.
Photoshopping the rubbish out wont fix the problem, showing the reality of what’s going on, will! Let’s call this what it is, a #plasticparadise !! How many beautiful places do you know that have become a plastic paradise?
The caption continued:
We want to start using the hashtag #plasticparadise to start shining a spotlight onto places we notice that have a real plastic problem!
We hope that this honesty and exposure will bring about pressure that will lead to clean ups and change!
It’s devastating to see such beautiful places ruined by rubbish, and it’s a telling example of how the whole world is suffering.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.