Save Our Shores: Days 14 – 16 of Rubbish

This first part of a three-part article outlines my interview with Emily Glanville of Save Our Shores, along with some additional research concerning the problems with plastic, its plague on our environment, and the organizations that are helping and hindering progress.

The image above, by nature photographer Terry McCormac, and pulled from the Save Our Shores website, was taken less than twenty miles from my home. I wept the first, second, third and possibly fourth time looking at it.  Now I can look at it without crying, yet I cannot shake the heart-wrenching, ill-feeling, downright sad reflection of a Mama Otter who was trying to save her baby.  I am profoundly moved by the image of a terrified mother and her instinctive understanding that her baby was suffocating to death.  Her desperation to save her baby.  A baby, who, only moments earlier was playfully swimming in the water.  A curious baby who happened upon something in the water that compelled further inspection. Or perhaps this little guy was simply doing his thing, swimming joyfully along and, like most young ones, wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings.  He found himself caught, entangled, and frightened in a careless cast-off of human activity; a plastic bag.

Supposedly, after the Mama clawed the little guy out of the plastic bag, while bloodied, he survived.  What we don’t know is the impact of oxygen deprivation on his baby brain or for how long he survived.  We don’t know the consequences of this one occurrence.  An occurrence that by chance was caught on film.  How many go unnoticed?  Why did this even have to happen?  Was this plastic bag in the water because of one person’s grave lack of awareness of his or her behaviors?  Because of denial?  Of apathy?  Of malevolence? Why are humans trashing our planet?  A planet that we share with wildlife; wildlife who end up being the innocent bystanders, or worse yet, the suffering victims of our self-serving conduct.

And yet, California Assembly Bill 1998 to ban plastic shopping bags was canned yesterday.  Big money put the big kibosh on the bill.  When money talks, weak legislators listen.  My next article will dig further into the Senators and organizations who put a stop to helping California become an environmental leader by eliminating single-use bags.

Working Hard to Save Our Shores

Emily Glanville, Program Manager at Save Our Shores (SOS) spent some quality time educating me on the impressive work of SOS and their ever-inspired efforts to clean up the coast.  SOS, a California central coast nonprofit has a mission dedicated to caring for the marine environment through ocean awareness, advocacy, and citizen action. A small but diligent and dedicated group, with the core initiatives of Clean Boating, Plastic Pollution and Ocean Awareness, they have their office at Santa Cruz Harbor.  I was honored to be given some of Emily’s precious time.

The Plastic Plague

Glanville explained: “Anything manufactured from plastic will never fully break down. We don’t know of any naturally occurring thing in our environment that can fully break these particles down.  Plastic will photodegrade into smaller pieces but doesn’t fully disappear.  Scientists estimate it takes plastic bags 10-20 years (other estimates are upwards of hundreds of years) to break down to smaller pieces.  The smaller pieces persist in our environment and in some ways become more detrimental because they are easier to enter in to the food chain.  They become easier for animals to mistake for food sources and more easily ingested as small, bite-sized pieces.

Another thing that makes plastic so dangerous is the fact it is a petroleum-based product.  It attracts and absorbs other petroleum-based particles – pesticides and fertilizers for example.  These plastic particles are acting like toxic sponges attracting the DDT that we didn’t realize was still haunting us. (other chemical include) PCB’s and other dangerous chemicals like Methyl Bromide that runs off into the Monterey Bay from the strawberry farms.  The plastic trash particles in the bay are absorbing these chemicals.  When an animal mistakes plastic for food, they are now not only ingesting the plastic but all the other chemicals as well. ”

Plastic Bags

“The $1 billion industry makes about 90 billion plastic bags annually in the USA alone” according to an article in USA Today. Ninety billion plastic bags.  That’s a lot of bags.  Not to discount all the other plastics that are manufactured.  Try this little experiment.  Take one minute and quickly scan around the room where you are currently sitting or standing.  I did and counted 40 items made of plastic right here in my office – in one quick scan.  Plastic all around and I barely moved my head.  From pen caps to organizing containers, a shredder, some photo albums, a printer…that list continues on.  We are a world devoted to plastic.  And this devotion is suffocating our environment.

Check out the lifestyle analysis comparison chart of bags found on 1 Bag at a Time.  There you can see a side-by-side comparison of the waste created, and energy consumed, by various one-use and reusable bags.  1 Bag at a Time also shows the impact on our climate, and details the 12 million barrels of oil needed to create the single-use bags Americans use each year.

More than 500 billion, and possibly upwards of one trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year according to Bag Monster.

In numerous other developed countries, and even in many developing countries, reusable bags are commonplace.  Looking beyond the U.S., countries like China, Bangladesh, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and even Somalia ban one-time use bags as shown by SantaCruz.com.

The Plastic Pollution Coalition details how 40 countries  and municipalities world-wide have bans on one-time use bags.   And the Coupon Sherpa goes into greater detail listing the 102 countries and cities worldwide that ban or tax plastic bags.

Bangladesh became the first country to ban plastic bags after discovering them to be the main cause of the devastating floods of 1988 and 1998. The bags had blocked drains and as a result two-thirds of the country was submerged under water. In 2002, all plastic shopping bags were banned – according to Fair Companies.

