Merry Plastic Christmas

This Giant Consumerist Christmas Tree Will Make You Rethink Your Holiday Spending

Posted in the Huffington Post, December 24, 2013

 

Ah, Christmas. A time for families to get together, sing around the fireplace and stampede through the local malls in a frenzied panic for the perfect gift.

It's true that consumerism has come to dominate the spirit of Christmas, a fact we sometimes forget amidst the fragrant pine trees and twinkling lights that mark the holidays. Luckily art collective Luzinterruptus is here to bring the important issues to light and give us some beautiful artwork in the process. Behold, a "Consumerist Christmas Tree":

Luzinterruptus is known as much for their cleverly scavenged materials as they are for their dazzling and thoughtful urban interventions. So we weren't all too surprised to learn that one of their latest works used plastic bags as an artistic medium. "We wanted to give a double edge to our complaint,"

Luzinterruptus explained in an email to The Huffington Post. "On the one hand, the massive use of plastic bags and the consequences this has on the environment, and on the other hand, the excessive and unnecessary consumption that occurs during the Christmas holidays."


To comment on the consumerist sentiment that is as endemic to Christmas as a glass of eggnog, Luzinterruptus erected a public Christmas tree at the Lumiere Durham festival in England made entirely out of plastic bags, using around 3,000 in total. Luzinterruptus invited residents, associations and colleges to take part in building the "Consumerist Christmas Tree," asking for plastic bag donations which were then packed with plastic packaging.

The many artists and volunteers then hung the stuffed bags on a 9-meter-high, cone-shaped structure in the Prince Bishops Shopping Centre plaza. The final touch? Christmas lights, of course, transforming the heaps of trash into a neon, translucent Christmas tree, resembling the merger of a shopping spree and a family of jellyfish. The thematic work also coincided with a garbage service strike in the art collective's hometown of Madrid, adding another layer of meaning to the recycled work.

Check out the "Consumerist Christmas Tree" below and let us know if you're inspired to tone down the holiday gifts this year. Or, at the very least, BYOB (bring your own bag.)







For more on Luzinterruptus, check out a past story on the collective here.

Win! New York City bans Styrofoam

Published December 20, 2013 on TreeHugger.com by Margaret Badore

CC BY 2.0 Rhys Asplundh

 

New York's City Council voted unanimously to ban the use of polystyrene (Styrofoam) containers yesterday. New York is now the largest U.S. city to implement such a ban on single-use foam containers.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected to sign the bill into law before leaving office at the end of the year. NBC New York reports that Bloomberg supports the ban:

"Foam pollutes the waste stream, making it harder to recycle food waste as well as metal glass and plastic," the mayor said in a statement after the vote.

New Yorkers throw away 23,000 tons of polystyrene per year.
NY Daily New reports that Speaker Christine Quinn is also in support of getting rid of polystyrene:

“Most foam ends up in landfills where it can sit for literally 500 years or longer,” Quinn said. “The only thing in the world that lives longer than cockroaches or Cher is styrofoam.”

Environmental groups applaud the bill. "This is a tremendous decision, and grand victory for us all. Future generations will see this as the obvious choice," said Christopher Chin, Executive Director of the Center for Oceanic Awareness, Research, and Education. "But this vote today makes a strong stand and proves that New York is truly ready to make a difference."

The ban will take effect in a year, unless industry makers can prove Styrofoam can be recycled--something that has not successfully been done by any municipality. “They’ll have another year to show that, in my view, what is up is really down, but I don’t believe they’re going to be able to do that,” Councilman Lew Fidler, the bill’s sponsor, told the Daily News.

The council also voted in a commercial composting program for large restaurants and grocery stores at Thursday's meeting.

How Plastic In The Ocean Is Contaminating Your Seafood

published December 16, 2013 on NPR by Eliza Barclay

Fish can absorb toxic chemicals that have been dumped into waterways, but they can also get them from eating plastic. And there's a lot of plastic in the open ocean, which scientists say can act like a sponge, soaking up the chemicals already out there.

We've long known that the fish we eat are exposed to toxic chemicals in the rivers, bays and oceans they inhabit. The substance that's gotten the most attention — because it has shown up at disturbingly high levels in some fish — is mercury.

But mercury is just one of a slew of synthetic and organic pollutants that fish can ingest and absorb into their tissue. Sometimes it's because we're dumping chemicals right into the ocean. But as a study published recently in Nature, Scientific Reports helps illuminate, sometimes fish get chemicals from the plastic debris they ingest.

"The ocean is basically a toilet bowl for all of our chemical pollutants and waste in general," says Chelsea Rochman, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Davis, who authored the study.

"Eventually, we start to see those contaminants high up in the food chain, in seafood and wildlife."
For many years, scientists have known that chemicals will move up the food chain as predators absorb the chemicals consumed by their prey. That's why the biggest, fattiest fish, like tuna and swordfish, tend to have the highest levels of mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other dioxins. (And that's concerning, given that canned tuna was the second most popular fish consumed in the U.S. in 2012, according to the National Fisheries Institute.)

What scientists didn't know was exactly what role plastics played in transferring these chemicals into the food chain. To find out, Rochman and her co-authors fed medaka, a fish species often used in experiments, three different diets.

One group of medaka got regular fish food, one group got a diet that was 10 percent "clean" plastic (with no pollutants) and a third group got a diet with 10 percent plastic that had been soaking in the San Diego Bay for several months. When they tested the fish two months later, they found that the ones on the marine plastic diet had much higher levels of persistent organic pollutants.

"Plastics — when they end up in the ocean — are a sponge for chemicals already out there," says Rochman. "We found that when the plastic interacts with the juices in the [fish's] stomach, the chemicals come off of plastic and are transferred into the bloodstream or tissue." The fish on the marine plastic diet were also more likely to have tumors and liver problems.

While it's impossible to know whether any given fish you buy at the seafood counter has consumed this much plastic, Rochman's findings do have implications for human health, she notes. "A lot of people are eating seafood all the time, and fish are eating plastic all the time, so I think that's a problem."

And there's a lot of plastic out there in the open ocean. As Edward Humes, author of Garbology, told Fresh Air's Terry Gross in 2012, the weight of plastic finding its way into the sea each year is estimated to be equivalent to the weight of 40 aircraft carriers.

Consider the five massive gyres of trash particles swirling around in the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific oceans alone. Those gyres, Hume told Gross, contain "plastic that has been weathered and broken down by the elements into these little bits, and it's getting into the food chain."

One of those gyres is the infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Fish could encounter the plastic in those gyres, but also much closer to shore, says Rochman.

Even so, the consensus in the public health community still seems to be that the benefits of eating fish — because of their omega-3 fatty acids, among other assets — exceed the potential risks. And many researchers advocating for Americans to increase their fish consumption argue that the levels of dioxins, PCBs and other toxic chemicals in fish are generally too low to be of concern.

