For Cleaner Oceans

 

ZM Collections was born in the ocean - in the heart of our mother.

It was conceived in the deep serenity that I can only ever seem to find floating in her underwater, protected from the outside world. 

 

It was collected from the shorelines of the earth and placed into little trinkets so I can keep her with me wherever I go. 

ZM Collections is my art, gifted by the ocean, to the ocean. 

 

And I’ve been panicking... 

...that she and everything she has to offer is disappearing. I fear the day we’ll find nothing but dead fish and bleached corals washing out between our toes.

And by then, it’ll be too late.

I think of her pain, belly full of plastic nets and cocktail straws. I think of her sadness as she watches her womb become inhospitable to the enchanting kingdom of life she once kept safe.  

I feel her anger when she wraps a slimy plastic bag around my ankle as I swim through her currents. The unexpected intrusion of something foreign touching my skin makes my heart jump for a split second, as if I’ve been groped by a stranger in the dark. 

I feel violated.

Until I realize it’s just a plastic bag, placed there by me and my daily habits. 

Your daily habits. 

Our daily habits. 

 

I try to save the ocean, but I can’t do it alone. I walk the shores and collect as much rubbish as I can, but I can’t do it alone. I use reusable shopping bags and try to walk as often as I can, but I really, really, can’t do it alone.

And then I remember: I am not alone.

So many of us carry the same fears and anxieties about our dying earth, we just don't talk about it enough. 

So I created Ocean Glass: a ZM line made to mark the true ocean lovers - the ones who’ve helped preserve her for years, and the ones who are just getting starting today. 

 

Ocean Glass is a necklace recycled out of sea glass collected from the Mediterranean shores of Egypt. 

Sea glass is shards of broken glass dumped in the ocean over decades from broken bottles, tableware or shipwreck.

Over the years, the pieces of glass roll and tumble in the ocean’s saltwater until all of their sharp edges are sanded and rounded off, and their slick glass-like surfaces become frosted.   

I preserved and embraced the sea glass with copper to frame its edges into a pendant you can wear around your neck as a badge of honor for being a sister-caregiver of our oceans. 

 

 

I made this line for those of us who worry about our oceans and the harm we contribute to it. This necklace stands for our awareness and unites us all, to remember we do not work alone, and that each of us is making a difference to save our planet. 

 

Shop Ocean Glass.

But buying necklaces isn’t enough. National Geographic recommends 10 lifestyle changes you can adopt today to save the ocean: 

1. Mind Your Carbon Footprint and Reduce Energy Consumption
2. Make Safe, Sustainable Seafood Choices
3. Use Fewer Plastic Products
4. Help Take Care of the Beach
5. Don't Purchase Items That Exploit Marine Life
6. Be an Ocean-Friendly Pet Owner
7. Support Organizations Working to Protect the Ocean
8. Influence Change in Your Community
9. Travel the Ocean Responsibly
10. Educate Yourself About Oceans and Marine Life

Visit NG’s 10 Things You Can Do to Save the Ocean to learn more about how you can live a life of environmental sustainability to save her, the ocean, our mother.

Your impact is never too little. Start with you, and the rest will follow.

 

The ZM Collections Team.

 

Written by: Peri Elmokadem