NY Bottle Bill Update

One year ago the state of New York (with the help of NE Region Surfrider chapters!) instituted the “Bottle Bill” – essentially a bottle-deposit on plastic bottles. According to Surfrider’s NE Regional Manager, John Weber, “If you believed the critics of bottle bill expansion, it was all gloom and doom, the economy was going to grind to a halt, overtaxed consumers were going to end up in the poorhouse, etc, etc. As you can see the actual results were a little different.”

Yo! Vive La Différence!

Not only did the state pick up a cool 120 MiLliOn bucks in unclaimed deposits, but, as we read in the recent press release, “The number of registered redemption centers which take back empty containers grew by 113 in 2009 and an additional 131 as of October 2010. Many of these small businesses have been able to expand and increase their employees’ wages and benefits.”

Yo! Helloooo Green Economy!

Sadly, no studies have been completed that can give us any statistical insight into the health changes New Yorkers experience by ingesting so much BPA from drinking out of all those bottles…hmmm...

Yo! Something to ponder this weekend! - have a plastic-free one…

Missing the Point?? #2

Plastics manufacturers, on one of their websites, at least partially own up to having a hand in the problems of “pollution and marine debris” in this recent article. (Side bar: “marine debris” is the plastics industry’s term for oceanic plastic pollution…their term just sounds better. Don’t be swayed by the double-talk – marine debris is made up of stuff like logs, dead whales and…the Flying Dutchman. Plastic pollution is called “plastic pollution”.)

Another part of the article mentions that plastics manufacturers need to “raise the profile of bag recycling efforts” – that, instead of actually taking a lead in collecting and dealing with their own instant trash, known commonly as “single use plastics”. The plastics industry is all about promoting the idea of us common citizens doing the actual work of cleaning up after their products. Kinda Us VS Them, in a nutshell. It’s not how responsible citizen-manufacturers should handle problem situations. But, then again, they ain’t responsible citizens of the local neighborhoods feeling the brunt of the resultant pollution, so why would they care, right?

It’s a sad state that the grinning “suit” in the byline misses the point that his group creates a nearly-instant item of trash – essentially handing it to us along with the burden of dealing with its apparently-too-tricky disposal (“too tricky” in that much of it ends up as pollution & litter, despite all of the industry’s sweat-soaked efforts to the opposite). It’s not often that someone hands me a piece of their trash to deal with, but the plastics industry exercises this action as an everyday function of “normal” business. When we try to better our surroundings by stopping the flow of this waste into our community…their idea of helping to address the problem is to sling a lawsuit at us and tell us that we are “anti-business”…niiiice. Luv ya buddy, come over for dinner sometime, NOT!


Again, the plastics industry is not a “neighbor” in the figurative (much less the literal) sense of the word - they demonstrate to us that they are a simple entity bent on simple survival, simple self-preservation, simple easy MONEY, and simply trampling any efforts that seek to better the environment and…our neighborhoods, efforts which may harm their too-simple business model. Small minds seeking the least creative, collaborative, and constructive solutions. A lawsuit? C’mon, that’s grade school, playground-diplomacy thinking – d’you mean to tell us that you can’t think of a way to 1) fix the problem that you created, 2) make money doing it, 3) become champions of communities AND 4) set an example for other industry? A 1) win, 2) win, 3) win, 4) win opportunity - Try it, you’ll like it.

Aveda Caps Program Still Collecting!

This reminder from our Rhode Island correspondent, Kira Stillwell, whose daughter, Bryn, attends Narragansett Elementary School. They are throwing down a challenge to other schools to see who can collect the most voluminous heaps of plastic bottle caps.

The school sent the following message home with their students recently: "Imagine the impact on this recycling effort when thousands of schools across the country participate! This program educates students (and families) and underscores the importance of positive change, as well as our responsibility for taking care of our environment. It empowers us all to stimulate change on a local and national level. Beyond the benefits to environmental conservation, it teaches us that when we work together with a common purpose, we can effect change!"

Hot-diggety - therez finally some lernin' goin' on at them schools!!

AND, that message is resonating - so far they have three large bulging bags of caps in the school lobby, with the goal of filling the space with forty more. Getting this type of awareness tattoo'd into pre-teen synapses is of utmost importance, as it can build lifelong understanding and appreciation of the impact we have on the environment, inadvertently, just by our everyday use of otherwise-innocuous items like bottle caps.

Not all caps are candidates for this recycling program, so please take the time to visit the Aveda website to view the particulars and download goodies like nature-with-bottle-caps images suitable for coloring...AWRIGHT!

Bravo Bryn, Kira and NES!!!

CA Recylers Ripped Off by State

How can I report this in a positive tone? Let’s start with a description of California’s recycling program: every “recyclable” bottle and can is sold with a minimum five cent CRV (Calif Redemption Value) charge. That five cents goes into a fund intended, essentially, to repay those that return their used containers – easy enough to understand, yes?

Interestingly, a lot of Californians just never seek the CRV refunds, instead opting to throw the items away or “curbside” recycle them via local municipal pick-up. Bottom line, the program takes in muuuuch more $$$ than it doles out. [I like what you are thinking, “Use that $$$ to enhance the program!!!” – but stop a minute and try to think like a half-wit, thievin’, greaseball politician… :) OK, now read on.]

