Day 138 - August 11, 2010

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica, CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

1.2 pounds

561 total

COMMUNITY COLLECTION COUNT

Day 42

Mark Armen of Gulpable & The Bait Tank, Robey Clark - Graphic Designer

4 pounds

334.8 pounds total

True - this syringe doesn't have a needle, and it probably never did. It is called an Irrigator, however when I find used medical equipment on the beach I feel disturbed...
Two things about this photograph get my attention.

1. The footprints and their proximity to the plastic cup...

2. The proximity of the plastic cup to the water...

Hmm....I know this was probably left by a fisherman surfcasting from the beach, but I find it funny that there is a plastic top left behind labeled, "NOT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION."

Mark and Robey at the end of our 20 minutes. Together we got 5.2 pounds off the beach.

Mark is on a mission to get cigarette butts out of the ocean and save fish. Check out his project that Roby helped design called, "The Bait Tank."

Interesting, well disturbing, facts about cigarette butts: (from Mark's site for The Bait Tank)

In 2009, Professor Richard Gersberg of San Diego State University found that the toxins in littered cigarette butts leach out and have the potential to kill fish. The chemicals from just one filtered cigarette butt had the ability to kill half the fish living in a 1-liter container of water (source: www.cigwaste.org).

Cigarette litter is also the leading contributor (by number of items) to plastic pollution in communities, waterways, and oceans. Cigarette butts are NOT biodegradable; rather made of cellulose acetate, a type of plastic that never fully decomposes.

I know I harp on single use plastic water bottles a lot. Hey, I find a lot of them. Quiz: Can you spot the "greenwashing" on Dasani's label?

Fact - recycling centers will not take plastics made from mixed sources. SO for example if a bottle is made from plant based polymers, and petroleum based polymers - then it can not be recycled. I will do my homework and get back to you, but I am pretty sure that the above bottle is only partly a "plant bottle."

A cause for celebration:

100 PEOPLE DRESSED UP AS BAG MONSTERS AND HEADED STRAIGHT THROUGH THE HEART OF SAN FRANCISCO TODAY TO SHOW THEIR SUPPORT FOR THE BAG BAN, BILL AB 1998 THAT IS FACING A HARD SLOG THROUGH SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE RIGHT NOW, YIKES! -- BUT THIS VIDEO WILL MAKE YOU SMILE (unless of course you work for the ACC tee-hee-hee)