New York Bottle Bill

This information provided by Surfrider's Northeast Regional Manager:

The NYC Chapter of Surfrider has been working to NY’s bottle deposit law that only covers beer and soda bottles. The Bigger Better Bottle Bill campaign has been waged by statewide environmental groups like NY PIRG for years. The NYC Chapter has infused new energy into the campaign by collecting non-deposit bottles like water bottles off NY beaches and brought them to the state capitol for a press conference. The Eastern and Central Long Island chapters assisted and were represented at the event.

http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/printedition/thursday/news/ny-stbott065603233mar06,0,5440473.story

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=669180&category=STATE&newsdate=3/5/2008

And if you didn’t catch the You Tube video the first time around it has been updated with the Action Network info for NY residents.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ3PTB4sJRA

Exponential Growth of Plastic in the North Pacific

A: 1990 Running shoes spill B: 2002 Garbage strip C: 2000 Plastic bag spill D: Shoes found E: Eastern Garbage Patch. At the eye of the gyre, plastic reaches concentrations of a million pieces per square mile. Researchers have mapped a giant spill of bags and a mile-long strip of wind-driven garbage. F: Caught in a gyre. Some of the plastic drifting in the North Pacific is swept to shore, like the thousands of Nike shoes that washed up in the Pacific Northwest. But much is trapped by calm winds and sluggish water within the North Pacific's loop of currents.

"The Pacific Garbage Patch is a heap of debris floating in the Pacific that's twice the size of Texas, according to marine biologists.

The enormous stew of trash - which consists of 80 percent plastics and weighs some 3.5 million tons, say oceanographers - floats where few people ever travel, in a no-man's land between San Francisco and Hawaii.

The patch has been growing, along with ocean debris worldwide, tenfold every decade since the 1950s, said Chris Parry, public education program manager with the California Coastal Commission in San Francisco."

Pretty much the same story but it's getting bigger by the day. Click here for the full San Francisco Chronicle article.

21 UK retailers cut plastic bag content by 14% in a year.

One billion fewer plastic bags were handed out during the first year of a UK initiative signed by 21 retailers in February 2007 to cut the environmental impact of carrier bags. It comes as Marks & Spencer launched its plan to charge a levy for providing customers with plastic bags in UK stores.

Leucadia E-Waste Event Moved to April 19

The electronic waste recycling event at Paul Ecke School in Leucadia has been moved to April 19. To volunteer, email bill@surfridersd.org. Thanks!

Local Ordinance Update

from the Californians Against Waste Newsletter:

Santa Cruz County Moves Towards Going PS-Free
Santa Cruz County is close to becoming the first California county to go totally polystyrene-free. Santa Cruz County and City adopted polystyrene bans this month. Capitola has had a long-standing polystyrene ban. That leaves only two cities in the County where polystyrene takeout packaging is legal.


Action in Los Angeles County
As LA County begins the process of implementing its benchmark-or-ban approach to plastic bags, the Santa Monica City Council has directed its staff to draft the toughest plastic bag ordinance yet. Santa Monica's approach would ban plastic bags at all stores and could potentially require a fee for paper bags. Meanwhile, the City of Los Angeles is scheduled to have a joint committee hearing March 5 to take on several council motions that could potentially ban plastic bags and polystyrene in city limits. The City of Burbank is also contemplating a polystyrene ban. Long Beach has been considering several ordinances for several months.


Elsewhere...
Not to be outdone, several other Bay Area governments are considering plastic pollution measures. The City of Berkeley is poised to pass a bag ban; a similar ordinance is being considered in San Jose. Sonoma, Mendocino, Monterey and Santa Clara counties are all in the early stages of considering bans or reduction benchmark ordinances for plastic bags. San Mateo County is considering banning polystyrene in County facilities.

Santa Monica to Consider Plastic Bag Ban and Paper Bag Tax

See LA Times blog for full story: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/emeraldcity/2008/02/santa-monica-to.html

Next RAP Meeting Planned for March 25

I have tentatively scheduled the next Rise Above Plastics meeting for March 25 at 6:30 p.m. The location is yet to be determined. Please email me at elizabeth@surfridersd.org if you plan to attend, and let me know from what part of town you will be coming.

Plastic Bag Bans in other San Diego Cities?

A lot of people are interested in working on plastic bag bans in other cities in San Diego County. Other than the City of San Diego, which we are making an organized effort to approach with SD Coastkeeper and other enviro groups, you can start your own campaign to outlaw the pesky plastic bags. The first step would be to sit down with an enviro minded city council
member or his or her staff, and talk about the best way to get such an ordinance in front of the city council and get it passed. They may tell you that the only was is a voter referendum, or they may say that they need to see public support (this is
where the petitions come in). The process and attitude about such things vary by city, so meeting wiith decision makers is an
important first step. If you have an enviro city council member in your city, they should be able to help you come
up with an overall plan for what will work there. If you get something started, let us know and we will post it to solicit help from others in your community.

E-Waste Event April 5 in Leucadia

Surfrider San Diego Chapter will be co-sponsoring a e-waste recycling event at Paul Ecke Elementary School in Leucadia on April 5. We are looking for volunteers to help at the event and staff a Rise Above Plastics / Surfrider booth. Please email me if you can help out. elizabeth@surfridersd.org

Plastic Bag Ban to be Proposed in Encinitas

Surfrider San Diego volunteers are working on gathering signatures of Encinitas residents in support of a reduction or elimination of plastic bags from Encinitas stores. We plan to gather at least 3,000 to present to the Encinitas City Council on Encinitas Environment Day. If you want to help gather signatures, email me at elizabeth@surfridersd.org for the petition.