life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA
This is recyclable. If you define recycling as a closed loop, meaning that the material that you start with is recycled into the material that you end up with. 
BUT THERE IS A MYTH ABOUT PLASTIC RECYCLING. PLASTIC GETS DOWN-CYCLED - 
Annie Leonard who did, "The Story of Stuff," has now done the "Story of Bottled Water." 
What does a water bottle have to do with the BP Oil Disaster? (I read in a comment on Beth Terry's site Fake Plastic Fish yesterday that a reader of hers refuses to call it a "spill". She's right, it is not a spill it is a "geyser" an environmental disaster of proportions never before seen on earth. Period. That was a horrible sentence to write.) 
life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA
Ahhhhh Nestle...maker of many things plastic. Mainly water bottles and other plastic packaging that ends up in...our oceans.
COMMUNITY COLLECTION DAY 34
It was appropriate that Surfrider picked tower 26 in Santa Monica to hold their International Surf Day festivities. I count 12 surfers in just this photograph, but they stretched far on either side as well.
TEAM MARINE of Santa Monica High showed up in force. Kou, all the way to the left in this picture, not only won a prize for collecting the most trash, but also for the most unusual piece of trash collected. A picture of the prize worthy object is included further down in this post. 
Kou's prize winning piece of trash - a black wax candle in the shape of a naked woman......yikes. 
Most of the many wonderful Surfrider volunteers with a representative from Channel Islands Surfboards. Next to me, (I'm on the end at the right) was Mike Takahashi who organized the whole damn thing, good job Mike!
Aqua Surf School contacted Surfrider when they heard we were throwing this event and offered free boards, lessons and wet suits to the volunteers. How cool is that!?!
A Koa Surfboard from Arbor. Arbor is all about sustainable and environmentally sound materials to make kick ass surfboards, snowboards and skateboards. They have a great shop in Venice. Check them out.
I wish I had gotten a better picture of the setup behind Arbor. They are a street ware company called ENDEMIC that started up last November and is partnering with Surfrider on a number of events this summer. Check them out!
life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA
When I walked onto the beach I saw the remnants of what must have been many Subway lunch boxes strewn across the sand. This was disturbing for many reasons.
Why we need to have lids on trash cans at the beach. Can't change a tiger's stripes. Gulls are scavengers.....
This cup got me thinking again about corporate responsibility in regards to their products end of life, or what lawmakers call - Extended Producer Responsibility. 
The people are back, and so is the trash. I enjoy seeing families have a day out at the beach. You can see the palpable difference in their faces and demeanor as the sun, waves and sand wash away their stressful life that waits for them maybe even as soon as they get to their cars. But my feelings are mixed about summertime and more people because plainly, there is a lot of trash left behind from their day in the sun.
KissMyCountry Shows Their Love for the Gulf Restoration Network
State T-Shirts of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas support Gulf Region Watchdog
KissMyCountry is proud to announce their support of the Gulf Restoration Network with the sale of t-shirts that show the wearer’s love for Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas. KissMyCountry will donate 10% of proceeds from the sale of each t-shirt via their web site and an equal donation from sales to wholesale customers.
“Thanks for your concern about the Gulf of Mexico and the impact of BP’s oil drilling disaster. The Gulf Restoration Network (GRN) would greatly appreciate being a recipient of your fundraising efforts.” says Briana Kerstein, Special Projects Coordinator, Gulf Restoration Network.
The Gulf Restoration Network (GRN) is a 15-year old environmental non-profit and the only environmental organization working Gulf-wide in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and Florida. The GRN is committed to uniting and empowering people to protect and restore the natural resources of the Gulf Region for future generations. Campaigns focus on fishing, healthy waters, species at risk and sustainable practices to save the Gulf and wetlands. Check out their web site for information, videos, volunteer opportunities and how to donate and KissMyCountry’s blog post on the organization.
T-shirts come in organic cotton or v-neck, are printed on-demand, and are a great way to show your love for a place you love in the Gulf Region. Each state is created in KissMyCountry’s ‘Kiss’ design. KissMyCountry‘s goal is to connect with environmental profits in all 50 states and donate a portion of each t-shirt sold to a state-based group.