The Environmental Protection Agency does put out advisories to warn consumers when fish get contaminated with chemicals in local U.S. waters. But a lot of our seafood now comes from foreign waters, which the EPA does not monitor. Just a tiny fraction of imported fish get tested for contaminants.

As for Rochman, she says her research in marine toxicology has persuaded her to eat seafood no more than twice per week. And she now avoids swordfish altogether.

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Ocean Beach Council Plastic Bag Controversy

Published in SDnews.com Dec. 12, 2013

Let power lines be roosting territory for Ocean Beach’s famous feral parakeets — not a hitching post for ripped-up and decaying plastic bags twisting away in the wind, according to the Ocean Beach Town Council’s Board of Directors.

The board last month voted to support a proposed ordinance that would ban carry-out plastic bags at grocery stores and retail outlets in San Diego and charge 10 cents for paper bags.

The Ocean Beach Town Council voted overwhelmingly to urge the City Council to ban carry-out plastic bags at grocery stores and retail outlets and charge 10 cents for paper bags. Courtesy photo

If carried through, the city would join Solana Beach and more than 85 cities and counties in California that have taken action, according to Roger Cube, director of the San Diego County chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, who addressed the board in October.

Cube, pointing to a recently released study by the Equinox Center, said the harm from using plastic instead of reusable tote bags is irrefutable. More than 95 percent of the half-billion bags used annually throughout the city goes unrecycled, winding up as roadside and beach litter.

A ban could achieve an 86 percent reduction in plastic bag usage, the study said.

“It was a fabulous presentation, very convincing,” said Ocean Beach Town Council president Gretchen Kinney Newsom.

The ordinance was approved in October by the San Diego City Council’s Rules and Economic Development Committee, but has yet to be considered by the full City Council. OB Town Council board members decided to pass a resolution as a way to express the community’s pro-environment values, Kinney Newsom said.

“We felt it was important to get the word out effectively,” Kinney Newsom said.

The resolution in full can be viewed at obtowncouncil.org.

— Tony de Garate

Read more: San Diego Community News Group - OB Town Council puts bag on plastic bag controversy

Could Federal Bill Lead to Death of Plastic Bags?

Published in EcoWatch | May 22, 2013 By Laura Beans

A mother otter in Moss Landing Harbor, CA, tries to free her cub from a plastic bag. Photo courtesy of the Central Coast Sanctuary Alliance.

According to Bag Monster, a bill is under consideration that would regulate single-use plastic bags in the U.S.

On Earth Day, the bill, Trash Reduction Act of 2013, was introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives. If passed, the bill would place a five-cent fee on single-use plastic and paper bags in every retail location across the country.

“According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the average American throws away about 4.4 pounds of trash each day. The results of this waste can be found in our oceans,” said Rep. Moran (D-VA), who announced the introduction of the bill. “Small steps like replacing plastic bags with reusable ones yields large returns in reducing the amount of trash we create.”

The bill is modeled after Washington, D.C.’s disposable bag fee, which, since 2010, has reduced plastic bag usage from a monthly average of 22.5 million to 3 million bags. All revenue generated from the fee would be used to support the nation’s Land and Water Conservation Fund.

Although many U.S. cities and one state, Hawaii, have enacted plastic bag laws, the federal government has yet to pass any similar regulations.

The U.S. International Trade Commission reported that 102 billion plastic bags were used in the U.S. in 2009. As plastic items break down, any toxic additives they contain—including flame retardants, antimicrobials and plasticizers—can be released into the environment. Many of these chemicals may disrupt the endocrine system—the delicately balanced set of hormones and glands that affect virtually every organ and cell in the bodies of humans and animals. In marine environments, excess estrogen has led to discoveries of male fish and seagulls with female sex organs.

Plastic bags never biodegrade, and according to the Central Coast Sanctuary Alliance, the plastic bags that do get recycled can clog and slow sorting machines, making them a costly and inconvenient setback for recycling centers.

Stiv J. Wilson, of the 5 Gyres Institute, underscores the enduring damage perpetuated by our ravenous use of plastic bags in his introduction to a new video, Plastic Bags Are Forever:

One of the major barriers to implementing common sense plastic bag policies is that the plastic bag industry will often cite Life Cycle Analysis (LCAs) studies that only use carbon output as a measure of pollution, comparing paper and plastic. There is no attention given to the affect on marine life, nor the implications for human health as the apex predator of a marine food system (we eat fish that eat plastic that absorbs toxins). There is also no attention given to the fact that plastic bags do not biodegrade in the marine environment.

It’s clear that the issue is much more complicated than the plastic bag industry will lead us to believe as evidenced by the footage used to make the following public service announcement. But even the argument stating plastic is less carbon emission intensive than paper falls apart when we look at what’s isn’t included in the existing LCAs. For example, the feedstock for plastic bags is ethylene, a byproduct obtained from natural gas refining.

The carbon footprint of obtaining the natural gas isn’t considered in the LCAs either. Fracking, which emits methane, an incredibly potent greenhouse gas, accounts for 35 percent of the natural gas obtained in the U.S. With worldwide recycling of plastic bags decreasing and consumption increasing, more and more plastic bags are accumulating in the world’s rivers, watersheds and oceans.

Visit EcoWatch’s WATER page for more related news on this topic.

America Could End Homelessness in One Year by Doing This

Published on 12 December, 2013  in The Mind Unleashed

By: Kevin E. Lake, Free Patriot, Guest

If America really cared about solving the problem of homelessness among it’s citizenry, here’s an idea that would work. Oh- and that opening line references the fact that as far back as 2011 empty houses in America outnumbered homeless families by five times, according to Amnesty International. 

Anyway, let’s say the problem with homeless people in America was a result of not enough housing. Then, this idea would work.

Did you know that you can make houses out of plastic bottles? By filling them with sand, and molding them together with mud or cement, the walls created are actually bullet proof, fire proof, and will maintain an comfortable indoor temperature of 64 degrees in the summer time.

And it’s not like there is any shortage on used plastic bottles out there. Here are some statistics from treehugger.com:

“The United States uses 129.6 Million plastic bottles per day which is 47.3 Billion plastic bottles per year. About 80% of those plastic bottles end up in a landfill!”

To build a two bedroom, 1200 square foot home, it takes about 14,000 bottles.

The United States throws away enough plastic bottles to build 9257 of these 2 bedroom houses per day! That’s just over 3.35 million homes, the same number of homeless people in America.

Many people in third world countries have taken up building homes out of plastic bottles, from Africa to Asia. Perhaps the trend will catch on in America and all of those bottles will stop ending up in the landfills. Wouldn’t they be better off housing the homeless? Kinda like all those empty houses scattered all over the country?

Follow The Free Patriot contributor and Iraq War veteran Kevin E Lake on Facebook.

Source: freepatriot.org

Rain Brings Plastic Pollution To Santa Monica Beach

Posted Nov. 30, 2013, in the Santa Monica Mirror by Parimal M. Rohit / Staff Writer

Photo by Hannah Persinko

With much more rain last week, the “second flush” of the storm drains at Santa Monica Beach turned out to be much worse than the “first flush” back on Oct. 9.

