More Califonia Bans!

San Clemente (the home of Surfrider Headquarters), Marin County (near San Fran) AND Arcata (waaaaay north) have "jubilantly" and "enthusiastically" adopted various plastics bans over the last month. I hate to say "I told ya so!" Sacramento, but...

Marin voted 4-0 (that's right, four-to-ZERO) to ban plastic bags and charge for paper ones. Boom! Done! Read about it here.

Arcata is going forward with work on an EIR (environmental impact report...a fallout requirement of the plastic's industry's "environmental" lawsuit to stop plastic bag bans), and they are doing this within a strict timeline to ensure that the a plastic bag ban is instituted quickly and efficiently. The city is making this determined move in reaction to the failure of AB 1998 (Statewide ban effort)...ya see, it's really happening. Great quote from Jim Test of Humboldt Waste Management Authority, "”It will be a lot of fun tweaking the plastic industry's nose". Bravo to the Humboldt Surfrider Chapter!! Read about it here.

"It's everywhere!" says Surfrider's trend-setting South Orange County chapter's chairman Rick Erkeneff, speaking of the polystyrene sprawl in San Clemente. It can only help your cause when one of your city council people has discovered styrofoam pieces in a fish that he personally caught - sad, but true. "What was the vote tally there?" you ask ==> 5-0 thankyouverymuch (yes, again, five-to-ZERO). BOOM! DONE! Read about it here.

The beat goes on!

RAP Map

Well...perhaps we (Rise Above Plastics activists) can't take credit for all of the little red balloons on the map, but those balloons DO point to localities that are rising above the plastics plague.


Chico Bag (manufacturers of fab nylon reusable shopping bags) has put together this boss interactive map, along with a listing of cities with embedded links to news stories about their local bag ban/fee efforts (my Firefox browser hiccuped a bit on this [but I am on the employers network...shhh! ;) ], so FYI, the page may best be viewed via the IE browser). Pretty slick compendium!

Chico Bag was the originator of the Bag Monster (as seen in earlier posts on this blog), and offers an Activist Tool Kit in PDF form to aid you in your battle against the bilious bummer of the ubiquitous single-use plastic shopping bag.

Hey - have a safe new years eve and SEE YA NEXT YEAR - 2011 is shaping up to be the best yet!

San Jose Knows The Way!

In the wake of the failure of a statewide legislative bag ban initiative (AB1998), the city of San Jose is another California burg taking matters into its own hands - moving to fashion an ordinance to ban single-use plastic bags, and to charge for paper bags.

...and those paper bags - YES, they have to be of recycled material...which pretty much harpoons the ACC's CEQA lawsuit strategy, which at face-value, appears to require cities to continue to pollute their environments via the scourge of the "urban tumbleweed".

So the landslide has begun - damn the ACC's penny-ante "solution" to the problem they've created for themselves...and the rest of us. We can only hope that other manufacturers are watching the ACC's un-neighborly litigious approach go down in flames. Meanwhile, pass the gasoline!

It's always exciting talking about California - but frankly, the "land of fruits and nuts" ain't proving to be that progressive at heart - I'm hoping for other states to push through some statewide bans - GO USA!

Details, particulars & minutiae:

San Jose Mercury News article.

Bay area TV news from KTUV.

RAP Rap Vid

He who hesitates is losssst...?

PLASTIC STATE OF MIND - Empire State of Mind Parody [IN YO FACE!]



RAPper: AshEL Eldridge
Singer: Jenni Perez

THANKS TO RISE ABOVE PLASTICS on FACEBOOK for hippin' me to this!

DAY W/O A BAG is...

TOMORROW, December 16th!

This global event was initiated by Heal The Bay just a few years ago and it comes each year amid the holiday shopping rush - giving shoppers not only something to use repeatedly (a reusable shopping bag), but something to ponder as well.

So ponder this: find your local Surfrider chapter's homepage here to see what they have planned in your area for this event, or to contact them about getting involved. I've been told that the San Diego Chapter has given away upwards of 10,000 (ten thoooouusand!) bags since DWOB commenced.

Need more info?? ==> Check out the Day Without A Bag website, and the "au populaire" Bag Ban Report website (both cleverly "hidden" in Heal The Bay's elaborate network of substantive web resources). WARNING: this website has TONS of information and tools for the budding bag-banner - so be sure to explore every nook and cranny - they're all there for YOU.

I got a fee-vuh and the only prescription is MORE REUSABLE BAGS!

Another One Bites the Dust

Herrrre weeee goOOoow (implied Mario Bros call)…! California cities are out of patience. That’s it. Done. Kaput. Finis. Ciao bella. Sayonara. Adios. EL FIN.

Bags are done. It was fun for a while, but let’s really get real. How many times can you put up with a pack of BPA-suckling inbreds with beet-stained teeth travelling 3000 miles to your little town just to sue you for tidying up your neighborhood? I think the towns’ residents reached have reached their limit, thankyouverrrymuch.

The city of Long Beach, with a grand measure of “encouragement” from the hard-hitting Long Beach Surfrider chapter, voted 6-2 (sorry, not even close) last week to fashion an ordinance to ban single-use plastic bags by next summer. Fabuloso Maximo!

