Progressive Right-Coasters Pushin' The Bag Ban

"The Outer Banks [of North Carolina] is set to become the first community on the East Coast to banish those wispy plastic bags." That's what this article is claiming - they're just a governor's signature away from passing what Left Coasters are drooooling at - a bag ban fashioned to protect the coastline from this "wispy" instant-trash. Let's keep an eye on this one!!

GO TEAM!

Plastic Bags Win Again! #1 Pollution Item!

Congratz to plastics (again)! This article from an Aussie news source fingers (mainly) plastic bags as the #1 item littering our ocean environment. They also finger reusable plastic bags as a start for a SIMPLE solution...long in the making.

San Diego RAP update: Last year, two of our local County Supervisors, Pam Slater-Price and Greg Cox, showed their understanding of the plastic bag plague by giving our chapter enough money to distribute thousands of quality recycled-cotton-made-in-USA reusable bags in their districts. We passed out the final 600+ yesterday in Imperial Beach! More good news: we just heard that we may be getting more money for this specific use in the next month or so. WOOT! See if your local "electeds" have any similarly-expendable bux for your campaign - the oceans will thank you, and so will the bag-receiving constituents!!

Plastic-Eatin' Microbes?

That's what they say in this article!

Apparently some teenager has done what assorted Phd's were unable to do - find (well, it was actually found by multiple players around the globe) a microbe that speeds the "breakdown" of plastics...and he wonders if there is a way to get the microbes to multiply more quickly than they already do naturally.

Rightly, the author is cautiously optimistic but wonders if the process creates other unwanted by-products, etc. An *unstated* but certainly unwanted by-product will be the feeling that we can now all enjoy single-use plastics and toss them into the microbe bin for disposal.

The process is promising, but really...it's really just a way of fooling Mother Nature to handle a problem that we've created for ourselves - and we all know that it's not nice to fool Mother Nature...!

History of Plastic... use it wisely

I beleive that knowledge is power. And information is the weapon I use to destroy ignorance and create understanding which then becomes a vehicle for positive change.

Enough silly talk. What I am trying to say is that when I do something for the environment that is considered "out of the norm" to the general massess (like refuse seafood, print on the back side of used paper, carry items with my hands instead of plastic bags, etc) I will often be asked why I am doing what I am doing.

I have found that if I do not do a good job explaining my actions, the person questioning me has a strange look on their face, as though they are thinking "weirdo". That is ONE reason I do my best to research and learn as much as I can about the issues I am concerned about.

Responding with "because it is good for the planet" doesn't really do much except excuse the "abnormal" activity I am engaged in. BUT giving a quick, precise and understandable response can actually change someone's mind and foster real positive action to improve the world we live in.

I have several examples of where this has worked but I have more where I do not reach people with my explanations but the only thing I can do is be proactive myself and respond to inquiring minds the best way possible.

SO... with that in mind I found a great resource with lots of information about the history of the one thing this campaign is centered around... plastic. My hope is that you will read the information contained in this site (and links) and use that information in a way that leads to reduction of plastic use for a better future on this planet.

History of Plastics

Plastiki - Another "Junk" Boat!

You're probably been hearing about this - a rich kid making a fuss about plastics in the ocean. A boat (catamaran?) made of "repurposed" plastic bottles (I hope JunkRiders remind them to glue the caps on!) making a trip to the North Pacific Garbage Patch. The more attention the problem can get, the better - everyone's got their fingers crossed for a safe crossing - and it looks like they are about to embark.

Read about it in the online magazine, Good.

Bisphenol-A Study: Polycarbonates=Source

A recent Harvard study showed that polycarbonate bottles do indeed appear to increase bisphenol-A levels in humans. After a "wash-out" period where study subjects drank from non-plastic bottles, they started drinking from poly bottles...and voila, bisphenol-A showed up in their urine.

The study doesn't get in to the effects, if any, of the bisphenol-A on our bodies, but does provide some interesting reading.

Read the Harvard press release here.

You can peruse a PDF of the full-blown study, as published by the journal Environmental Health Perspectives here.

A Visualization of the North Pacific Garbage Gyre

Taken from GOOD Magazine , May 12, 2009

Transparency: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
(Click on Image for link)

Gyre Illustration by Jacob Magraw-Mickelson

NPGP Compendium Infographic Anyone?

Good Magazine is a great place to while away your online time (even if you are addicted to FB) - lots of smart stuff for thinking people can be found there. Clicking on over there today, I can see that they added an intriguing "infographic" that hits the updated "high" points of the North Pacific Garbage Patch. Every scintillating talking point concerning the NPGP all in one place - including a nice alphabetical list of those nasty Persistent Organic Pollutants! Good mag is da bomb!

So, again Compendium Infographic anyone?

Cigarette Butts: Fish Buzz-Kill

Well, the facts are now out: second-hand butts can kill. This revelation made the rounds in the news about a week ago, but is certainly worth mentioning on our blog.

Guess what, fish dont even have to smoke to join in on the buzz-kill (emphasis on the "kill") phenomenon that is sweeping our oceans. Aside from cigarette butts being the NUMBER ONE most-littered item today, they are also composed of plastic (yep, taking forever to decompose in the environment), and they resemble yummy fish-food morsels (yep, they get stuck in sea animals' bowels, eventually killing them) - well now the experts are telling us that they also leach toxic chemicals, which can harm fish, into the ocean environment...one expert has shown that "Even one butt in a liter of water can kill the fish in a period of 96 hours.". That is pretty crazy.

You can read (and listen to) the article here. You can also Google a gaggle of related articles as well.

...and while you're out there Googling, go to YouTube and search for "Hold Onto Your Butt" to see some vids of our local anti-butt-litter campaign, which attempts to address this very issue.

Smoke 'em if you got 'em...(fish, that is)

The Joke's On Us... :(

...But it lacks the "haha" part of a joke that we all expect...

Part and parcel of all of the other bad things about bottled water is the ugly privatization issue that's also built in. Our local San Diego Food & Water Watch rep, Corie Lopez, describes some of the hidden costs of our nation's addiction to bottled water in a recently published article. (F&WW has built the "Take Back The Tap" program to address these issues.)

The article is in the form of a "PDF" file (requires a PDF-reader program) and you can find it here.

Thank you Corie!