They say it never rains in Southern California. Of course, it actually does rain here. When it does, the rain might be good news to the skies above Santa Monica. Yet the wet weather was bad news to Santa Monica Beach last weekend.

When overcast skies brought rain to Santa Monica and Southern California Nov. 21, a Santa Monica High School teacher/Santa Monica College instructor took his video camera and documented the single-use plastic pollution emanating from the Pico Kenter Storm Drain and onto Santa Monica Beach.

Benjamin Kay, the Samohi teacher and SMC instructor who documented the plastic pollution at the beach after the “second flush,” posted the video on YouTube after the Nov. 21 rain.

The video was taken just above Pico Kenter Storm Drain, located at the end of Pico Boulevard and near Shutters on the Beach.

In a phone conversation with Kay, he told The Mirror it was the worst “second flush” pollution he had ever seen.

A “flush” is when, after a rainy day or rainstorm, water rapidly moves toward the ocean from various communities and then underground through the storm drains and toward, for example, the ocean.Along the way, the fastmoving water collects any litter not deposited into a trashcan or similar contraption.

When the flush finally reaches its end point, whatever litter picked up along the way accumulates and creates quite the mess.

In the case of Pico Kenter, litter picked up and accumulated throughout the entire network connected to the Santa Monica-based storm drain would empty either on the beach or make its way a few more feet into the ocean.

Kay told The Mirror flushes sometimes create a pathway in the sand, essentially connecting Pico Kenter to the ocean.

Last week, Kay said the water within the newly created “pathway” was “like a raging river” after the Nov. 21 rain.

Inside the pathway, the fast-moving water included “tons of plastics,” Kay said. “As far as you could walk, there was plastic everywhere. Sometimes we get a massive amount of water and the trash can be washed away, other times it sets in pools.”

According to Kay, the “first flush”of the fall rains arrived in October. At that time, the flush only resulted in a “pool,” with less trash and water than the recent “second flush” when the “raging river” occurred.

Kay, who teaches biology at Samohi and SMC, did point out the City of Santa Monica is doing its part in attempting to reduce the amount of single-use plastic in the environment.
He commended City Hall for instituting a single-use plastic bag ban, for example.

Still, he added the underground storm drains are connected to other parts of Los Angeles, where Styrofoam and single-use plastic are still used.

When such items are not properly disposed or stray from trash or recycle bins, they often end up in storm drains and move toward places like Pico Kenter during rainstorms.

Kay’s YouTube video was more than four minutes in length. In the video, Kay, who is also a marine biology instructor at SMC, documented the amount of single-use plastic that made its way to the ocean and, as he stated, “that’s not going to get cleaned up.”

The video was highlighted Nov. 22 by the National Resource Defense Council’s (NRDC) staff blog.
In the blog covering Kay’s video, author Leila Monroe cited an NRDC report stating litter costs local governments across California about $428 million annually.

“Most of California is a very dry state, so when it finally starts to rain the pollution built up over the dry months – whether plastic bags, bottles, or toxins – washes from inland streets to storm drains and rivers, then out to the ocean,” Monroe wrote. “The first rain of the season in early November was fairly light, so the massive flow of waste didn’t make its way to the ocean until this week’s major downpour.”

 

To watch Kay’s Youtube video, visit youtube.com/watch?v=ifgka3iG5OQ.

Ocean Beach Officials Back Ban On Plastic Bags

Aired on KPBS 12/3/13  By Erik Anderson

 

The Ocean Beach Town Council is joining the chorus of calls for a ban on single-use plastic bags.

SAN DIEGO — Ocean Beach officials have determined nearly 500 million single-use bags are handed out in San Diego every year and they think it's time to change course.

The Ocean Beach Town Council passed a resolution supporting a citywide ordinance that severely limits single-use plastic bags.

The community organization said a ban is inevitable in the city of San Diego and likely will be approved next year.

Town Council President Gretchen Kinney Newsom said Ocean Beach is a progressive community and residents worry about the environmental impact of the single-use bags because the bags foul water and land. Kinney Newsom hardly considers the resolution controversial.

"I'd say this is trending to become reality in all of California," Kinney Newsom said. "Over 78 California municipalities have enacted similar ordinances banning or restricting the use of plastic bags, and it's a very common action of a shopper at a grocery store to carry their own plastic bags."

The San Diego City Council is considering eliminating the use of plastic bags at big box retailers and grocery stores. City officials are expected to vote on an ordinance early next year.

California lawmakers are also considering a statewide measure limiting the use of the bags. A vote on that bill could also come after the first of the year.

Mounting microplastic pollution harms 'earthworms of the sea' – report

published Dec. 2, 2013 in The Guardian by Jessica Aldred

Ingestion of microplastics by lugworms could have impact on ocean ecosystems due to their importance to food chain

Lugworms are widely found across the whole of the north Atlantic, living in burrows in the sand of beaches. Photograph: Alamy

Tiny bits of plastic rubbish ingested by marine worms is significantly harming their health and will have wider impact on ocean ecosystems, scientists have found.

Microplastic particles, measuring less than 5mm in size, have been accumulating in the oceans since the 1960s and are now the most abundant form of solid-waste pollution on Earth.

Two UK-based studies published in the journal Current Biology looked at whether these near-invisible, microscopic plastics that sink into mud and sand in high concentrations are causing harm to species at the base of the food chain that ingest this sediment during feeding, and play a key ecological role as a source of food for other animals.

Using the lugworm as an indicator species, the first study, from the University of Exeter, found that worms feeding in highly contaminated ocean sediment ate less and had lower energy levels. The second study, from Plymouth University, has established for the first time that ingesting microplastics can transfer pollutants and additives to worms, reducing health and biodiversity.

Ingestion of microplastics by species at the base of the food web is a cause for concern as little has been known about its effects until now. Many other organisms that have a similar feeding behaviour, such as starfish, sea cucumbers and fiddler crabs, may be similarly affected.

Lugworms are common invertebrates found widely found across the whole of the north Atlantic, living in burrows in the sand of beaches. They eat sand particles, digesting any micro-organisms and nutrients and passing the sand as waste through their tail, leaving a distinctive trail or "cast" on the beach. The worm can make up about 30% of the biomass of an average sandy beach, making it an important source of food for wading birds and flatfish.

The "earthworms of the sea", lugworms provide another important ecosystem service by turning over large volumes of sand, replenishing organic material and oxygenating the upper layers to keep the sediment healthy for other animals and microorganisms to thrive in.

Microplastics can be made from polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate, PVC or polystyrene. They are too small to be captured through existing wastewater treatment process, and wash straight into the ocean.
Pre-production plastic pellets, or 'nurdles' on the windward side of South Sokos Island, Hong Kong. Photograph: Alex Hofford/EPA 

 They fall into three categories: the raw material called "nurdles" that are melted down to make larger plastic items or used as exfoliating beads in cosmetic products, or larger pieces of plastic that have degraded and broken down into smaller particles over time. Microplastics are also found as fibres and have been traced back to synthetic textiles like polyester that are used to make clothes, which can release up to 1,900 tiny fibres per garment every time they are washed.

