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

Day 119 - May 7, 2010

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

6.1 pounds

476.7 pounds total

SEND ME TO SACRAMENTO TO LOBBY TO BAN PLASTIC BAGS IN CA

WHY? :

"You cannot solve this problem by voluntary measures. We use 6 billion plastic bags per year within LA County alone. So even if you had the best recycling program in the world, which is a 2/3 recycling rate, you're still going to end up with 2 billion bags left over."

- Mark Gold, Heal the Bay from Team Marine's 10R's Documentary. WATCH IT BELOW!!

Even if only half of 2 billion bags ended up in the ocean, that would be a billion bags per year entering the Pacific JUST FROM LA COUNTY!

I would like to join the Clean Seas Coalition and Seventh Generation Advisers in the State Capitol to help them lobby for the bill that will ban Single Use Plastic Bags in California!

If you would like to donate 5, 10, 15, 20$ to help me get there, please see the donate button on the right hand side of my blog, and pay securely through PAYPAL. thank you!!

The 10 R's by Team Marine from Green Planet on Vimeo.

Countries that have implemented legislation to charge a fee for the use of plastic bags, or have banned them outright are: (find out more at reusable bags dot com)

AUSTRALIA, BANGLADESH, BELGIUM, CANADA, CHINA DENMARK, HONG KONG, IRELAND, ITALY, NEW ZEALAND, SCOTLAND, SWITZERLAND, THE UK, USA...the list is growing..

As you can see, this is not the only thing littering our beaches and polluting the ocean. Wonder why Gov. Schwarzenegger decided to veto the Senate Bill 4 which met no opposition in the California House or Senate, that would ban smoking from California State Beaches and Parks?

Anyone who lives here knows how scary fire wild fire season is....

but read his decision for yourself and see if you come to the same conclusion I did..

(insert loud cough here and say B*&%SH*&^T)

Day 98 - Feb. 16

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica, CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

2 pounds

398.9 pounds total

COMMUNITY COUNT COLLECTION: Tracy of Recycled Bride and Recycled Tyke

Day 25

.5 pounds

155.4 pounds total

Oregon is taking up the BAN THE PLASTIC BAG idea by introducing legislation to make Single Use Plastic Bags banned statewide: to read more

It is disheartening that the Plastic Bag industry is doing a great job of convincing courts, like the one in Manhattan Beach CA that just shot down 2-1 their proposed plastic bag ban, that PAPER BAGS are more harmful than plastic! There are many problems with paper too,

BUT THE OBVIOUS OBVIOUS SOLUTION TO PAPER OR PLASTIC IS NEITHER!!!!!!

GO REUSABLE!

I get so steamed thinking about their BS machine. Did you know there is a site called:

SAVE THE PLASTIC BAG? Really? I can hardly read it.

AND earth911 is fully funder/supported and written by The American Chemistry Council!

Why you may ask? Read on.....

Going to high light a few other friends of mine who are reaching out in creative, proactive ways to the world whether through their art, jewelry, blogs.

My professor for a semester at Cal State Northridge - Lynette Henderson

- incredible muralist and proponent of Art Education for all.

My friend from High School - Liza Curtis

- mom, fierce friend, ceramicist, muralist, painter, and now jeweler

My fellow blogger and friend - Kiss My Country

- got a killer interview with Roger Bayley - Design Manager of the Olympic Athletes Village in Vancouver, and guess what? It's 100% sustainable!
I know this isn't styrofoam but this came into my inbox so I have to pass it on.

TAKE ACTION TO BAN STYROFOAM IN CALIFORNIA

some disturbing facts about how you can't recycle the stuff:

Less than 1 percent of the 165,000 pounds of Styrofoam we use in California every year gets recycled.

Why so little? A couple main reasons:

1) Once you get food on Styrofoam, you can no longer recycle it.

2) It's 95 percent air, meaning it's bulky and expensive to ship and store -- and then you need to degas it.

3) Processed, recycled Styrofoam yields a low-grade substance which isn't really much good for anything.

4) Very few facilities actually have the equipment to recycle Styrofoam in California.

RECYCLING RANT CONTINUED:

"We use 6 BILLION SINGLE USE PLASTIC BAGS IN LA COUNTRY ALONE EACH YEAR!" - Mark Gold, Heal the Bay

"What we have now is: out of sight, out of mind + hope for the best = back to the mall to consume some more.

Why is it our duty to "recycle" waste at all? Who makes the decision to create all this junk? Do you choose how your printer is packaged? Do you choose how your coca cola is bottled? Some make a profit by shoving that waste into our households, to the detriment of all. And then we need to worry about "recycling", cleaning up or banning that stuff.

How come producers are not resposible for the end life of their products? That should be a part of the product design an cost analysis.

I think it is really dangerous is to go on without asking the big questions.

Another big question would be what recycling means. For me recycling is when you turn something into something similar. One bottle into another bottle, one can into another can, etc. You know that none of that happens with the "good plastics" that now get "recycled". We are calling it "recycling" when we mean "recovering" and the best that can happen to a tiny percentage of what gets recovered is that it gets turned into... different items like plastic lumber, fill, fleece.. which will end up in landfill anyway at some point.

So.... if we should ban styrofoam because it's not recycled..... How about all plastic? How about all plastic bags? How about all toothbrushes? How about bubble wrap? How about milk cartons? Etc, etc etc

Recycling of plastics is a myth, designed to perpetuate a business built around the generation of waste." - Manuel Maqueda, Plastic Pollution Coalition, The BlooSee and Manuel Maqueda.
Help fight with the Sierra Club to gain protected habitat for our endangered Beluga Whales. They only need 300 more signatures!! SIGN HERE

Tracy came to meet me for a joint cleanup on Tues.. I had a lot of fun meeting someone else who lives in Santa Monica working towards sustainability in their own way.

We covered many topics on our walk as we bent to collect the usual plastics, STRAWS, and odds and ends (mostly plastic).

One part of our conversation sticks out to me that I want to share. We discussed how if you want to reach people with awareness about environmental issues that need to be addressed that it is counterproductive to approach them with any thing but kindness. People all have their own journey, so it is important to reach out to them wherever they are on the "green" continuum in a way that doesn't make them feel shame, or become defensive of their life style.

Like minds unite! Thanks Tracy - Looking forward to next time.

Day 69 - Oct. 22

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA

trash collected for 20 minutes

estimated pounds collected today - 3.6

estimated pounds collected to date - 326.11

There was a delay in the decision of the Blue Ribbon Task Force to recommend a map for the Marine Protected Area's. Yesterday was supposed to be the day, but they "blinked" as Mark Gold says, director of Heal The Bay in Santa Monica. Read what he had to say about this on his blog, Spouting Off
Sylvia Earle also weighed in on the MPA decision by writing an Op-Ed piece for the LA times. Read it here.

"People who are against protecting crucial areas of the ocean say that doing so will lead to economic disaster. In fact, the disaster is already here: There aren't enough fish left. Protected zones in the Channel Islands, the rest of the California coast and the other 50 countries in the world that use them haven't caused the sort of economic upheaval predicted by opponents. It's interesting to note that the most extreme opposition to MPAs occurs in places that don't have them yet." - Sylvia Earle
The beach was covered in a soft, thick fog last night when I went down there at sunset. I was enjoying the change in atmosphere from the usual Southern California sky. Don't get me wrong, watching the sun set over the pacific is one of the highlights of my life, but the ocean/beaches shifting faces all have a beauty of their own.

If you live in the area, please join us tomorrow at 4pm for the Blogger Beach Cleanup! I can't thank Siel of green LA girl enough for her organizational powers and hard work in putting together this event.