Day 194 - Feb. 7, 2011

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

2 pounds

728.3 pounds total

I often scan the blogs I read for their latest entries when I sign into blogger. The Bag Monster had a great post about ONE MORE GENERATION. I've known about this brother and sister dynamo-duo but have not taken the opportunity to write about them. So with a nod to the Bag Monster, let me also cover some of the amazing environmental initiatives that Olivia - 9 1/2, and Carter - 8 have been up to. 

This post from their site caught my eye, "Plastic...it's what's for dinner." 

    

They started OMG with their primary interest being to save wild animals after they "adopted" a cheetah. Their involvement in caring for endangered species led them the issue of banning single-use bags in their own community, and keeping them out of their house too. If you care about wild animal welfare, this is a logical next step. 

Since becoming aware of the need to stop using plastic bags, they have talked to their mayor in Georgia, teamed up with the creators of BAG IT, and come up with a great skit called, "Captain Re-Use fighting off Princess Plastic." 

"Plastic, it's what's for dinner," is packed with great videos about singe-use plastic bags. Please head over to their site, read up on them, and show your support for kids changing the world.                                                                                                                                                                     

The people who live in Southern California have it pretty good. Few would argue with that seeing this stand up paddle board surfer enjoying the sunset from the water on Super Bowl Sunday when even Dallas was under snow only a few days ago. 

But life here is not all about fun in the sun. One trouble that we share with the global community is trash. What do we do with all of the tons of trash that's generated from our 15 million or so LA area residents? I have found that recycling is a slippery slope with one fact circulating through my mind more than most - WE SELL OUR PLASTIC TO CHINA. Yup. When you put that water bottle in the blue bin it is like giving it a one way ticket to Asia. Ugh. Or at least that is how I feel. 

But to be fair, here is an article from the LA Times that ran last week, "Trash: Southern California's mission to clean up the confusion." I'm not sure that the article did that for me, but I'll let you decide for yourself.

Wait one minute, didn't I JUST put this picture up only a day ago? Isn't this a mistake? 

Every person that I noticed walking to work through Clover Park this morning had their lunch in a plastic bag.

I find a bottle almost every time that I go out onto the sand. 

Right after I took this picture, I looked down and saw a dead seagull. The gull looked perfectly healthy except for the way that it was titled forward onto the sand with its wings folded underneath him. Did it die from eating too much plastic crap and Styrofoam? I didn't know what to do at first. It felt wrong to leave the gull to be raked over in the morning by the beach tractor. I couldn't put it in the trash can behind me, that felt worse. I hesitated to touch it. Don't feathers have mites? The only answer seemed to be bringing the bird to the ocean. So I did. 

12/3/10 - Driving Home

Did you know that the chasing arrows recycling symbol is unregulated?

Meaning: put one on my butt and no one can stop me. Doesn't mean my butt is recyclable.

I've been thinking about all the spin that is taken as truth about the recycling arrows. Watching the documentary BAG IT was the first time I got my eyes opened wide about how little actually gets recycled, and how most of our plastic waste gets shipped overseas to be burned in open air facilities, which in turn poisons the people working for pennies a day to deal with our garbage.

Author, Annie Leonard, has traveled to 40 countries and visited hundreds of factories where our plastic waste is dumped. According to Leonard, in just one year over 75 million pounds of U.S. plastic waste went to Hong Kong. She equates recycling to be the “opiate of the masses.” We all know that feeling of guilt-free release when we drop a plastic container into a recycling bin.

This re-melting also poisons the air, water, and soil of the foreign country who bought our dirty plastic. Because manufacturers want virgin plastic, or plastic nurdles to be used in the making of their packaging.
I got home from my trip last week and saw that my friend Harry who writes The Flotsam Diaries had been thinking about the same thing. He did such an amazing job of dispelling many of the recycling myths that I want him to get full credit, and for you to go to his website right now and read his post, "The Downward Spiral, or "The Triangle is a Lie."" Please.

Careful, you may not be able to close your eyes after this one.

"** The American Chemistry Council loves to talk up the value of plastic recycling. Look for their symbol on many recycling Web sites. Also look for them as sponsors of recycling initiatives nationwide. But their own fact sheets dispell the myth. 50+% of recycled #4 plastic was sold to developing nations in 2008. Many have much lower standards for their plastics and permit very contaminated plastics to be melted together and used in food packaging. Each grocery bag you recycle may be poisoning a family somewhere on the other side of the world." - The Flotsam Diaries

This post is a little light on the gritty truth for me, but may help you dispell some of the recycling myths further. It is a practicle giude to which numbers are recycled, into what, and how often.