Microplastics carry a complex mix of chemicals which have the potential to harm the worms, the research showed. Many plastics contain chemical additives, such as plasticisers, dyes, and antimicrobials, which can leach out into sediments and seawater. Microplastics also concentrate water-borne chemicals on their surfaces, such as pesticides and detergents.

There has been much campaigning around the impact of larger marine plastic pollution, with widely documented instances of fish and bird entanglement, ingestion and suffocation. But particles of this microscopic size are available to a much broader range of marine organisms, who ingest and retain these tiny plastic particles and act as prey for larger species.

The first study, by Stephanie Wright from the University of Exeter, put worms into laboratory tanks of varying levels of plastics contamination for up to one month, measuring their growth, physiology, survival and ability to gain weight. She found that lugworms feeding in sediment that was highly contaminated with microplastics put on less weight than worms in clean sediment and had less energy to invest in key processes such as growth and reproduction. These effects could cause populations to decline with knock-on effects for predators, the paper found.

Reduced feeding also means the sediment is being reworked less, the research found. The condition of the sediment could fall, leading to a decline in the communities which live in it. Wright said: "If worms in contaminated environments were to reduce feeding levels by an amount comparable to that seen in the lab, it would mean significantly less turnover of sediment. In an area the size of the Wadden Sea, for instance, sediment turnover could drop by more than 130,000 litres each year."

"We believe our study has highlighted the need to reduce the amount of plastic waste and therefore microplastics which enter our seas," says Prof Tamara Galloway of the University of Exeter. "Plastics are enormously beneficial materials. However, if marine plastic pollution continues to increase, impacts such as those demonstrated in our laboratory studies could occur in the natural environment. It is therefore important that we prevent the accumulation of plastic and microplastic debris in marine habitats through better waste-handling practices and smarter choices in the materials we use."

A separate report, from Dr Mark Anthony Browne on work performed at Plymouth University, showed microplastics can transfer harmful chemicals to lugworms, including hydrocarbons, antimicrobials and flame retardants. Due to its role as a prey species, lugworms could pass these chemicals up the food chain to top predators such as fish.

"These chemicals are persistent, meaning they could accumulate in the tissue of organisms and take a long time to break down," said Prof Richard Thompson of the school of marine science and engineering at Plymouth University, who was the project lead for the work. "Our laboratory studies provide the first clear evidence that microplastics could cause harm and show that this could result from both the physical presence of ingested plastic and chemical transfer. Our next steps will be to establish the full implications of these findings for organisms in natural habitats."

Plastic Debris in Oceans has Spawned a 'Plastisphere' of Organisms

Published in Environment 360, November 13th, 2013

The plastic debris that litters the world's oceans has developed its own unique and diverse microbial ecosystem, which scientists have dubbed the "plastisphere." READ MORE 

Members of the rich microbial ecosystem living on plastic debris are shown in these scanning electron microscope images: a) a diatom and bacterial filaments; b) filamentous cyanobacteria; c) a predatory ciliate in foreground covered with symbiotic bacteria (inset), along with diatoms, bacteria, and filamentous cells; d) microbial cells that have pitted the surface of a piece of plastic debris. All scale bars are 10 micrometers. (Image credit: Zettler, et al., Environmental Science & Technology)

The plastic debris that litters the world's oceans has developed its own unique and diverse microbial ecosystem, researchers report. The microscopic community, which scientists dubbed the "plastisphere," includes more than 1,000 species of algae, bacteria, microscopic plants, symbiotic microbes, and possibly even pathogens, the researchers say in Environmental Science & Technology. 

Some of the plastisphere microbes, many of which had never before been documented, contain genes that could help break down hydrocarbons, indicating the microbes may play a role in degrading the debris, the research shows. Plastic trash is the most abundant type of debris in the ocean, inflicting harm on fish, birds, and marine mammals that are entangled by it or ingest it. 

Until now, researchers hadn't looked at microbes living on the debris, which make up a sort of artificial "microbial reef," one of the scientists said. The organisms on the plastic debris were different from the microbial communities living on driftwood, feathers, and other natural items floating in the ocean, and also different from the assemblage of microbes living in open water, the researchers report.

Another Texas Town Bans Plastic Bags

Surfrider Foundation

Published on ecowatch.com By Bill Hickman - July, 31, 2013

Surfrider chapters typically focus their plastic reduction efforts in coastal cities and towns since that’s where our members are who see the impacts of plastic pollution firsthand and want to take action. You have to start somewhere and as a grassroots organization, that somewhere is our backyard.



But it’s important to remember that everywhere on land is part of a watershed that flows to a river, creek or stream that then outlets in a lake, bay or ocean. So it’s great to see inland cities making efforts to reduce single-use plastic bags and the latest good news comes from the west Texas city of Kermit where a reusable bag ordinance has been enacted.

In addition to marine impacts, plastic bags can be a big nuisance for farmers. I recently spoke with some Surfrider activists in Texas who mentioned that cotton farmers can take a financial hit from plastic bag litter because it can taint their crop as it is processed by mills:

Bags find their way into farmers’ fields and then into modules of cotton. The bags go through the gin and textile mills and have even ended up in finished apparel. One thing that I would really like to emphasize this fall is to watch for those Wal-Mart bags in your fields. It’s almost humorous, but it’s dead serious. One mill in the east quit buying cotton in Georgia and the Carolinas because of it.

Kermit recently passed a type of reusable bag ordinance that eliminates plastic checkout bags at most retailers and puts a small fee on paper bags as an incentive for people to remember their reusable bag or go without a bag for small purchases. The City of Kermit website does a great job to explain the ordinance and why it’s needed:

Q: What kind of plastic bag is banned?
Plastic carryout bags include any bag made of plastic (from any source), which is provided to the customer at the point of sale.

Q: What kind of plastic bag is NOT banned?
Produce bags and product bags are bags without handles used exclusively to carry produce, meats or other food items to the point of sale or to prevent such food items from coming into direct contact with other purchased items.

Q: Why has the City of Kermit banned single-use plastic carryout bags?
The intent of the single-use carryout bag ordinance is to significantly reduce the environmental impacts related to single-use plastic and paper carry out bags and promote a major shift towards the use of reusable bags.

Q: How are single-use plastic carryout bags harmful to the environment?
They are consumed in extremely high volumes. They are produced from non-renewable resources. They are designed to be disposable (rather than reusable). They are difficult to recycle—less than 5 percent of the 19 billion plastic bags used annually in Texas are actually recycled. They are a significant and visible component of litter and do not biodegrade. They remain in the environment as marine, storm drain and beach pollution for decades. A significant hazard to ranch animals and birds, which often mistake plastic bags as food.

