North Atlantic Plastic Trash Expedition

I hope we weren't leading you to believe that the Pacific Ocean is the only ocean with plastic trash swirling around...!

Luckily, no part of the world is now safe from expeditions seeking out plasticized gyres. The Sea Education Association (SEA) is planning a(nother) trip to the Atlantic next summer to document the plastics plague potential there, in their sweet ride, the SSV Corwith Cramer, SEA's 134-foot brigantine-rigged sailing oceanographic research vessel.

The expedition is funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Marine Debris Program, and is in collaboration with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Woods Hole Sea Grant.

Read about it here.

Leavin' it all behind...at the cash register!

Okay Grassrootsers - time to take action with a growing movement to send a message to manufacturers & retailers: Nix the excess packaging!!!

What is it? It's a new-ish idea-as-a-nascent-movement and at this point, is loosely referred to as Leave All Of Your Packaging Behind. Our good friend, Anna Cummins of Algalita fame, broached the idea at a gathering of activists a couple of weeks ago and for now, I can only describe the intent, the action, the desired result and where to connect with others that are activating on it.

The Intent: Reduce the production of extraneous packaging plastics and packaging in general...thereby reducing garbage, thereby reducing garbage...that reaches our oceans.

The Action: This is easy...just de-package your purchases at the retailer checkstand and leave that trash behind for the store to deal with - why is it your problem?

The Desired Result: So much of what we buy comes with packaging that serves no purpose other than to fill landfills (and oceans) and we'd suspect that this action, if adopted widely, could push the message through the retailers "up" to the manufacturers, "Hello, you needn't wrap your products in so much trash do ya?". Now...granted, many manufacturers are already moving away from over-packaging practices, and logically, they'll be rewarded by not feeling the 'heat' of this action, yes? ...and a lot of packaging is designed simply as a security "aid" (more difficult to stash a packaged single banana in your pocket than it would be unpackaged), but that's the store's problem and not ours, for sure.

Where To Connect: This idea is just forming and I was unable to find a website (perhaps you will build one?), outside of the very new "Cause" of the same name on Facebook:

Find the FB Cause here.

If you are on FB, join the cause, if you're not a FB'r, spread the word (in the parlance of the day) "virally", to your friends, family, and others. The FB Cause sports a feature allowing you to tell your (de)packaging anecdotes to the group...

Two things to consider:

1) Stay outta trouble! Dont go causing a ruckus and getting yourself arrested trying to make a statement over at the local solar-powered Walmart, just keep cool and take what you paid for and leave behind what you didnt (pay for). Remember the old honey/vinegar attractiveness ratio - mom wasn't wrong on that one.

2) Some have expressed concern that "at least the stuff will get recycled at my house if I take it home." A valid concern! This movement may become more effective as an organized quarterly, or monthly (ala Critical Mass, if you're familiar) action. Stay tuned for more info on that angle, but for now, just try it out and see how it works! Also know that major retailers bale up the cardboard that they accumulate for recycling.

A recent entry on the Huffington Post raises the problematic issues of excess packaging - check it out here! It plants the seed that we should all be "voting with our dollars" by avoiding items wrapped in too much junk packaging.

Long one - sorry - but this is just getting started and how better to get the word out, than to get the word out!?!

Happy De-Packaging Holidays!

Whoa...TEN years already...!

Algalita's been at it (spreading news of the gyre) for TEN years! After pounding away at getting our attention to this plastics/ocean problemo, this year has been the most encouraging yet. Theirs is the 4th official expedition to the gyre this summer - read about it here (lotsa fun links & interactive maps!).

Capt Moore's campaign had a sloooow, loooonely start. Nobody wanted to believe it. Many of us couldn't believe it. But it made so much sense - and the oceans finally showed that they are finite in their capacity to deal with the human/plastic full-frontal assault. You could actually hear the cartoon light bulb turning on above your head.

The word is getting out beyond our green-centric circle - and people are responding to the problem...The Environment's the name, and Awareness is the GAME.

Upward...Onward!

I [bag] NY

This is just toooo tragically funny...apparently, you can buy one here.

San Jose Takin' on The (plastics) Man

Last week, San Jose, California (backed by other local community leaders representing Palo Alto, Milpitas, Campbell and Santa Clara) punched through the semi-stagnant bag ban plastic ceiling by voting to initiate a ban BOTH plastic and paper bags at major retailers.

The target completion date is 2011, giving retailers time to prep for the change, and for the city to review any environmental issues that may be involved. READ ALL ABOUT IT!

