Day 176 - Dec. 3, 2010

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

1.9 pounds

688.8 pounds total

Community Count Day - 73

Aaron Richardet from North Carolina visiting Santa Monica

trash collected for 20 minutes

1.1 pounds

612.3 pounds total

A special thanks to Aaron for coming out with me on the beach. He is the husband of my good friend Danielle who writes a fantastic blog called "It Starts With Me" and is responsible for OUR DAILY OCEAN - a 20 min. cigarette butt cleanup on her local Wrightsville Beach, NC. She also weighs the trash she finds for my Community Count. Just love it!

Sara Sikich from Heal the Bay signing the reprinted version of AB 1998 - the statewide ban on single use plastic bags sponsored by Heal the Bay. She's all smiles in Sacramento as we concluded a press conference to show support to the local municipalities pursuing bag bans, and reviving AB 1998 for the Dec. special session before the Governor leaves office. Fingers crossed!

I've been meaning to include this quote by Nobel Peace Prize Winner from 2004

- Waangari Maathai

"Passion begins with a burden and a split second moment when you understand something like never before.

That burden is on those who know. Those who don't are at peace. Those of us who do know get disturbed and are forced to take action."

My take on the AB 1998 press conference in Sacramento on 11/29

I got a chance to shake hands with Assemblywoman Julia Brownley who is the principle author of AB 1998 - CA statewide ban on single use plastic bags. I may have mentioned - oh just a few times - that she is from Santa Monica!
Terry Taminen of Seventh Generation Advisors introduced all the speakers at the press conference. His wife Leslie Taminen is a power house strategist, and super star who works tirelessly for legislation like AB 1998 that supports ocean health.
Sara Sikich of Heal the Bay gets to sign her name to the reprinted version of the bill. There were a lot of names on that board. I am sure that if felt good to add hers since Heal the Bay is the primary sponsor of the bill.

Thank you Heal the Bay for all of your hard work, and to Kirsten James of Heal the Bay who has lobbied for AB 1998 in Sacramento more times than she can remember, but could not come up that day.
The four star students from the South Orange County Surfrider Chapter who are leaders in their own high schools as part of the Surfrider Clubs that have sprung up in the last year are seen above joining forces with Environment California canvassers who came up in support of AB 1998.

A big thank you to Denise Erkeneff for mentoring the 9 high schools, and one middle school into adopting Surfrider Clubs at their schools deep in the O.C..

The students with Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi from the city of San Francisco who was:

First-in-the-Nation to write a ban on plastic bags in chain grocery stores and drug stores, which sparked similar legislation around the world from Oakland to Canada to Paris to Beijing.

Andy Keller - creator and owner of Chico Bags who gave a great speech about the benefits to CA's economy by fostering more green jobs. You can watch his speech in this post.
Ahhh - this next photograph is of a major lobbyist for the ACC who had so many of his facts wrong that it would take me all day to list them, but here are some of the highlights from his interview. Notice that he had some people in the background that were trying to get his attention.

HE SAID: "Bill would have succeeded in putting people out of work in CA."

HE LEFT OUT: That the largest bag manufacturer of single use bags is in South Carolina.

HE SAID: AB 1998 would "Raise grocery costs for families"

HE LEFT OUT: That if you remember your bag you don’t have to buy a paper bag for 5 cents. And the price of the already available paper and plastic "free" bags are already in your grocery bill right now. SO using a reusable bag saves you money.

HE SAID: "There’s a better way to deal with it (plastic bags) and that is through enhanced recycling and public education."

HE LEFT OUT: For years they have been “improving” recycling efforts and are up to less than 5%. That is only 950 million out of the 19 billion bags that CA uses in only one year! That leaves 18.05 billion bags in our oceans, rivers, landfills and streets…

HE SAID: "These bags are fully recyclable and people reuse them in their homes so to suggest that people use them once and dispose of them is factually incorrect."

HE LEFT OUT: Um..what about the CADMIUM in the red lettering on the bags that ends up in peoples homes that is a known carcinogen?

And one final message to State Senator Mimi Walters from the students in her district:

(Who also took $3,600 in donations from the ACC and voted against AB 1998)

"I feel like our senator Mimi Walters does not represent us. She does not represent what the future needs, just what the ACC wants. If she were here today I would ask her to please re-look at her wants and what other people have influenced her to do like the ACC and really look at what the people need and what the people want."