Q: Is there any exception to this ban?
The ordinance does NOT prohibit the distribution of plastic product bags such as those distributed within a grocery store for bagging produce or meat.

Q: What stores are required to charge 10 cents for each recycled paper bag?
All grocery stores, convenience stores, minimarts, liquor stores, drug stores and pharmacies are prohibited from providing free distribution of single-use paper and plastic carryout bags. If these stores decide to make paper carryout bags available for their customers, they are required to sell recycled paper carryout bags made from 100 percent total recycled content with 40 percent post-consumer recycled content for not less than 10 cents per bag.

Q: Why is there a $0.10 fee on recycled paper carryout bags?
The fee of $0.10 on recycled paper carryout bags encourages the use of reusable bags. This cost pass-through reimburses retailers for the costs of providing recycled paper carry out bags to their customers. All of the revenue from the cost pass-through remains with the store.

Q: How do I avoid paying 10 cents for each recycled paper bag?
It’s easy—remember to bring your own reusable bags to the store. Some stores will even offer you a credit or gift for bringing your own bag.

Visit EcoWatch’s BIODIVERSITY page for more related news on this topic.

EPA Launches Initiative to Reduce Plastic Pollution in Oceans

Published For Immediate Release, November 6, 2013 on biologicaldiversity.org
Contact: Emily Jeffers, (415) 632-5309, ejeffers@biologicaldiversity.org

EPA Launches Initiative to Reduce Plastic Pollution in Oceans

New Steps Follow Petition to Protect People, Wildlife From Toxic Trash

 

SAN FRANCISCO–- After a petition by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Environmental Protection Agency says it will take steps to cut plastic pollution in oceans, improve monitoring and conduct a scientific review of the human-health effects of eating fish that have ingested plastics and other pollution.

Photo courtesy NOAA. Photos are available for media use.

The agency also says it will develop national data on the economic costs of ocean litter to local, state and national governments, and will do more to prevent people and businesses from littering in oceans.

“We’re happy to see the EPA taking plastics pollution seriously,” said Emily Jeffers, an oceans attorney at the Center. “Every year bits of discarded plastic kill thousands of seabirds, sea turtles, seals and other marine mammals. Some choke on plastic, and others are poisoned by it. Still more find themselves swimming through vast patches of toxic litter. It’s an international tragedy that needs to be addressed.”

Billions of pounds of plastic are found in giant, swirling convergences around the world, including the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, twice the size of Texas. The root of the problem is plastic and other garbage that’s dumped into the oceans. In the Los Angeles area alone, 20 tons of plastic fragments — like grocery bags, straws and soda bottles — are carried into the Pacific Ocean every day.

Last year the Center petitioned the EPA to use its authority under the Clean Water Act to develop water-quality standards for plastic pollution and publish information to guide states in monitoring and preventing harm to waters from plastic pollution. Although the EPA declined to develop plastic-specific water-quality criteria, the agency agreed to expand other efforts to protect people and wildlife from litter in oceans and other aquatic environments.

According to the statement granting the Center’s petition, the EPA said it will develop and provide information on reducing plastic pollution at its source — guidance covering, as the Center requested, plastic-pollution threats, monitoring and measurement, best management practices to reduce that pollution, and direction for states and cities to create regulations to prevent plastic pollution.

“Obviously we think the EPA needs to move as aggressively as possible to stem the spread of ocean plastic pollution, including strict limits on discharge,” said Jeffers. “But the agency is moving in the right direction with these new steps. We hope we can begin getting a handle on this crisis before it’s completely out of control.”
Plastics pollution has a direct and deadly effect on wildlife. Curious marine mammals get entangled and drown in plastic garbage, seabirds feed the bright, colorful pieces to their young instead of food, and sea turtles eat plastic bags mistaking them for jellyfish.

Thousands of seabirds and sea turtles, seals and other marine mammals are killed each year after ingesting plastic or becoming entangled in it; many more suffer after ingesting plastic particles that contain toxic substances, which can cause death, injury or reproductive failure.

Endangered wildlife like Hawaiian monk seals and Pacific loggerhead sea turtles are among the nearly 300 species affected by plastic litter.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 625,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

UCLA report urges new global policy effort to tackle crisis of plastic litter in oceans

Published October 29, 2013 in the EIN News

Plastic litter is one of the most significant problems facing the world's marine environments. Yet in the absence of a coordinated global strategy, an estimated 20 million tons of plastic litter enter the ocean each year.

A new report by authors from UCLA School of Law's Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment and UCLA's Institute of the Environment and Sustainability explores the sources and impacts of plastic marine litter and offers domestic and international policy recommendations to tackle these growing problems — a targeted, multifaceted approach aimed at protecting ocean wildlife, coastal waters, coastal economies and human health.

"Stemming the Tide of Plastic Marine Litter: A Global Action Agenda," the Emmett Center's most recent Pritzker Environmental Law and Policy Brief, documents the devastating effects of plastic marine litter, detailing how plastic forms a large portion of our waste stream and typically does not biodegrade in marine environments. Plastic marine litter has a wide range of adverse environmental and economic impacts, from wildlife deaths and degraded coral reefs to billions of dollars in cleanup costs, damage to sea vessels, and lost tourism and fisheries revenues. The brief describes the inadequacy of existing international legal mechanisms to resolve this litter crisis, calling on the global community to develop a new international treaty while also urging immediate action to implement regional and local solutions.

"Plastic marine litter is a growing global environmental threat imposing major economic costs on industry and government," said report co-author Mark Gold, an associate director of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. Marine plastic pollution slowly degrades and has spread to every corner of the world's oceans, from remote islands to the ocean floor. Voluntary half-measures are not preventing devastating global impacts to marine life, the economy and public health. Although there is no one panacea, we have identified the top 10 plastic pollution–prevention actions that can be implemented now to begin drastically reducing plastic marine litter."

In "Stemming the Tide of Plastic Marine Litter," the authors review the universe of studies, policies and international agreements relevant to the problem and provide a suite of recommendations to achieve meaningful reductions in plastic marine litter. The report's "Top 10" list of recommended actions includes a new international treaty with strong monitoring and enforcement mechanisms; domestic and local regulatory actions, such as bans of the most common and damaging types of plastic litter; extended producer-responsibility programs; and the creation of an "ocean friendly" certification program for plastic products.

"Because global mismanagement of plastic is fueling the growing marine litter problem, policy responses are needed at all levels, from the international community of nations down to national and local communities," said report co-author Cara Horowitz, executive director of the Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment. "We can act now to rapidly scale up effective policies and programs to address plastic marine litter. And hopefully, international collaboration to reduce plastic litter will lay a foundation for broader cooperation on other significant issues affecting the health of our oceans."

Plastic marine litter has its origins in both land- and ocean-based sources, from untreated sewage and industrial and manufacturing sites to ships and oil and gas platforms. Pushed by the natural motion of wind and ocean currents — often over long distances — the litter is present in oceans worldwide, as well as in sea floor sediment and coastal sands. As the particles break down and disperse, they have a wide range of adverse environmental, public health and economic consequences with the potential to kill wildlife, destroy natural resources and disrupt the food chain.

