Reducing Plastic in the Ocean: Taylor’s Sugar Scrub Workshop x Nature Club Event

By Nurin Razmyn

Early this month, Taylor's Nature Club held a sugar scrub workshop in hopes to spread awareness on the ever-growing microplastic wastes that are being thrown into our oceans.

The event’s main attraction taught the viewers how to make their very own sugar scrub from scratch.

The scrub’s main ingredients were:

- Brown sugar 1 cup

- 1/4 cups of coconut oil

- Honey

- Vanilla essence

- Essential oil (optional)

Mariyam, and viewers in the midst of making their sugar scrubs.

But why make sugar scrubs? Well, according to their main speaker, Mariyam, sugar scrubs are not only cheaper, but also super eco-friendly.

You also decide what you want to put in, and how much of each ingredient goes into your sugar scrub.

Most store-bought sugar scrubs, although may seem eco-friendly, contain heavy amounts of microplastics.

Micro plastics are fragments of plastic that are less than 5 mm in length. These fragments are good for cleaning out our pores, but they’re horrible for the oceans!

These plastics can easily be devoured by tiny animals and fishes, who will easily mistake these plastic fragments for food.

This sugar scrub also reduces waste as you are using ingredients from your very own kitchen, as well as storing it in any old container you may have lying around.

After the event, guest speaker, Dr. Kesaven Bhubalanthe,Head of Marine Science at the Faculty of Science and Marine Environment in Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT), gave some interesting insight into the consequences of using products that contain microplastics.

Dr. Kesaven specialises in marine bacteria and has designed and performed experiments on bacteria-derived polyhydroxyalkanoate (bioplastic) and rhamnolipid (biosurfactant).

His most recent study follows the effects of bioplastics as micro plastics and how they have a major impact on our marine organisms!

Dr. Kesaven Bhubalan begins his talk about microplastic pollution.

With Mariyam’s helpful guidance on making your sugar scrub in the comfort of your own home (with little to no prep required) combined with the power of making the environment a little bit better off than it is, subscribing to this option seems like a no-brainer for sure!