Where Does All The Plastic Go? Song and Saving Mother Ocean Book

I’m a singer-songwriter, originally from Wales but now living in Portugal…who was personally motivated to take action about a serious environmental threat that I could see wherever I went. I am talking about an international problem on a depressingly mind-boggling scale.

Plastic pollution is everywhere these days. And nano-plastics are so small they have even been found in us. Plastic is in the oceans, in the air as nano-plastic dust, and even on the highest mountains. Plastic is a threat to life on this planet—and the problem is only getting worse.

I was already applying actions we can all take, like reducing the amount of plastic I was buying and using, recycling plastic [most plastic doesn’t actually get recycled, ever, and it’s a toxic process ~ ed.], reusing plastic, and refusing plastic at shops. But this was not enough for me.

As a songwriter, I could reach far more people and raise awareness about plastic pollution. So it was that I wrote “Where Does All The Plastic Go?” and recorded it in South Wales, with Jayce Lewis as my producer. Getting back to Portugal, a music video was created by Filipe Rafael. The footage contrasts images of me out and about in countryside locations alongside horrific scenes of floating plastic.

I’m a Neil Young fan, and have great respect for how he has kept writing protest songs throughout his lengthy career, and been using his position as a rock star to speak out and campaign actively. I had been hoping Neil would tackle the problem in song but, as far as I could tell, he didn’t. I didn’t hear anyone else singing about the threat of plastic waste either.

So it felt like it was on me to do so.

Since launching the song in 2019 online, and as part of my CD album Songs of the Now and Then, I have been getting lots of media coverage for my musical protest—and I do believe I may be leading the way with songs about plastic pollution. I’ve been in a newspaper feature in Portugal, on podcasts, in magazines, and on the radio in various countries around the world, which I am pleased about because, as I keep saying, plastic pollution is an international problem. Italy, Spain, Wales, England, Ireland, Egypt, America and Australia have given me media coverage. I was in a book from Italy by Filippo Solibello entitled SPAM Stop Plastica A Mare.

The Australian Rotary Club of Wyndham Harbour found me on Instagram and asked if I’d like to be featured in their magazine entitled The Wave. Of course, I accepted the offer and this led to me being invited to Rotary meetings online. I was pleased to find so many people interested in what I had to say and to discover that there are many environmentalists in the world of Rotary. It didn’t take long before I became a member of the Rotary Club of Wyndham Harbour and of ESRAG (Environmental Sustainability Rotary Action Group). Taking action by writing a song has opened doors for me and led me down some unexpected but welcome avenues. Becoming a Rotary Club member was one of them!

It wasn’t only my song that I was promoting—my publisher, Moon Books, gave me the opportunity of writing a book on marine conservation for their Earth Spirit series. In 2021, Earth Spirit: Saving Mother Ocean was published, and I was honoured by having Captain Watson of Sea Shepherd fame as one of the many people who endorsed it. Talking about the many threats to marine life and the health of the oceans, threats like overfishing, acidification, coral bleaching, deep sea mining, nuclear waste, and climate change…I tell the story of my song, and I explain an idea I had that goes with it.

The idea is for a really big marine conservation concert featuring world-famous acts that support Captain Paul. Bryan Adams and Coldplay are two I know of. I have recently learned that Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam do, too. I was a delegate at the World Ocean Summit in Lisbon in March this year and used the opportunity to speak out about my idea. As usual, it was well-received…but I am still looking for the publicity, funding, and sponsors to help make this a reality.

I think Lisbon would be ideal to stage such an event, because the city is already established on the world stage as a city that holds marine conservation events, and also has a good name for rock concerts with Rock in Rio Lisbon being held here. But such a concert could be anywhere in the world, because the health of the ocean affects us all.

That’s why I used the term “Mother Ocean” in the title of my book. Science tells us that primitive life originated in the seas. The Kogi indigenous people from Colombia appear to agree because they believe all life was created by the “Great Mother,” and in the beginning there was only a vast ocean.

Can you help save the seas, and marine life in them? Let’s all do what we can to save our Mother!