The Pritzker Environmental Law and Policy Briefs are published by UCLA School of Law and the Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment in conjunction with researchers from a wide range of academic disciplines and the broader environmental law community. They are made possible through a generous donation by Anthony "Tony" Pritzker, managing partner and co-founder of The Pritzker Group. The briefs provide expert analysis to further public dialogue on issues impacting the environment. All papers in the series are available here.

UCLA School of Law, founded in 1949, is the youngest major law school in the nation and has established a tradition of innovation in its approach to teaching, research and scholarship. With approximately 100 faculty and 1,100 students, the school pioneered clinical teaching, is a leader in interdisciplinary research and training, and is at the forefront of efforts to link research to its effects on society and the legal profession.

Plastic Ocean - book review

Published October 28th, 2013 by Elizabeth Claire Alberts in the ecologist.org
 

Elizabeth Claire Alberts discovers how a sea captain's chance discovery launched a mission to clear up the
Great Pacific Garbage Patch ...

 

In 1997, Captain Charles Moore steered his catamaran into the doldrums of the mid-Pacific Ocean, hoping to catch winds further south that would push his boat back to California. While sailing through this stretch of water, Moore made a shocking discovery - the ocean was filled with plastic.

Mainstream media has often referred to this accumulation of plastic as a "floating island" or a "mountain of trash". In Plastic Ocean, Moore sets the record straight, describing it as "plastic soup ... lightly seasoned with plastic flakes, bulked out here and there with ‘dumplings': buoys, net clumps, floats, crates, and other ‘macro debris'".

In his hometown of Alamitos Bay, south of Los Angeles, Moore had founded the Algalita Marine Research Institute in 1994 to help clean up the coastal waters. But he couldn't believe he had found plastic in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. His determination to do something about it shaped his path for the next 15 years.

Plastic Ocean chronicles Moore's journey as he evolves into a citizen-scientist intent on curbing plastic pollution. Shortly after returning to California, Moore organised a research expedition back to the rubbish zone in the Pacific, an area now called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

He and his crew trawled for plastic samples, yielding alarming results. Plastic outnumbers life-giving zooplankton by a factor of six to one. Filter feeders appear to ingest more plastic than plankton, suggesting that plastic has the potential to disrupt the entire marine food chain.

While much of his journey takes place in the rough waters of the ocean, Moore embarks on an equally rough ride on land. To obtain the best exposure for his research, he set his sights on publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

With humour and humility, he describes the challenges of navigating his way to scientific acceptance. First he has to learn the ropes of writing a research paper. Then he has to fight for his voice to be heard at scientific conferences, often sponsored by the very corporations responsible for plastic proliferation.

None of these obstacles deters Moore. In fact, they impassion him further. He sails his catamaran back to the mid-Pacific to collect additional samples. He co-authors more research papers. He spreads awareness about plastic pollution in conferences, films and news segments, and on late-night talk shows.

Spliced with Moore's own story is the story of plastic itself. As grandson of a past president of Hancock Oil, Moore speaks with authority about converting oil into different types of plastic. Plastic consumption burgeoned after World War II with the invention of disposable products.

Although Moore acknowledges the many benefits of plastic, he argues that single-use plastics like shopping bags and drink bottles have contributed to the degradation of our natural world. On one voyage, he paints an eerie scene of crisp-looking plastic bags fluttering across the seascape. "We're in the middle of the ocean, surrounded by a sea of plastic shopping bags," he says. "It's as if a tornado tore the roof off a floating shopping mall just beyond the horizon line."

Yet, as Moore illustrates, the problem of plastic pollution is much more than aesthetic. In the chapter Bad Chemistry, he explains how new research shows that plastic acts like a sponge, soaking up other contaminants present in the ocean. Plastic is already toxic in itself, poisoning the filter feeders that ingest it. But as plastic works its way up the oceanic food chain, toxicity escalates.

Plastic Ocean is an incredibly important book, explaining the urgency of the plastic pollution problem. Ocean conservation efforts tend to focus only on issues like overfishing, acidification, and sea-level rise. Yet plastic pollution poses another big threat, and we had better start paying more attention right now.

While the hard-hitting facts in this book can feel a little depressing, Moore provides plenty of hope in possible solutions. For instance, he endorses "chemical recycling", a process that cracks plastic polymer back to its monomers for reuse. (However, he notes that this process is "not perfect by closed-loop standards".)

He also advocates marine-biodegradable plastic that aquatic bacteria can break down. The most effective path to change, Moore suggests, is a consumer groundswell against plastics: "In my decade and a half in the trenches," he writes, "I've seen tremendous growth in awareness."

Plastic Ocean will generate and increase this awareness about plastic pollution. I certainly feel different about plastic - and about the changes I could make to help save the oceans.

Elizabeth Claire Alberts is a writer and environmental activist based in Australia. www.elizabethclairealberts.com

For more information and to purchase the book visit here:

http://www.plasticoceanthebook.com/plasticoceanthebook.html

Cleaning up plastic litter in remote, open ocean areas: Guidance for prospective inventors of plastic-capture systems

Read the Press Release, Scientists provide first public guidance on array of challenges in cleaning up plastic litter from oceans successfully here.

Distributed by MarineDebris.Info

Introduction
Marine debris, and particularly plastic marine debris, poses a significant global threat to marine life. Growing public awareness of this threat, including the recognition that floating ocean plastics tend to congregate in remote areas of the open ocean (the so-called “garbage patches”), has inspired some individuals and groups to conceive of systems for cleaning up debris at sea. These systems have ranged from simple net-based methods to ambitious giant filtering systems that would stretch hundreds of kilometers across the sea surface, among other ideas.

These ideas are laudable for their goal of removing plastics from the sea. However, the proposed systems typically fail to account for real-world ocean conditions and/or the many ecological and engineering-related challenges that would face any cleanup effort on the open ocean. In fact, the array and scale of challenges involved in any realistic cleanup of remote ocean areas have been cited often by experts as evidence that marine debris management should focus on preventing new litter from entering the ocean, rather than attempting to remove the litter that is already there.1

Still, many seemingly intractable challenges faced by humans over time have been solved by bright ideas. And as long as people are aware of and moved by the problem of ocean plastic debris, there will be attempts to solve it. In this light, we do not want to dissuade potential innovators from examining the issue of marine debris cleanup. Rather, we want to inform and channel their innovation.

Guidance
This document presents general guidance for the cleanup of floating plastic debris in the open ocean. This guidance was produced and edited in June-July 2013 by a team of experienced marine debris researchers (see “Background on this document”) and was shared in July with the global MarineDebris.Info community of marine debris managers, researchers, and conservationists for additional input. This list is intended to evolve and improve over time as further knowledge is gained. We also strongly recommend that all prospective inventors of cleanup systems consult experienced ocean engineers early in their development processes.