Okay, U.S., time to get with the program.  Enough of the resistance already. If Botswana can ban plastic bags, what are we waiting for?  We’re leaders in so many areas, how is it that others are so far ahead of us in this issue?  Ah yes.  Politics.  Money.  And a little fear helps too.  With some so stuck on the notion of being taxed, they are too easily ignoring the absolute and hidden costs of single-use bags.  And I’m not only speaking of the environmental costs, because to me, those are priceless.  I mean the costs associated with our increased grocery bills (someone has to pay for the single-use bags), the cleanup costs, the costs (as in resources) in manufacturing.

As Plastic Pollution Coalition points out, “there are no free plastic bags! The cost of plastic bags is 3-5 cents buried in the purchase price of your groceries or consumer goods. Then, there is the clean up cost for plastic bag pollution… One study found that the cost of cleanup amounts to 17 cents a bag, that translates to the average taxpayer paying about $88 per year on plastic bag waste – What a waste!”

For anyone who remembers shopping prior to the 1970’s, reusable bags were the means of carrying bought goods.  Does anyone have a recollection of that, or are we too assimilated into this throw away society that we have mutually created?

Santa Cruz County Aims for the Elimination of Single-Use Bags

In designing the single-use bag ordinance for the county of Santa Cruz, SOS collected information from other cities that have plastic bag bans in place.  In 2007 San Francisco became the first city in the nation to ban plastic shopping bags.  Check out Californians Against Waste for a list of Californian cities who have ordinances in place.

Currently, some Californian cities and counties are in flux regarding single-use bag bans, specifically plastic bags.  Some were waiting on the now squelched Assembly Bill 1998 that would have put an end to single-use plastic bags and others are waiting on the outcome of lawsuits waged by the American Chemistry Council (ACC).  These include San Jose, Berkeley, Palo Alto, Santa Clara County. Stay tuned, because my next article will discuss the ACC’s role in paying off Cailifornia Senators to further their own cause of plastic ban manufacturing.

There is a success story I’d like to share.  The legislators of Fairfax, California tried to impose a plastic ban ordinance in 2007.  They withdrew after threats of litigation by plastic bag manufacturers, specifically the Progressive Bag Alliance.

Warning – Author’s Rant Approaching:  Okay, progressive bag alliance?  Progressive?   Did I mention the Progressive Bag Alliance now called the Progressive Bag Affiliates is associated and even operated by the American Chemistry Council?

Back to Fairfax, California:  The town council, in an effort to avoid a lawsuit, put the decision out directly to their voters.  And in 2008 residents of Fairfax took matters into their own hands adopting their own plastic bag ban. The ACC and their plastic manufacturing affiliates have no leverage against the voice of united consumers.  Well done Fairfax!

And I would be remiss to not include Washington, DC which has a plastic bag tax (5 cents per bag) in place as of January of this year.  According to the Washington Post, in the first month, DC’s plastic bag usage dropped from more than 22 million to three million per month.  While I applaud the reduction, I’m still shaking my head.  Three million bags a month?  And this is just one city.  Consider this quote by Glanville from Save or Shores.

“SOS, in helping to design of Santa Cruz County’s ordinance, also wanted to see the inclusion of produce bags” according to Glanville.  “This has been incorporated into Phase two of the ordinance.  Eventually with some adjustment time for the reusable grocery bags padded into the ordinance, shoppers will have to bring reusable produce bags.”

For me, using the cloth produce bags has been a process.  Just another habit to create.  Not a big deal from a behavioral perspective.  For many months I was reusing my plastic produce bags for produce.  But the thought of toxins leaching into my food inspired me to make a more permanent change to cloth produce bags. So I’ve been easing away from the plastic produce bags and, as those get consumed in my home in the form of poop bags, I’m easing into the biodegradable poop bags.  With each effort, I feel the freedom of knowing I’m not contributing to the Plastic Plague. Glanville stated how,

SOS is sensitive to the fact that shoppers will have to create a new habit.  They see part of their role in the community as educators and solution-generators.  They want to help find resources and options for folks prior to the bans going into effect in an effort to reduce any inconvenience.  Sometimes it’s frightening to create new habits even if one knows the new habit is better.

In addition to including all single-use bags in the ordinance, Santa Cruz County includes all stores – not just big grocery stores –the boardwalk stores, the small mom and pop stores, the local taquerias and places like McDonalds that put take-out in plastic.  This positions all stores on the same playing ground.

Nearly two years ago Santa Cruz banned Styrofoam (polystyrene) and SOS was instrumental in helping to get community support to initiate that ban.  According to Glanville, “Since the polystyrene ordinance took affect in Santa Cruz, SOS saw an 25% decrease in the amount of polystyrene take-out containers left behind on the beach.”

Several other cities joined in the Styrofoam ban, among them were Capitola, Pacifica, Scotts Valley and Monterey.   Glanville discussed “how the argument of convenience arose with this ordinance as well, and while SOS was anticipating a huge backlash there’s been no issue raised since the ordinance took effect.”