In addition to the Gulf Restoration Network, KissMyCountry is showing their support to the Loggerhead Marine Life Center in Florida, EarthShare New Jersey, and The Norbeck Society in South Dakota – the first 7 states toward their 50-state goal. Check out our web site for our group of states and countries. KissMyCountry is about saving the planet and enjoying the planet and saving the places we love. Thank you for showing your love in a KissMyCountry t-shirt and helping to save our planet!
info@kissmycountry.com
www.kissmycountry.com
Here is another savy post about the BP Oil Spill from K.M.C.
Jen Schumacher, a 24 year-old Cal State Fullerton graduate student competed as a solo swimmer in the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim, a current-assisted 28.5-mile race in New York with the goal to raise money and awareness for the “Rise Above Plastics” campaign of the Surfrider Foundation.
Last Saturday, June 12th, she started at approximately 7:25 a.m with an expected completion time between 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. depending on conditions. A minimum of 8.5 hours in the water! She finished 4th!
She started and finished at South Cove, in Battery Park on the Hudson River. Swimmers navigated around the Battery then headed north up the East River, and swam counter-clockwise around Manhattan Island. They then swam north into the Harlem River, through Spuyten Duyvil, and then south down the Hudson River to the Battery.
Schumacher is a long time NOVA swimmer, and former coach who is currently working on her Masters degree in Kinesiology with an emphasis on Sport Psychology at California State University Fullerton. Schumacher swims and trains off the beaches of Orange County, California (see http://jenschumacher.com for details and GPS map). On August 14th, 2009, Schumacher became the 165th person to swim across the Catalina Channel, a 21-mile stretch between Doctor’s Cove on Catalina Island and Palos Verdes Peninsula, in a time of 9:02:48. Because she is passionate about protecting beaches and oceans, Schumacher will give a portion of each donation to the South OC Surfrider Foundation http://www.surfrider.org/southorangecounty/ to support the “Rise Above Plastics” campaign.
R.A.P. - The program seeks to reduce the amount of plastics making their way into our beach and marine environments though education and outreach efforts.
In California our RAP campaign is focused on passing monumental legislation, AB 1998, which bans single use plastic bags from grocery, convenience, pharmacies and liquor stores in 2012. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will sign the bill into law if passed by the Senate this summer, setting the tone nationwide to rid this costly blight from our oceans and waterways.
Visit the program’s website, www.riseaboveplastics.org, to learn about how plastics impact our marine and coastal environments, as well as find information on how to take steps to reduce plastic “footprint.”
The Manhattan Island Marathon Swim (MIMS) is a counter-clockwise circumnavigation of the island of Manhattan, a 28.5-mile current-assisted race put on by NYC Swim. This international event attracts a large applicant pool, yet only 25 solo swimmers are accepted to race in this prestigious competition along with several 2, 4 and 6-person relay teams.
MIMS is a fundraiser specifically to help underprivileged children in the New York area get into swimming and to raise awareness about the need to clean up the waters of New York, and for the charity of each participant's choice.
MIMS is challenging in many unique ways. The majority of the swim is with the favor of the tide, however at several key points swimmers will be against the current at and must race to beat the tide. Swimmers face murky and at times smelly water and may run into random flotsam and jetsam. Because of this, swimmers are encouraged to have current tetanus and hepatitis vaccinations.
My uncle James Bayles also participated in the race. He is in his 50's and has a daughter who has suffered from Epilepsy for her entire life. He raised money for the Epilepsy Foundation of Conn. An email update from my uncle after the race said that is heart rate after he got out of the water was 100 bpm. He knows that he has had a "good race" - he has also done the Catalina swim - if when he gets out of the water, he is not out of breath. After an 8 to 9 hour swim, how many people in the world can say that? Probably most of the elite 25 who had the privilege to race last Sat.
Thank you to my uncle and to Jen Schumacher for standing up for what they believe in by competing in an extraordinary, and difficult sport.
Shutters hotel that looks out on the beach, but sits right on top of the Pico-Kenter storm drain, which in the rainy season is a sludgy, polluted nightmare running straight into the pacific but today was neatly buried in sand...
Above is Deborah Bernstein of Green Chimneys who won the Junior Ocean Hero Award for their Shark Fanatics program. Deborah and Green Chimney teacher Robin were so much fun to meet and the award was well deserved. Read more about their program here.
I am so happy to report that we found very little trash. A portion of the trash consisted of cigarette butts, which was an excellent example of how long they take to degrade & stay in the environment. Previously plastic was more common, but there haven't been many storms, which is probably the reason for the lack of plastics. 