Systems for open ocean cleanup of marine plastics should account for, and overcome, the following challenges:

1. The size and depth of the ocean gyres within which floating marine plastics tend to gather. The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, the best-known location of a “garbage patch” or trash vortex, has a surface area of approximately 20,000,000 km² — more than twice the size of the U.S. Thus any system that would tow nets through the gyre to capture debris, for example, must either factor that surface area into its design or determine a way to avoid having to transit the whole area. In addition, in even the most densely polluted regions of the subtropical gyres, microplastics (particles smaller than 5 mm in size) are frequently present at concentrations of less than one piece per square meter, requiring extensive areal coverage to recover just one kilogram of plastic. Furthermore, average water depth of the open ocean is 4,000 meters (2.5 miles); therefore, any cleanup system relying upon moored structures must account for this extreme depth. 
   
2. Depth and concentration of microplastics. Floating plastic debris, and particularly microplastics, can be mixed below the surface in even light winds. The depth of the mixing depends on the strength of the wind and the physical structure of the ocean in that particular area. It may range from a few meters depth during typical low wind conditions in summer months to 100-150 meters depth during stormier winter months. Any cleanup system, particularly one that relies on surface-floating mechanisms, must account for subsurface mixing of debris. 
   
3. Capturing plastics while not harming marine life that is co-located with the plastics. The goal of ocean plastic removal is ultimately to help sea life. If cleanup systems hurt or kill sea life in the process — such as fish or even plankton — they are counterproductive. Most zooplankton, for example, do not survive being caught in a standard net, never mind spun in a centrifuge where they lose critical appendages like their antennae and feeding apparatus. A system that relies on nets or centrifuges will require engineered solutions to avoid or minimize these effects. In addition, indirect environmental impacts of cleanup systems — such as from fuel use by cleanup vessels scouring the ocean, or from incineration of collected plastics at sea — should be considered and mitigated.  
   
4. Potential for entanglement of marine life in the systems. Similar to the above guideline, any cleanup system that poses an indirect entanglement threat to wildlife, such as seabirds or cetaceans, must be reengineered. In the U.S., any activity that might harm protected species is illegal without a permit.  
   
5. Strength and stability in extreme sea conditions. Any cleanup system is in danger of becoming marine debris itself if it breaks up, such as from storm action, high waves, or ship collisions. A successful system must be able to avoid extreme weather or be sturdy enough to withstand such conditions, and must be detectable by fast-moving vessels. 
   
6. Maintenance and fouling. The reality of operating equipment in extreme environments, of which the open ocean is an example, is that equipment breaks down. There must be a cost-effective means to maintain and repair the cleanup system over time, particularly for systems that involve long-term deployment. Furthermore, there must be a way to account for, and address, the rapid biofouling that occurs when any equipment is placed in the ocean. 
   
7. The physical properties of ocean-weathered plastic. Floating marine debris is largely composed of polyethylene and polypropylene — common plastic types with a density less than that of seawater. (Polystyrene, which has a density roughly equal to that of seawater, may also be present but is much less abundant in floating debris.) Ultraviolet light degrades these plastic polymers, making them brittle and difficult to recycle. Cleanup schemes that propose to recycle and/or market the plastic they collect should be aware of the technical issues, and of the actual market value of the plastic they collect, which may be low. Recyclers with the technology to “upcycle” mixed ocean plastic into consumer-quality polymers remain very few (Envision Plastics, which partners with home products manufacturer Method on a recycled ocean plastic bottle, is one). As a result, the market for collected ocean plastic is underdeveloped at best. 
   
8. Legal issues. There are extensive laws and regulations governing the deployment of equipment at sea. For example, structures cannot be a hazard to navigation or a threat to protected species. In the U.S., multiple permits from state and/or federal agencies may be required for cleanup devices. The permitting process is lengthy, onerous, and expensive, and may require specialized legal consultation. On the high seas — marine areas beyond national jurisdiction — the applicability and relevance of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea must be evaluated in each case.

Background on this document
This guidance was drafted by:

• John Davis, M.M.A., of MARE
• Miriam Goldstein, Ph.D., of California Sea Grant and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego

Editors and contributors included:

• Courtney Arthur, M.S., Research Specialist, NOAA Marine Debris Program
• Pete Davison, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Scholar, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
• Kara Lavender Law, Ph.D., Research Professor, Sea Education Association (SEA)
• Chelsea Rochman, Ph.D., Aquatic Health Program, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis

The guidance was submitted for additional review to the MarineDebris.Info community.
We welcome additional editors and contributors; this guidance is intended to be a living document. To provide input, please contact John Davis, project supervisor of MarineDebris.Info, at jdavis@marineaffairs.org.

Media
For interviews, please contact:

• John Davis, jdavis@marineaffairs.org
• Miriam Goldstein, miriam.goldstein@gmail.com

About MarineDebris.Info
MarineDebris.Info is the global knowledge-sharing community for marine debris management and research, with members representing government agencies, research institutions, conservation organizations, industry, and more (www.marinedebris.info).  It consists of a listserv, website, and live chat events allowing members of the MarineDebris.Info community to interact with leaders in the field.

MarineDebris.Info is a project of Marine Affairs Research and Education (MARE), a Seattle-based organization that provides a range of knowledge-sharing services to ocean managers and conservationists worldwide.  These services include the OpenChannels forum on ocean planning (openchannels.org), the MPA News service on marine protected areas (mpanews.org), and the Marine Ecosystems and Management information service (meam.net). MARE collaborates on several of its projects, including MarineDebris.Info, with the University of Washington.

Make packaging from ocean plastic? Yes, we can!

Published in the Press Dispensary 2013-10-25

method_pressbooklet_page 5

People would say: there's no way you can take plastic out of the middle of the ocean and make useable, recyclable packaging from it. Well, we've done just that!

The Cradle to Cradle Certified Product Standard provides designers and manufacturers with a unique framework for sustainable innovation, where the aim is to create products that have a positive impact on society and the environment, rather than one that is merely less negative. Method cleaning products, widely available in shops and supermarkets throughout the UK, have more than 60 products Cradle to Cradle Certified. One of their recent breakthroughs is to make product packaging from ocean waste. And if you think you can tell the difference, you’re probably wrong!

The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute spoke with Adam Lowry, co-founder and 'chief greenskeeper of Method.

Please tell us more about the ‘ocean plastic bottle’. How did the idea come about?

When you study the problem of ocean pollution – which is mostly plastic – what you learn is that the only real solution is prevention. As you and I know, there's no practical way of going there and cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It’s not an island; it's a soup, so the main issue is that any clean-up effort is impractical. The real solution is preventing the plastic from getting into the ocean in the first place. And if you're going to do that, one of the very best ways to do it is simply to use the plastic that's already on the planet.