"WHAT DO RECYCLING SYMBOLS ON PLASTICS MEAN" - THE DAILY GREEN

Community Count Day 69 - Manhattan Academy

Community Count Day 69 - Manhattan Beach Pier, CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

by 47 people

35.2 pounds collected

570.6 total

The Daily Ocean combined total - 1,239.4 pounds

It was a picture perfect fall day as we set out to collect trash from the Manhattan Beach with the Manhattan Beach Academy. Their small school is blocks away from the scene you see above.

About two weeks ago a parent brought in the LA Times article about this blog for her daughter's teacher, Miss Ricardo, to read. Rachelle Ricardo went online, found my contact information (thedailyocean@yahoo.com) and emailed me, inviting me to come to her school. I love getting emails from people who want to talk to me about The Daily Ocean.
I spent 30 min. talking to the school in their gym and showing them pictures that I have taken of the beach in Santa Monica. Some of the photos were of sea gulls and sunsets, but most were of the trash that I find there. The pictures sparked many questions from them like:

1. What can we do as teachers in the school to reduce our disposable plastic consumption?

I said to set the intention, and maybe buy more colored pencils instead of plastic markers.

2. Why doesn't the government make "them" stop making plastic?

I said (after trying to wrap my head around a succinct answer to tell Zena who is maybe 8 or 9) that actually it is much easier to change the amount of plastic produced if we individually stop buying products that are made from it. If we don't buy plastic products, "they" will stop making them.

Oversimplified? Sure - but it was a tall order to answer.

Here is Gisela (pardon any misspellings) and her mother Debra inspecting their findings.

Debra and I spoke at the school before we left and I mentioned many facts that I learned from the documentary BAG IT. I know that I link to it a lot, but I promised her a link, so here it is.

"A powerful and deceptively simple movie that is sure to change the way you look at every day objects. I didn't expect a movie about plastic bags to change my life in such a deep and profound way. Gripping, funny, intelligent and sure to change your life."

- Louie Psihoyos, Director of The Cove

There maybe other people who came to the discussion before the beach cleanup that would be interested in learning more from watching BAG IT.

May I humbly suggest a screening for the families at Manhattan Academy? A family night of environmental education?

As you can see - we found the same kinds of trash down the coast from Santa Monica that I do around life guard tower 26 at the end of Ocean Park Blvd..

The average collection for each person that participated today was .75, or three quarters of a pound, but I emphasised two things before we began.

1. Let's celebrate if we find a pretty clean beach when we go out. Don't be disappointed if you don't find a lot of trash, that is a good thing.

2. The small bits of styrofoam and plastic count just as much as the bigger pieces.

A look inside a collection bucket that could be from anywhere on CA coastline.

Did you know that paper coffee cups are lined with plastic? Used to be wax, now it is plastic. Coffee is extremely acidic.

May I suggest buying a stainless steal coffee mug? And then forgive yourself if you forget on occasion, but try as often as you can remember to reprogram your coffee habits.

Better for you - better for the environment.

All in all - I think that the students had fun, and were surprised when we added up the grand total of 35.2 pounds.

I was honored to come down there to speak to them. I'll come again. And in the meantime here is another link for Manhattan Academy.

The Story of Bottled Water, by Annie Leonard. It is a ten minute short by the same woman who did The Story of Stuff.

The Story of Bottled Water with Annie Leonard from kompozit on Vimeo.

I hope this spark of beach, and ocean conservation continues to spread through your school. It made my entire day to see the beginnings of it during our discussion and then again on the beach. Good work! And thank you!

Day 167 - Oct. 27, 2010

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

1.5 pounds

668.8 pounds
Tonight is the last night to vote for Danielle in the Britta Filter for Good Film Project. Her entry is called, "Our Daily Ocean: A Story of Butts." She's very gracious to consistently site her inspiration as this blog for her 20 min. beach cleanup in Wrightsville Beach, N.C. that she does with a twist, but all the action is because of her.

She counts the cigarette butts she collects during those 20 minutes and keeps a tally of those. So far in 15 days she has collected, (with the help of her three small children and husband Aaron) 7,360 CIGARETTE BUTTS. That's insane.

Hopefully a short film that will air during the Sundance Film Festival if she wins will go a long way to banning smoking on her home beaches in North Carolina. So vote for her tonight!
It was a gorgeous 84 degree October day here in Santa Monica with many surfers enjoying the waves until the sun went down and beyond.
CRUSH PROP 23 needs you! Sponsored by Credo, this campaign wants to get out the vote to squash Prop 23 on Tues.. You can type in your zip code and search for events in your area to:

STOP TEXAS OIL: HELL NO ON 23

Did you know that you can't recycle number 5 plastics?