So last month it was unincorporated LA County, now the city of Long Beach…who’ll be next…? Can you say "dominoes"? Hello Clean Beaches! Bravo Surfrider Long Beach!

California tried to be nice about this bag ban stuff this summer via AB1998 – in which the entire state could have had a nice uniform bag ban in place, but nooOOooo…the slack-jawed dingbats at the ACC had to make things difficult on everyone – AND now, themselves. They did their level-best to promote filthy neighborhoods by knocking that bill down with a landslide of payola, and now they should have their hands full suing every Golden State municipality that chooses to clean up their environs and reduce waste that ends up in the ocean. Gentlemen, start yer engines!

I can just hear the ACC parents telling their kids this holiday season, “Sorry Elwood, but we are being forced to spend your Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanzaa pony money to sue every city in California – please accept this thrift-store athletic-support garment instead of the pony this year, OK?...oh, by the way, do you have your law degree yet, hmmmmm?”. What a tired paradigm…perhaps one day they’ll find value in working with bag-banning cities instead of against them, ya think?

It's gettin' dusty out west - NICE!
[Queue the last two seconds of AC/DC’s Shot Down In Flames.]

LA County Cans the Bag!

Great news - the presence of progressive thinkers (or fed-up urban-trash observers) exist in greater Los Angeles County!! AND they have voted to stop allowing retail stores from even offering plastic take-out bags, while enforcing a ten-cent charge for paper bags. Whoa - GUTSY - take that, Sacramento==>>>Wa-BAM!

Like all moves like this - we are in the initial phase: The final ordinance will be drafted and voted on next week, and if approved then, the ban will go into effect on July 1, 2011, for some stores and January 1, 2012 for all stores.

This ordinance is mildly complicated in that it only covers the "unincorporated" areas of LA County. The LA Times article has a great map showing the coverage area. The Fresno Bee offers some other fun insight.

Of course, the leading advocates of the scourge of urban and environmental garbage, the American Chemistry Council (ACC), is threatening to sue the unsuspecting souls of LA in order to continue their assault on the environment (and to maintain the constant fire hose flow of $$$ into their bank accounts)...so stay tuned on that tip.

The whole macadamia was put into neat perspective by Heal The Bay's Mark Gold when he said, "The cost of convenience can no longer be at the cost of the environment for centuries to come."

Amen, hallelujah, HOT-DIGGETY!




[The above image is from a non-Surfrider-affiliated bag retailer, check them out here .]

Welcome To ... The Crapola Islands

Again, our friends at the Plastic Pollution Coalition are making headlines...they've created a new country: The Crapola Islands, a place that "nature could not have created alone", where "the emerald waters teem with sea turtles and the sea turtles teem with tiny pieces of plastic garbage".


Drop by the Crapola Islands website and become a citizen - but beware, to become a citizen you must take the following pledge (suitable for framing and placement near the coffee machine at your office!):

"I, (state your name) pledge allegiance
to the nation of the Crapola Islands.
and by that I mean:

I will use less disposable plastic items
and not go through like 5 styrofoam cups a day;

I pledge not to be that guy.

I further pledge to spread the word
and bring others to the cause because together,
we can solve the plastic pollution epidemic.

Honestly, I see like zero downside to this."

Don't be that guy - but do havva Happy Monday!

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…

TEDx: Pacific Garbage Patch .....THIS SATURDAY, Nov 6th

If you are wondering what all the buzz about TEDx is all about...well, according to their website, "TEDx is a new program that enables local communities such as schools, businesses, libraries, neighborhoods or just groups of friends to organize, design and host their own independent, TED-like events."

And, if you are still wondering about the whole TED thing, to be "TED-like", an event will entail open, in depth and interesting discourse about a particular subject, in a sort-of-a TV studio setting (think Oprah, NOT), bright lights and an attentive, participatory audience.


OK, so TEDx: Great Pacific Garbage Patch? YES! Our cohorts over at the Plastic Pollution Coalition is hosting this exchange - THIS SATURDAY Nov 6th:

"Where leaders and innovators will come together to explore solutions for the global problem of plastic pollution. With speakers like Dr. Syliva Earle, Van Jones, David de Rothschild, and Ed Begley, Jr (with more being added daily!) the event will challenge humanity to stop plastic pollution."

That line-up again:

Dr Sylvia Earle - Sometimes called "The Sturgeon General", she is an oceanographer, and was Chief Scientist at NOAA in the early 1990's.

Van Jones - Environmental advocate, civil rights activist and attorney - called by one of 2008's Most Creative Minds by Fast Company, and a Hero of the Environment by Time mag.

David de Rothschild - Made a boat, Plastiki, out of plastic bottles and sailed it across the Pacific recently.

Ed Begley Jr - Best known for his role on the television series St. Elsewhere (six consecutive Emmy Award nominations, thankyouverymuch), He currently hosts a "green living" reality show called Living With Ed on Planet Green.

...and they are encouraging you to stage your own viewing party - all you need is a place to host it, a reliable internet connection and an audience of your friends - NICE!

More info:

The TEDx Garbage Patch website. Take The Pledge while you are there.

The Plastic Pollution Coalition website - take their Pledge too - lotsa fun celeb videos and great plastic pollution content there as well. Checque eet aut!