However, recycling rates in the US and UK are very low. It's estimated that less than half - perhaps as low as 25% - of plastic gets recycled, which means for every pound of plastic that's recycled, three pounds end up in landfill or in the environment somewhere. So what we need to get better at is closing the material loop, and using the plastic that’s already on the planet.

This is something that Method has done for many years. There's no virgin plastic material in any of the PET we make. On its own, this is not something that's very interesting for the mainstream consumer to think about. So what we wanted to achieve through the ocean plastic project was simultaneously raise awareness about this important issue and point to the solution.

Essentially, we have created a product that people said would be impossible. People would say: there's no way you can take plastic out of the middle of the ocean and make useable, recyclable packaging from it. Well, we've done just that, and you can buy it at your regular supermarket. By demonstrating that the impossible is possible, we're removing the excuse that any company has for not using 100% post-consumer recycled plastic, like we do.

How about what's inside? Can that have a positive influence on the environment as well?

There is a general belief - often perpetuated by the media - that only harsh chemicals can remove harsh stains. However, Method is proving that this is not the case.

I have a four year old, so I’m very familiar with the issue of harsh stains! The idea that a product has to be full of 'dirty' chemicals in order to clean something is really an outdated mindset.

I would like to ask consumers simply to challenge their assumptions that only the products with harsh chemicals will get something clean. I would encourage them to give products like Method a try, of course; but it's not just us. There are many other high quality products in many different categories that are sustainably designed and still perform highly.

In time, what would you like Method to be remembered for?

I would like Method to be seen as the company that proved that business can be good for the world. I would also like people to look back and see that we did it in one of the most uninteresting consumer categories there is!

What I mean by that is simply that people don't think about cleaning products very much. But if you can make beautiful, high performance, highly sustainable products in a category as commoditized as household cleaning and be successful, then you can do it anywhere!

Hopefully, 50 years from now, the majority of businesses and in all sorts of categories will have followed our lead, and together we will have created a world where business is the driving force behind sustainable change.

To find out more about Cradle to Cradle products and Cradle to Cradle product certification, visit www.c2c-certified.org.
- ends -

Notes for editors
The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, a non-profit organization, administers the Cradle to Cradle Certified Product Standard. It was created to bring about  a new industrial revolution that turns the making of things into a positive force for society, economy, and the planet. The continuous improvement quality standard was gifted to the Institute by William McDonough and Michael Braungart after more than 20 years of development with some of the world’s leading  brands. For more information, visit: http://www.c2c-certified.org.

Founded in 2000, Method is headquartered in San Francisco, Calif. Today, Method is the leading innovator of premium eco-conscious home and personal care products. Method can be found in more than 40,000 retail locations throughout North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. For more information, visit: http://www.methodproducts.co.uk/

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT
Daan Elffers, Consultant
EMG
Tel: 07833 257028 / 01223 210 560
Email: daan@emg-csr.com
Site: www.emg-csr.com

'Plastic Whale Project' at UM illustrates Great Pacific Garbage Patch problem

 Published October 17 By Betsy Cohen in the Missoulian

 

MICHAEL GALLACHER/Missoulian

Heather Higinbotham points out to her daughter Scout, 7, details of a 32-foot-long replica of a gray whale made entirely of plastic bags, bottles and assorted garbage collected from our environment. The sculpture was on display Thursday at the Dennison Theatre at the University of Montana.

In the dark theater, on a dimly lit stage, a 32-foot-long gray whale made of plastic bags looked so lifelike, it seemed to be gliding through the depths of the ocean.

As visitors came to see the one-day exhibit of “The Plastic Whale Project,” the iconic shape and colossal size of the subject prompted the same reaction – no matter what their age.

“When I walked in and saw it I went, ‘Whoa – that’s pretty life-size scale,’ ” said 10-year-old Liam Queneau, who visited the unusual art piece that took center stage at the University of Montana’s Dennison Theatre on Thursday afternoon.

“And then I said, ‘Wow.’ ”

Made from more than 9,000 plastic bags and created by 900 children and adults in Thurston County, Wash., the sculpture was originally part of an outreach program to engage the public in understanding plastics in our environment, explained Carrie Ziegler.

Ziegler spearheaded the project during her professional work with Thurston County Solid Waste, and brought it to completion with her vision and her after-hours life as a studio painter, muralist and sculptor.

“As an artist, it was a logical step for me to incorporate art and creativity into the educational program,” Ziegler said during a rare quiet moment when a viewer wasn’t asking her about the dramatic whale.

“When I thought about how to educate people about plastics in our environment and to reduce the use of plastic bags, I wanted something a lot of different people could be involved with,” she said. “Then I learned about trash in our oceans – and the Gyre.”

What is called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – or Gyre – is a vortex of human debris, mostly plastic, that collects where currents collide in the central North Pacific.

“It’s more like a garbage soup, where the top 30 meters of ocean is filled with plastics that don’t biodegrade,” Ziegler said. “In size, it’s about as big as two states of Texas.”

With the awful reality of the gyre fresh in her mind, she remembered the story of a gray whale that washed up on a Thurston County beach in 2010.

When biologists did a necropsy on the whale, they found in its stomach a host of disturbing non-biodegradable items, including more than 30 plastic bags, tennis balls and a pair of sweatpants.

Ziegler said connecting the two made artistic sense, which was how she decided the whale would be the subject of her community project, and plastic bags would be the medium.

***
Consider this, Ziegler said as she explained the sculpture to viewers flowing around the whale – which seemed suspended in air, but was actually firmly anchored to the ground by four shopping carts.

“The skin of the whale is made of plastic bags that were braided together by more than 400 schoolchildren,” she said. “And on the skin is a map of the Pacific Ocean and the Great Pacific Gyre.

“In the United States, the average use of a plastic bag is 12 minutes, and each person uses about 300 to 350 bags a year.”

At 32 feet long and weighing about 250 pounds, the sculpture is smaller than its real-life counterpart, but it is made to scale, Zeigler said.

The whale’s eye is made from plastic bottles, its teeth from the handles of plastic forks and spoons. On its right side, the whale’s respiratory system emerges, made from plastic cups and milk jugs.

“I think it is absolutely spectacular,” said Austin Roos, a UM student. “It really incorporates at lot of interesting elements and it definitely inspires discussion about our direct influence on the environment.

“The use of mapping on the side of the whale, showing how plastic leaves land and enters the ocean to amalgamate in the middle of the ocean is really powerful.

“I really, really enjoy this piece.”

Although the exhibit lasted only one day due to an unusual shipping arrangement, the whale’s short visit was worth the undertaking, said Barbara Koostra, who as director of UM’s Montana Museum of Art & Culture was responsible for making the event happen.

“We are thrilled to have this opportunity to offer something that is both an art piece and an education piece,” Koostra said.

“It was kind of a last-minute opportunity, and we knew it was a powerful exhibit, so we wanted to do something different to display it,” she said. “Our galleries are always booked out so far in advance, but the Dennison Theatre wasn’t being used so we thought putting it on stage would be a really theatrical way to present it.”