Did you also know that most, if not all yogurt containers are made from number 5 plastic?

(I love yogurt!)

Did you also know that the chasing arrows symbol that we have all come to associate, or be synonymous with recycling, is not regulated?

At all?

I could put a chasing arrows symbol on my butt if I wanted. Well, you get the point. GENIUS marketing... BAG IT, the documentry is where I learned all the fun facts that I listed above.
I've started doing yoga again after a long hiatus. I've joined in on the odd class here and there over the last two years, (probably all of 5) and so the 5 minute headstand we did in class (I was against the wall for support...) has sent too much oxygenated blood to my head I think because all that is running through my head right now to end the post with is, "Ahhh... pretty. sunsets good. love California....pretty....ahhh.) Mix and match as you choose. I think I'll leave it there.

Day 163 - Oct. 17, 2010

lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

4.6 pounds

659.4 pounds total

This is a picture of me and Emilia. She is a senior at Harvard-Westlake High School in the LA area. She came along tonight to take photographs of a beach cleanup for her photography class. It was so fun having her out there.

Thanks Emilia, for being interested in helping the oceans and creating art. Two things that I care about a lot. Probably why you asked to come along tonight...

Lewis and Clark would be crazy not to take you. Stay in touch!

Here is a link to her funny, well thought out blog - "THAT'S EXACTLY MY POINT"
It has been raining in Santa Monica a lot over the past week. I like it, but what I don't like is what it does to the bay. Especially that first flush of liter that comes through the storm drains and empties right into the ocean.

Team Marine of Santa Monica High was there to capture it with some sickening photos. They also did an emergency beach cleanup. They estimate that they collected around 200 pounds of trash from the beach. This estimate may be on the low side considering they stuffed - like have to stand on top of to pack down - stuffed four trash barrels worth. How much can an oil barrel sized trash can hold? Check it out.
Live in the LA area? Hey even the SoCal area? Come out to support the Los Angeles ban in single use plastic bags! If you would like to brush up on some of the reasons -- and there are many -- to ban these destructive things then watch BAG IT! first. I think it will make you want to call in sick to work that day and join us. Here's the info. We need a BIG turnout.

"Please mark your calendars for the Los Angeles County bag ban hearing on November 16^th at the County Supervisors building downtown. The hearing starts at 9:30am"

What can I say under this picture???

We all know to cut these up, right?

I'm going to dedicate an entire post about this tomorrow, but I wanted to mention the BLUE MARBLE PROJECT that Wallace J Nichols started. He has more creativity to help the ocean than any person I've ever met.

"SAVING THE OCEAN ONE BLUE MARBLE AT A TIME - BLUeMaRBLeS - THROUGH RANDOM ACTS OF OCEAN KINDNESS"

"It's a simple idea: commit a random act of ocean kindness by sharing a blue marble forward with someone doing good things for our blue planet and tell them to do the same."

Day 141 - August 20, 2010

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 min.

13.5 pounds

581.1 pounds total

BAG IT FILM FESTIVAL THIS SUNDAY

HOSTED BY THE PLASTIC POLLUTION COALITION AT UCLA

Meet the author of AB 1998, Representative Julia Brownley. Hear her speak about getting her Plastic Bag Reduction Act passed this month in CA, and what you can do to help.

The average weight of one Daily Ocean cleanup is 4.1 pounds of trash -- mostly plastic -- in 20 minutes. And lets face it, plastic wrappers, bottles and other disposable plastic items don't often weigh too, too much...
My friend Danielle is on a mission to get cigarette butts banned in North Carolina. She's on Day 4, and it is staggering how many she finds in 20 min. She weighs all the trash she collects so I can add her to the Community Collection of The Daily Ocean. Then she separates out and counts the butts. GO DANIELLE!!

See her post on her fabulous blog, "IT STARTS WITH ME."

"20 minutes on August 18, 2010
Litter picked up by weight: 2 lbs 8 oz
Cigarette butts: 215

Total number of cigarette butts picked up off of Wrightsville Beach, NC in 4 days: 1,167"

A very interesting article popped up on the YAHOO homepage today. It talked about the "garbage patch" in the Atlantic Ocean. The Sea Education Association published an article about their findings in the journal, SCIENCE:

"But ocean circulation studies that use satellite-tracked buoys have found that floating plastic can travel from Washington, D.C., or Miami, Fla., to the Atlantic garbage patch within just 40 days."

I try to keep my emotions about what I do here on The Daily Ocean to a minimum in my posts. I'd rather let what I find speak for itself. However, tonight it is hard to lift the heavy feeling that settled over me as I lugged the trash off the beach to my car so that I could weigh it.