The state, now broke after a drunken-sailor spending spree decade, smells the sweet aroma of idle $$$ piling up and pretty-much steals from this fund to pay for costs of unrelated state activities that they apparently thought would somehow pay for themselves…ugh! Subsequently, our recycling programs are suffering, recycling centers are closing and the recycling effort’s future is atrophying.

Lots of lame-o excuses and half-baked, odd-ball ideas from the govvies on how to “save” this program are put forth in the article – none of which fully entail them putting the recycling $$$ back into the recycling program [sorry, that’s too simple]. As comedian Chris Rock may quip, “I guess it’s how they wuz rrraaAAaaiiised!”

OK, “positive tone” item: additional CRV fees are proposed to help cover the higher costs of recycling some fringe plastics – let’s hope the politicians don’t sneak this $$$ away for their retirement funds, gerrymandering costs or “new bridges to nowhere”.

Final smart-alec remark: Don’t Steal, the Government Hates Competition!

CALTRANS: Missing the Point?

But - a great green-washing effort nonetheless!! Gotta love the feel-good factor of placing more recycling bins at roadside rest stops...right? First, check the origin of the story, and collaboration: "SOURCE American Chemistry Council", as noted at the bottom of the web-page 'article'.

I think we can all agree that the problem lies (literally and figuratively) on the roadside stretches BETWEEN the rest stops. Much like our oceanic gyres, our roadsides are strewn with trash - most of it plastic bags and bottles. I recently spoke at a local city council meeting considering a bag ban and concerned that I lacked evidence for a convincing argument, I counted plastic bags along the 30 mile drive of the I-5 freeway...and was shocked to tally-up 68 bags - and that was just one side of the highway and did not include areas where I had to pay attention to traffic versus counting the "urban tumbleweeds".

Bottom line, the plastics manufacturers are again encouraging us to fix their problem of the instant waste by recycling their product. Why are items like extremely durable plastic bottles designed for one fleeting use? Answer: $$$$$$$, baaaaby!

I can still remember the days when you returned your glass drink bottles for redemption - and they'd be sterilized and refilled. But now the burden of dealing with the waste receptacle (plastic bottle) has been shifted/dumped into our laps.

Perhaps the ACC should sponsor some Adopt A Highway areas and put their $$$ where their green(back)-washing mouths are, yes? Much better to set a good example, be a good neighbor, turn a good deed, versus touting the tiresome and distracting rest stop cosmetic make-overs...here's the phone number: 1-866-ADOPT-A-HWY

Brita turns up the heat on their ads

Brita is pushing things with their new campaign. The copy says "last year 16 million gallons of oil were consumed to make plastic water bottles."





I don't think many people make the link between the stunning amount of bottled water and use of oil. The Pacific Institute calculated that it takes 3.264 fl oz. of petroleum to make the average plastic bottle.

The math...
17 mil BBL / 28 bil bottles = 0.000607 BBL/bottle
1 BBL = 42 gal
0.000607 BBL/bottle * 42 gal/BBL = 0.0255 gal/bottle
1 gal = 128 fl oz
0.0255 gal/bottle * 128 fl oz/gal = 3.264 fl oz/bottle
More info on that math here.

Buy a bottle that you can use over and over and over here. Or get one with our messaging on it here.

Better yet, buy a whole-house water filter by Brita here.

Will Economy Affect Plastics Recycling?

Jim Moriarty recently had a poll on his blog, Oceans, Waves, Beaches that posed the question, "Which is more important, the economy or the environment?" I am not sure what the final outcome was but the last time I looked most votes were overwhelmingly for the environment.

I actually put my vote with the economy. Why? Because I believe the rise and fall of the economy directly affects the well being and success of environmental awareness and programs. Recycling has increased with the advent of curbside pick-up, provided by local governments and private waste companies and they are in it for the profit. Some services are included in public utilities services along with your city taxes, some, like the one I use, require a separate monthly payment.

Quite honestly, I only started recycling when curbside pick-up was made available. It was a pain in the but to gather all of my plastics, glass, aluminum and paper, separate it and then drive it 25 miles to the nearest collection center. That collection center also exists to make a profit.

The Rise Above Plastics Campaign with the help of people like Ximena Waissbluth , in my opinion, is doing a great job of educating individuals on the impacts of plastics on our oceans and beaches. The message of reducing and eventually eliminating one's use of single use plastic bottles and bags even got through to me and I have grown up in an area that the majority of the population is not at all environmentally conscious. That in itself is a huge achievement!

However, I would say that most people I know still rely on recycling their plastic bottles, paper, glass and so on and more have jumped on the bandwagon in the past year or so as the result of a friend starting his own private curbside pick-up service. The first and only one that I know of in the entire Rio Grande Valley. Guess what, he is also in it for a profit and has conveyed to me that the future of the company is in doubt due to the recent global economic downturn. The value of recyclable materials has plummeted along with other commodities such as lumber, steel and oil.

So when he goes out of business, does the increase of people recycling as a result of him go with him? Unfortunately I believe the answer is yes.

I could ramble on more about this and fear that I may have already started to do so. I believe the following article on Times Online may provide a better example of the havoc the economic downturn is having on the world-wide recycling industry instead of my own personal experience.

Recycling Waste Pile Up As Prices Collapse

By Lewis Smith, Environmental Reporter

Thousands of tonnes of rubbish collected from household recycling bins may have to be stored in warehouses and former military bases to save them from being dumped after a collapse in prices.

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