Senator Walters might want to rethink the price of listening to her constituents.

Student Voices from South Orange County Surfrider Clubs

The four students in the video above cared enough to spend their Thanksgiving weekend in the state capitol to let their elected officals know that they want to see the kind of change that would occur if we pass AB 1998. Here is what they had to say. I was very impressed.

The four students that schlepped up to Sacramento go to sign the reprinted version of AB 1998

Have you seen a bag monster before? Well, check it out. They are pretty scary! Not the girls, the bag monsters. Although these students are a force to be reckoned with in their own communities. I look forward to seeing how their movement to band together grows.

AB 1998 Sacramento Bag Ban Press Conference 11/29

Here are some of the stand out points that the Governor made during his speech at the press conference I was at last Monday:

"We (CA) is very proud that we are always trying to TERMINATE (oh yes, really) the dirty pollution that we have been talking about today."

Facts he mentioned that I was glad to hear him include:

CA uses 120,000 tons of plastic bags a year.

(I know that a plastic bag weighs only .25 OUNCES because I weighed one recently.)

Only about 5% gets recycled

(That means 950 million bags, leaving out of the 18.05 BILLION that we use. And most of the "recycled" bags are shipped overseas to Asia where they are burned in open air facilities to melt the plastic...more on this later)

It is estimates that 80% of all Marine Debris is plastic

(let's call it what it is shall we - Marine LITER, or Marine POLLUTION, or something else that doesn't make it sound natural. Debris could be sticks and leaves. Plastic is toxic.)

Julia Brownley is from Santa Monica (Where I live! A little Santa Monica pride over here...)

Her speech was great! You should take a minute to watch it.

She congratulated LA County for banning the bag and said that if, "LA County were a state, it would be the 8th largest one." Feeling good about the progress that we just made.

She also mentioned that she was in Paris recently and there were no plastic bags there. The list of other countries that have already implemented a bag ban, or tax is long and diverse.

But the majority of what I filmed where student voices. Next post with what they had to say coming right up!

Sacramento AB 1998 Press Conference - videos

My trip up to Sacramento was a quick one, but chock full of great inspirational speeches and information. I will do two posts on the Nov. 29 press conference hosted by Green Cities California and organized by the Clean Seas Coalition and Seventh Generation Advisers.

Part 1 - speeches from policy makers and business owners in support of AB 1998

The creator and owner of Chico Bags, Andy Keller gave a speech on the economic benefit of green jobs in CA and how passing AB 1998 - the CA statewide ban on single use plastic bags - would ensure economic growth.

Things that I learned from Andy's articulate speech:

1. Chico Bags is 1 of 20 reusable bag companies in CA

2. CA is home to more reusable bag companies than any other state in the country

"Groups like the ACC (American Chemistry Council) are spending millions to stop this movement. I think they would be elates if we were all running around as bag monsters....Make no mistake, when they (the ACC) talk about jobs they are not talking about green jobs, they are talking about a handful of bag manufacturers in CA...What they are not telling us is that for most of them, single use carry out bags are just a small section of their product line. And that many of these plastic bag manufacturers already make reusable bags."

I have two more speeches to add to this post, but I will do so later. We got our Christmas Tree tonight so I am sure you understand if I sign off after many frustrating minutes uploading YouTube videos to "deck the halls" with my husband, two dogs and cat. More soon!!

Day 146 - Sept. 2, 2010

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

3 pounds

598.5 pounds total

California failed to pass AB 1998 in the 11th hour of the legislative session for the year. Having passed the States Assembly, and endorsed publicly by the Governor you have to wonder what stopped the momentum in the State Senate? Where did all the millions of dollars the American Chemistry Council spend go to? Add campaigns, sure. But some pockets were involved too. There is no doubt in that.
Have you seen the website - savetheplasticbag.com ? It is too unbelievable to be true, but it's very real. Check it out. It leaves many, many facts out of the picture and perhaps the one that I would like to mention here is that it takes up to 1,000 for this single use product to degrade...if it ever does.
My friend continues to collect cigarette butts on and around her local beach in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. In 7 Days she has picked up 2,171 cigarette butts. That is a staggering amount. Keep it up Danielle. Like the title of your blog says, "It starts with me..."