13.5 pounds in 20 minutes is reverberating around in my head, making it hard to think about much else.

BAG IT! A FILM FESTIVAL

COME ON OUT TO UCLA JAMES BRIDGES THEATER ON AUG. 22nd FOR A SCREENING OF "BAG IT" - HOSTED BY THE PLASTIC POLLUTION COALITION - AND OTHER SHORTS AND PSA'S ABOUT PLASTIC POLLUTION.

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR AB1998 - THE BILL TO BAN SINGLE USE PLASTIC BAGS IN CA - AS IT PASSES THROUGH THE CALIFORNIA STATE SENATE THIS SUMMER.

click on the image above for all the details

Bag It Intro from Suzan Beraza on Vimeo.

My friend Dean Maya came back from the Telluride Mountain Film Festival raving about this documentary that he and his wife saw. Thanks to Dean, I found out about BAG IT a few months ago. That's how this works. Word of mouth, friend to friend.

Day 125 - June 4, 2010

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

1.7 pounds /2 = .8 for the COMMUNITY COUNT COLLECTION - DEAN MIYA

492.3 pounds total

213.4 pounds for COMMUNITY COUNT COLLECTION in 31 days
Dean Miya came out with me tonight for Day 125. Dean found my blog online, read it, and realized that I collected right where he surfed most often and so he contacted me. Not only did he come out to be a part of my Community Collection Count (and you can too), but he also donated to help me get to Sacramento to lobby for AB 1998 - the proposed ban on single-use plastic bags in CA that passed the State Assembly last week!

So another big thank you to Dean for his support.

He told me about a film that he and his wife just saw in the Mountain Film Festival in Telluride Co. recently called BAG IT. (I have the trailer in a post below)

BAG IT -"What starts as a film about plastic bags, evolves into a wholesale investigation into plastic and its effect on our lives, bodies and waterways."

I just watched the full length film. Now I am sitting here on a Saturday night feeling like we can't just BAG IT. The definition of BAG IT being used here as synonymous with giving up. There is way too much at stake. What is happening to our bodies and environment is just not ok. But if you've found The Daily Ocean, you probably feel that way too. Here are some facts and thoughts swirling around my head from watching BAG IT.
In the USA we use 1 million single-use plastic bags a minute, that is 60,000 bags consumed every 5 seconds

We use 2 million plastic water bottles every 5 minutes in the USA

In 2008 - water bottle sales reached 12 billion dollars

single-use plastic bags are the #1 consumer item in the world.

countries/cities/territories that have banned single-use plastic bags:

New Delhi, Bangladesh, Bhutan China in 2008, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tansania, Rwanda, South Africa, Ireland (bag fee - since inception a 90% reduction)...and there are many more

Why do we use something for only a few minutes that is made from a material you throw away and then lasts for thousands of years in landfills or in our oceans?

(re: plastic packaging and convenience items)

The average American produces 1 ton of trash per year.

Every day NYC produces enough trash to fill YANKEE STADIUM 3X

THE RECYCLING SYMBOL IS NOT REGULATED - the chasing arrows -

ONLY 1 AND 2 ARE EASILY RECYCLED

every municipality has different guidelines for recycling except one thing is consistent - the tops of plastic bottles are not recyclable

massive human rights issues exist with recycling packaging. the plastics industry doesn't want to take back most "recyclables" so it ships them over seas to Asia where people are paid a low wage to sort through the trash from the USA and lots of it is melted down releasing lots of toxic fumes and chemicals directly into the atmosphere.

Adult Albatross bring 5 tons of plastic every year to Midway Atoll to feed their chicks. (Midway Atoll is in the middle of the pacific, further west from the most commonly known Hawaiian Islands...)

"No one is without power, everyone has the capacity to do something." - Sylvia Earle

At the end of the film, the narrator Jeb Barrier came up with a summary to explain his personal journey that inspired him, and director Suzan Beraza, to make BAG IT. Although I have just begun this blog (I am a third of the way through) I feel similarly -

I did start out writing a blog about beach cleanups because I knew there was something very wrong about the ammount of trash on our beaches and in our oceans, but like any journey it has become so much more..it led me straight to the environmental scourge of single-use plastics. I collect trash to illustrate our global, growing problem that is going to take each and every one of us to change.

You with me?

The stakes are too high to not get involved, starting wherever you are, right now at your computer, in your house, in your community. And thanks to those of you who work tirelessly on our behalf. I am proud to know a handful of people interviewed in BAG IT - check them out, what they are up to, support them and again, a huge THANK YOU

Wallace J Nichols

Beth Terry

Dr. Marcus Eriksen and Anna Cummins

Oceana

Surfrider

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.