Day 203 - March 2, 2011

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

2 pounds

762.5 pounds total

I learned about a CA State Senate Bill sponsored by State Senator Calderon, SB 915 that really bothers me. 

Sen. Calderon thinks that we need to give recycling plastic bags one more try. Nevermind the stark facts that in LA County ALONE we use 6 BILLION plastic bags annualy, and the current recycling rate is LESS THAN 5%. This is a startling low number. So, you would think that recycling the bags was a solution, right?

Well, for years the plastics industry has been trying to get people to recycle their bags, and guess what, they can't get the rate above 5%. Not to mention the fact that recycling these bags means, in many cases, bailing them together to send to the highest bidder from an aisan coutry where they will be melted down in open air facilities using  women and children who are paid criminaly low wages to sort through our mess. 

As the bags are melted, they leech their toxins into the earth, air and water supply of the county lucky enough to be on the receiving end of our garbage.

You can read the entire bill here. Calderon basically is a puppet for the plastics industry's wish list. I wonder if they are donating to him this year? Any one willing to make a sure bet?

Surfrider is again on the forefront of state environmental legislation that would ban harmful single-use plastic bags. Even if you don't live in Oregon, read this action alert and post it to your fb page because we are all 6-degrees-of-seperation away from someone living in OR who could add their postal code and send a clear message to their State Legislator that they are in support of a bill banning plastic bags. 

I found three single use plastic bags on the beach today in 20 minutes on a stretch of sand the size of two football fields back to back. How many would I have found in 40 minutes? I do these cleanups all the time, and they still alarm me. 

"Single-use plastic bags represent one of the greatest environmental catastrophes of our generation. It is estimated that 60-80% of all debris in the ocean is land-based plastic. Plastics take hundreds of years to break down at sea and most types never truly biodegrade. As a result, marine animals often get entangled in the debris or mistake it for food."

Let's end on a high note: "Good news for a change," said Fish and Game Deputy Director Sonke Mastrup."


An article in yesterday's SF Chronicle says, 

"California could see a return to a full-length coastal salmon fishing season this year with biologists forecasting a tripling of the fish's ocean population..."