This guy is amazing: from Oscar Award winning documentry, The Cove -

"Ric O'Barry, 70 – who appeared in The Cove and trained dolphins for 1960s TV show Flipper – was flanked by police and dozens of supporters carrying banners. The petition was signed by 1.7 million people from 151 countries.

O'Barry had hoped to deliver it to the Japanese fisheries agency but cancelled the plan after threats from a nationalist group with a history of violence. The Cove, which won this year's Oscar for best documentary, shows fishermen from the town of Taiji who scare dolphins into a cove before killing them slowly by piercing them repeatedly.

The annual hunt in the town began on Wednesday, but boats came back empty. The government allows the hunting of around 20,000 dolphins a year and argues that killing them is no different from breeding cows and pigs for slaughter. Most Japanese have never eaten dolphin meat and, even in Taiji, it is not consumed regularly." - The Guardian

Day 143 - August 24, 2010

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

3.8 pounds

588.7 pounds total

COMMUNITY COUNT - DAY 49 - HEATHER & WHITNEY

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

4.2 pounds

354.7 pounds total
Whitney is a local environmentally conscious filmmaker - blogger - and vegan advocate extraordinaire.

She writes a great blog, ECO VEGAN GAL.

Heather is a local acupuncturist - nutritionist - and green radio host of her own show on blogtalkradio: "On my radio program, I give sound, practical advice on how to live a healthier, greener, and more fulfilling life."

She also has a great website called: LiveNaturalLiveWell

OK, who has Jennifer Aniston's email address? Manger's email? Something? come on Jen - PLEASE STOP ENDORSING BOTTLED WATER

Whitney brought this really cool trash picker. It is called the "Gopher," and I will be on the look out for one of these jems. It picks up tiny bits of plastic with very little effort. Could save my back some grief....
The Styrofoam cup....people bring them to the beach all the time, although it still stumps me to see them out here.

REMINDER - ACTION ALERT - GO TO HEAL THE BAY AND SUPPORT AB 1998 - CA FIRST STATEWIDE SINGLE USE PLASTIC BAG REDUCTION ACT IS BEING VOTED ON THIS WEEK. THAT'S TWO DAYS LEFT! YIKES! CALL YOUR CA SENATOR TODAY

Jessica from Heal the Bay, the sponsor of AB 1998, wrote a great piece that Your Daily Thread put up today. They used a photograph I took of a single use plastic bag on Aug. 23 - yup that is just two days ago. Here's the link.

Day 142 - August 23, 2010

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

3.8 pounds

584.9 pounds total

Please go to Heal The Bay today to find out how to help pass California's law coming to the Senate floor this week!

AB 1998 - Single Use Plastic Bag reduction Act

by Santa Monica Assembly Member Julia Brownley. If it passes, it will be the first comprehensive state wide legislation to regulate these "urban tumbleweeds."

Good for the ocean

Good for California's 43 BILLION dollar ocean economy
Oh look! Another single use plastic bag. 2 in 20 minutes, but I saw many more being used and since I went to the beach earlier than usual when people were still camped out on the sand, I have no idea if all of those folks took their trash with them. One reason I like going around sunset....
Another reason I like being out on the beach towards the very end of the day is that it is hot walking around in regular clothes with everyone else in the water! And although I am sure it helps that people see what I am doing, i have to say I feel a little self conscious roaming around people's blankets and towels.....

The waves for body surfing were absolutely perfect yesterday.

Disturbing fact about single use plastic bags - in LA county we use 6 BILLION a year. Less than 5% get recycled. Even if you had the best recycling rate in the world - which is about 2/3 - you still have 2 BILLION plastic bags that don't biodegrade EVER that choke the landfills and ruin our ocean's habitats....let's give our state Senators a call, shall we?

AB 1998 NEADS TO THE CA STATE SENATE FOR A VOTE!

Courtesy of Heal the Bay (and co-author of the Bag Ban AB 1998)

Watch - Spread the word, and come on -- call your State Sen. please oh please oh please!!! Tell them you support AB 1998 and you would like them to vote for it too!

Day 139 - August 13, 2010

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

1.5 pounds

562.5 total

COMMUNITY COLLECTION COUNT

Day 43

Anna C. - Thank you Anna!

2 pounds

336.8 pounds total
I hadn't noticed that the front of our life guard towers said, "Proudly presented by: deepwaterhorizonresponse.com - Help the Gulf Coast" - made me smile to see this written.