Other California cities have been temporarily stymied by the "astro-turfing" group known as Save The Plastic Bag, who's been slapping spurious lawsuits, rooted in Calif's Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), on cities banning just the plastic bags, requiring them to study the environmental effects of increased -paper- bag usage...so, the unique 'ban everything' approach to the bag-ban process should neatly poke a finger in the eye of the STPB "activists"...D'OH!

To be sure, Surfrider's advocacy of the bag bans has come from a wide-based grassroots desire to do the best thing for the environment and for our local neighborhoods. By contrast, the STPB people's idea of being a good neighbor is to drop a costly lawsuit on cities trying to stem the "urban tumbleweed" infestation. Frankly, that aint too neighborly...as Chris Rock put it once, "must be how they was raaaaised!". :{

SUPS are Rubbish...!

That is the provocative title of the article that I was lucky enough to have published in the back-page "Agree to Disagree" guest-author section of the current Surfer's Path mag. Head to your local news stand to check it out, or if you live in Tierra Del Fuego or at the tippy-top of K2, you can read it here.

Surfer's Path, the "thinking (wo)man's" surf mag, does with every issue what the other surfmags do just once a year - put out a "green issue". Sourced out of Europe, with the "American issue" lead by Drew Kampion (who in the past was editor of Surfer (1968-72), Surfing (1973-82) & others), Surfer's Path is a surf mag worth your time - and not just because they spiffed me out.

Check. Surfer's. Path. Out.

Neat! Neat! Neat!

Is It Soup Yet?

Sadly, yes! An article in National Geographic tells us that plastics break down quicker than we had all originally thought (actually I hadn't quite finalized my own break-down calculations as yet) - and they leave behind all of those nasty, unpronounceable, and, unspellable (sp?) compounds that poison us all...all the way up the food chain.

It's bad enough that we've got an ocean's-wide litter problem, but the resulant "soup" is slopping it's way right up onto our dinner tables and porridge bowls...yuk.

A welcome reminder in the article is the fact that food & drink cans are lined with plastics that leach some of those same purportedly cancer-causing compound - jeez, ya can't get away from the stuff.

No soup for you!!

The GOOD news is that the infamous oceanic garbage patch is getting a LOT of attention lately - and it's no longer one of those urban legends anymore. Bravo to Algalita and Capt Charles Moore for waving the early flag - just this year, at least two Scripps Institute of Oceanography-associated research trips have plied their way to the gyre and another two awareness excursions (Junk Raft & Plastiki) have drawn 'eyes' to the problem. Now we just gotta follow through and do what we can from our end (REduce, REuse, REcycle, REpeat). Go team!

SUP Bottle Facts & Figures for the Uninitiated

Perhaps old news to us plastic-o-philes, but this updated version of the PowerPoint concerning the costs (monetary and otherwise) of single-use plastic (SUP) bottles is peppy and informative, but you'll have to add your own music. Called "Water Disaster", I processed it into movie form for easy use...multiple-use, that is!

Check it out!

D'oh! MO Bans Wrong Plastic From Rivers

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A law taking effect this week could make criminals out of those who bring Tupperware onto many Missouri rivers.

The law was intended to reduce the floating debris from abandoned foam coolers in the state's waterways. But lawmakers, apparently a little rusty with chemistry, barred the wrong plastic.

The white foam coolers commonly called "Styrofoam" are made from expanded polystyrene. But the law bars polypropylene. That's a plastic found in things like dishwasher-safe plastic containers but not usually used to ferry drinks down a river.

The mix up means river floaters can use foam coolers without fear. But someone caught with a dishwasher-safe plastic container could risk up to a year in jail.

www.ksdk.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=183311

Thanks to Rick Wilson for the tip on this one.

Project Kaisei - Diesel Fuel from Marine Debris?

An impressive collection of scientists and environmentalists are currently 'under weigh' and trolling through the gyres of the North Pacific. Project Kaisei has converted a sailing training ship into a floating data-collection unit and ocean-going laboratory - with the ultimate goal of cleaning up the plastics that bob around in the gyre, which, as we know, are breaking down and effecting the interleaved ecosystems there.

Algalita's Captain Charles Moore has likened any attempt at cleanup of the gyres to "vacuuming the entire continent of the United States...three times over.", so they definitely have their work cut out for them. Their initial goal will be to create a documentary series intended to be circulated internationally to raise awareness, and an ultimate goal listed on their website is to figure out “how to capture, detoxify, and recycle [plastic marine debris] into diesel fuel.”

Verrrrrrry eeeenteresing...! We look forward to a press release when their voyage ends later this month...should be interesting!