life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CAtrash collected for 20 min.
1.2 pounds
680.1 pounds total
Community Count Day 71 - Doctor Heather Lounsbury - thank you Heather!
Santa Monica, CA
trash collected for 20 min.
.5 pounds
573 pounds
The Daily Ocean combined total = 1253.1
Today the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors voted 3-1 to ban single-use plastic bags in LA County. What a victory! The BAG MONSTERS were out (Yay Chico Bags!!!) and so were Surfrider and Heal the Bay. I missed it because of a stomach bug I'm fighting off - insert big bummer sigh here - but I am extremely proud that LA County took decisive action to become the biggest municipality to ban the bag in the USA! Hip-hip-hooray! Read Team Marine's coverage on their blog too. 
The International Bird Rescue Research Center caught a gull that had been collared by a beer can and removed it! But they think that someone is doing this on purpose to these birds. Please read their post for the number to call if you spot a bird that has a beer can around its neck for all of you who live in the bay area. 
Here is a report from Maine on what is washing up there. The Flotsam Diaries is written by my fellow trash trudger Harry. He has great observations on what's hitting the sand all the way up in Northern Maine.
Have you see the Story of Stuff, the Story of Bottled Water or the new Story of Electronics? Well they are awesome short films that are jam packed with illuminating info. on what really happens to the many products we buy from start to finish. Start with the newest edition - The Story of Electronics.Annie Leonard talks about, "design for the dump....making stuff to throw away quickly."
Makes sense if the companies making this stuff want us to buy more, and in fact they depend on it. But she has a better idea - that's not so new - "Product Take Back," also called EXTENDED PRODUCER RESPONSIBILITY. These laws are popping up all over Europe and Asia.
And let's not export our 25 MILLION POUNDS of E-WASTE a year to other countries like China.
LOL u beat me to it... here's the link to the L.A. Times:http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-plastic-bags-20101117,0,1602701.story
ReplyDeleteI can't believed it passed!. :-)
Thx for the shoutout! Was thinking about you guys when I saw the bag ban news. That's just huge - and it's so nice to see that the plastic lobby doesn't always win. Hope you get feeling better soon.
ReplyDeleteSo happy to read about the plastic bag ban! In London the most that happens is they charge you 5p for a thicker plastic bag (we don't tend to have a paper option). I find it infuriating that to make people think 5p is reasonable they make the plastic extra thick. Re-usable bags are more frequently seen though, especially since Whole Foods arrived here.
ReplyDelete& so saddened & angered to read about the birds being collared by beer cans.