One organization helping the birds affected by the BP oil disaster is the International Bird Rescue Research Center that is now in the Gulf on location, but their home base is "down the beach" in Longbeach CA.

Their founder and director Jay Halcomb won Oceana's Ocean Hero Award this year, and rightly so. On tuesday they released "62 clean, healthy Gulf oil spill birds..." into Atchafalaya State Wildlife Refuge. The refuge is far enough away from the heart of the spill, but will serve as a suitible habitat for the birds. Job well done everyone at the IBRRC!
Meanwhile -- at a press conference for AB 1998 today - Andy Keller of Chico Bag had this to say:

"Have you kicked your bag habit?" - Andy Keller, founder Chico Bag

A person in a lifetime will use 45,000 single use plastic bags. The average American uses 100 a year.....BAG MONSTER BLOG
"Plastic bags are not free. When you go to the store, the cost of the "free" plastic bag is embedded in your grocceries." - Lisa Boyle, Plastic Pollution Coalition

We use 19 billion single use plastic bags in California in one year! Holy S&^%T!!

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)

AB 1998 PASSES OUT OF STATE ASSEMBLY!!

NEXT STOP - STATE SENATE. WE HAVE A REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR WHO SUPPORTS THIS BILL TO BAN SINGLE-USE PLASTIC BAGS. IF CALIFORNIA CAN GET THIS BILL SIGNED INTO LAW, WE WILL BE THE FIRST STATE IN CALIFORNIA TO BAN THESE NASTY LITTLE BUGGERS.

I'M FEELING PRETTY GOOD ABOUT THIS!

HERE IS ANOTHER BLOG CALLED BAG MONSTER WRITTEN BY CHICO BAGS THAT HAS MORE DETAIL

BELOW IS A TRAILER FOR A FILM CALLED, "BAG IT." DEAN MIYA WHO READS THE DAILY OCEAN SAW THIS FILM IN THE TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL AND EMAILED IT TO ME TODAY. I LOVE IT. ENJOY.

Bag It Intro from Suzan Beraza on Vimeo.

Ban the Bag Press Conference - Santa Monica 6/1/10

From left to right - Mark Gold, President of Heal the Bay - Gina Goodhill, Oceans Advocate for Environment California - Lisa Boyle, Environmental Lawyer and co-founder of the Plastic Pollution Coalition.

I went with Team Marine to the press conference this morning to support AB 1998 - CA Law to Ban Plastic Bags that is coming up for vote...NEXT FRIDAY. The press conferences - 5 in all - happening around the state this morning were organized by Environment California.

"With the Gulf spill still uncontained and the Pacific Garbage Patch bigger than ever, a new bill in CA could take real action to protect our oceans. Following the wave of local bans, AB 1998 (Brownley) a bill will be voted on in the Assembly by NEXT FRIDAY that would ban stores from giving away single-use plastic bags, helping to reduce the plastic trash in our ocean that winds up in the Pacific Garbage Patch." - Environment California

Eco Hero Kids from Malibu CA that sang for the press conference. See video below!

Every year in California we use 19 BILLION bags and 165,000 TONS of Styrofoam (enough bags to get to the moon 15 times). - The Ocean Conservancy

California taxpayers spend $25 million each year to clean up plastic bags that wind up in the waste stream – that money could be spent on school, firehouses, etc.

eco hero kids singing their song about plastic bags

"I can't go surfing at any beach in Southern California without snagging a plastic bag as I paddle.

I can't drive my car more than a city block with out seeing plastic bags billowing in the air or along the sidewalk.

I can't teach my Marine Biology students about life in the intertidal zone without plastic bags washing ashore or blowing into the water.

Beaches I've visited across the Pacific - Australia, Bali, Hawaii, Catalina, and LA - are strewn with single-use disposable plastic bags, bottle caps, cutlery, straws and miscellaneous objects including cigarette lighters and glow sticks.

It's easier for my students to collect abundance and biomass data on plastics than on biota!

I cringe at our wasteful practices and products and think to myself, "How in the heck did we get here?"

The solutions do not require rocket science - a reusable bag here, a ban there, and more education everywhere."

- Ben Kay, Marine Biologist and Teacher at Santa Monica High School,

Head Coach of Team Marine