As of February of this year, there were over 100 Styrofoam bans in cities across the U.S. – mostly in California.  You can see the list through VIV Biz club.

While the convenience of plastic bags may one day be missed, and while we may have to resort to creative measures for picking up dog doo and cat litter, or for throwing away trash or even carrying picnic supplies or school lunches, the time we save employing that convenience does not compare to the time we gain in making a better choice.

And here are the debris discoveries from the past three days:

Don’t Chuck it in My Bucket Man!
Day 14:  August 31, 2010

My bucket collection reflected my available time today – minimal.  I didn’t search high and low, just low and only briefly.

• 1 plastic water bottle
• 2 aluminum cans:  Arizona Tea and Dr. Pepper
• 2 plastic bags
• 25 butts

A man was changing his baby’s diaper on the cab of his pickup truck.  He saw me walking, picking up butts and putting them in my bucket and asked if he could throw the diaper in it.  There was a garbage can not five feet away from him.  I said, There’s a garbage can right there, please use that.  He seemed surprised until I explained what I was doing.  Perceptions.  So interesting.  I, at first, was shocked and appalled that he would ask, and he was surprised (possibly shocked and appalled if he was as skilled as I at masking his true feelings in that moment) that I would object.  A little explanation and it was all cleared up.

Tucked it in My Bucket
Day 15:  September 1, 2010

• 7 napkins
• 3 aluminum cans:  2 Coors and 1 Four Lokos
• 1 pink kite string very entangled in kelp: I didn’t want to cut it knowing that would be more hazardous to wildlife than my dumping the kelp along with the string, and that’s what I did.
• 1 long rubber mat with a sponge-like backing:  Did someone just dump it?  It was at the bottom of a small cliff.  It was about 10 feet long and 2.5 feet wide.
• 2 plastic bags
• 1 chips bag: Lays Potato Chips and containing what appeared to be human feces.  Betcha can’t eat just one.
• 30+ butts:  I lost count as I was engaging in numerous conversations
• 6 bottle caps
• 2 straws
• 3 pieces of Styrofoam
• 1 yellow rope piece
• 1 plastic fork
• Numerous (20+) small plastic pieces including cigarette pack wrappers (2 Camels)
• 1 beer bottle

An Experiment
 

I was at this beach in the morning walking the dog.  I spotted a beer bottle in the sand far enough from the water’s edge to know it wouldn’t get washed out to sea.  I went back to that beach at 6:00 pm.  By this time, there were several sunbathers on their towels only feet from where the bottle was earlier.  Guess what I found?  Yup.  The bottle was still there.   As I was picking it up, one woman commented on how much she liked my metal picker and how she doesn’t like to touch litter.  My response:

Yeah.  I don’t like to touch it either.  But sometimes I don’t have it and wash my hands after. Then I shared with her (and her partner sitting beside her) my little experiment and how bummed I was to still see that bottle there.  She thanked me for picking it up.  My response:  You’re welcome, and you know…it takes a village!
 
I tucked it in my bucket and took everything to the recycle and trash bins.

A Bucket Run Amuck
Day 16:  September 2, 2010

Much to my great dismay, I went back to the same beach as yesterday and found new litter in the places I had only cleaned 24 hours earlier.  There was so much garbage that my bucket filled up quickly, and I had to make two recycle/trash dumps.

• 3 glass bottles:  Corona (2) and MGD (40 oz)
• 3 silk flowers
• 1 paper food container with some food bits still in it
• 1 paper bag with a food container and some food bits still in it
• 1 can of Kingsford lighter fluid (empty):  Call me judgmental, but it takes a real slacker to use lighter fluid on a beach bon fire.
• 1 cans:  Pabst (this was near the Kingsford which might explain my earlier comment) and Arizona Tea
• 3 paper bag:  Whole Foods and two no names
• 1 partial roll of toilet paper (and there were several pieces of balled up toilet paper tucked in the rocks.  I didn’t pick those up because I was disgusted)
• 5 piles of dog doo
• 2 straws
• 1 plastic spoon
• 1 receipt:  no name
• 4 bits of sponge-like and rubber-like bits
• 1 big plastic bag (like a garbage bag)
• 28 small pieces of plastic
• 2 Styrofoam pieces
• 35+ butts

Can you find the five pieces of litter in this dried kelp bed?

Sea Kelp Surprises
Some of my trash treasures are hidden within the folds of dried sea kelp.  When I spend time sifting through the kelp, I come across what appears to be a never-ending supply of small plastic bits.  Sigh.

If you look long enough at this photo, you will likely spot at least five pieces of trash…mostly itty bits.

Many thanks to Emily Glanville of Save Our Shores for so generously offering her time, her knowledge, and her inspiration!

Sometimes progress means resorting to old ways of doing things and is measured not by individual gains but by its outcome for the common good.

- ksp

Other Articles in the Series:

21 days of Rubbish part I

21 days of Rubbish part II

21 days of Rubbish part III

21 days of Rubbish part IV

21 days of Rubbish part V

21 dayd of Rubbish part VII

21 days of Rubbish part VIII