Kids at Beach Cry 'Clean Me Up!'

Published in the Huffington Post by Lisa Kaas Boyle 05/27/2014
 
From the San Fernando Valley Sun:

Nearly 4,000 Los Angeles kids, teachers and volunteers send a giant text message from the ocean to "CLEAN ME UP :)" as part of the 21st annual Kids Ocean Day Adopt-A-Beach Clean-Up organized by the Malibu Foundation, City of Los Angeles, Spectral Q, Keep LA Beautiful and the California Coastal Commission in Los Angeles May 15, 2014. The kids are alerting the world about the need to help the ocean and protect it from the everyday trash and plastic litter that flow down the streets, killing marine life and polluting food resources. Photo Credit: Jeff Pantukhoff, Spectral Q, Kids Ocean Day

How often do you hear kids calling out "CLEAN ME UP!" but that is exactly what 4,000 kids did at Dockweiler Beach on a 100 degree day at the beach for Kids Ocean Day in Los Angeles. Despite the record temperatures, Michael Klubock, founder of The Malibu Foundation, and Aerial Artist John Quigley and a team of volunteers worked successfully with 4,000 school children from 33 Los Angeles schools to send out a message in the sand to all grown-ups, especially legislators and other decision makers, that our oceans are in trouble and need help.

The Malibu Foundation provides in school and on-the-beach education to school children about our precious oceanic resources and our responsibility to keep the oceans free from pollution: especially chemicals and plastic pollution that reach our oceans through storm water and rivers that all lead to the ocean with a toxic mix of man-made waste.

The 4,000 children cleaned the beach of trash: most of it is plastic and not biodegradable, trash that stays around forever and causes significant harm and death to sea creatures when it enters their ecosystem. Also, the plastic trash and chemicals that enter the ocean become part of the food chain, poisoning the sea life that we consume. Research has shown that small broken bits of plastic and plastic microbeads are consumed by fish we eat.

Luckily, there are legislators in California who hear the message from the children and have authored bills currently up for action in the California Legislature to help Clean Up the Ocean from plastic pollution, the number one type of trash polluting our seas. Senators Padilla, DeLeon, and Lara have a State Wide Plastic Bag Ban (SB 270) that has garnered support from a wide range of groups seeking to keep the plastic bag, the number one plastic pollutant out of our environment.

California already has 76 local Bag Ban Ordinances in effect, covering 105 jurisdictions in California. Hawaii has banned plastic bags on each of its islands. Please add your voice to the call for California's state wide legislation to ban plastic bags Here.

Also, Assembly Member Richard Bloom has authored AB 1699, a Plastic Microbeads Ban sponsored by 5 Gyres Institute that seeks to rid personal grooming products of plastic microbead exfoliants that wash straight down the drain and into the ocean, bypassing filtration at water treatment plants because of their small size.

These microbeads resemble fish eggs and are consumed by fish that we humans consume. The plastic microbeads are found in facial and body scrubs and even toothpastes. Natural alternatives like rice bran or apricot husks are not only biodegradable and nontoxic, but also work better because the perfectly spherical surfaces of plastic beads are not good exfoliants, simply sliding over the skin's surface before washing down the drain. The bill has been approved by the California Assembly and now moves to the California Senate for a vote. Please encourage the California Senate to pass the Ban on Plastic Microbeads Here.

Kids Ocean Day, sponsored by The California Coastal Commission, was celebrated at 5 other beaches along the California Coast with over 8,500 children participating in the program statewide.

"The students and teachers who participate in this program are leading the way to a more sustainable world, says Steve Kinsey, Chair of the California Coastal Commission.

 "They are coastal stewards, caring for the beach and raising awareness. I hope the people who see their aerial art design in the sand will be inspired by their example and heed their message: that our lives depend upon each of us doing our part to help take care of the ocean."

Steve Kinsey told the crowd assembled that we are tantalizingly close to having a state wide plastic bag ban and asked the kids "How many of you and your families bring your own bags to the market?" A sea of hands went up.

More:

California Plastic Microbeads California Coastal Commission Assemblyman Richard Bloom Malibu Foundation Kids Ocean Day Plastic Pollution Michael Kluboch Plastic Bags Senator Kevin DeLeon Dockweiler Beach John Quigley

Toxic Effects of Ocean Plastic Far Greater Than Previously Thought

Plastic Toxicity Working by Stealth in Oceans

By Shar Adams, Epoch Times | May 28, 2014
SYDNEY – When dead seabirds washed up in their thousands along the eastern and southern seaboards of Australia last year, biologist Dr Jennifer Lavers became worried, very worried.

A research fellow at the Institute for Marine & Antarctic Studies in Hobart, Dr Lavers had been studying flesh-footed shearwaters, also known as mutton birds, for nearly a decade.

She knew that mass deaths, known as “wrecks”, were not uncommon for the migratory shearwaters which travel huge distances from the Bering Sea to Australia every year.

Wrecks of seabirds traditionally occur every ten years or so as a result of large storms or lack of food. They begin in September as the birds arrive exhausted from their travels and usually last a couple of weeks.

But the wreck last year continued for an unprecedented four months, and dead birds appeared in the tens of thousands on beaches from Mackay in Queensland to Albany in Western Australia.

“It was quite unusual, to have birds washing up dead in January, which is when their chicks should be hatching,” Dr Lavers said in a phone interview.

Wrecks are becoming more common with seven events  since 2007. Dr Lavers believes they signal a much wider problem.

She has been studying the effects of plastic on shearwaters and says that while there are many contributing factors to wrecks, recent research indicates plastic is having a far more toxic effect on seabirds than first understood.

For one, the amount of plastic seabirds are ingesting has increased. Around 79 per cent of seabirds studied contained plastic in 2007 but that has now jumped to 100 per cent. Seabirds now contain “copious” amounts of plastic, she said. On average, around 17 pieces of plastic are found in a flesh-footed shearwater, but Dr Lavers says many contain much more.

“It is not unusual in fleshfoots to find more than 100, or more than 200, pieces of plastic in a single bird. They are very heavily impacted,” she said.

Toxicity of plastic

The amount of plastic in the ocean is well documented – the North Pacific Geyre near Hawaii is just one of six eddies known to trap oceanic garbage in patches of plastic and junk that extend over millions of square kilometres.

But an understanding of the way plastic is impacting our world has taken an alarming turn. In a new area of study, Dr Lavers joined forces with neurologist Professor Richard Banati from the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO).

Professor Banati had refined a technique called the tracer principle, which involves using slightly radioactive tracers to study and track materials at the molecular level. At ANSTO he has been working on detection of contaminants in a wide range of ecosystems.

It appears that plastic, no matter how small or in what quantities, increases in toxicity the longer it floats in the ocean, the process releasing more and, at the same time, attracting more toxins.

“As the plastic floats in the ocean for weeks, months, decades, it acts like a sponge or magnet. It takes all of the contaminants in the ocean water that are diluted into low concentration, absorbs it, sucks it up and concentrates it on the surface,” said Dr Lavers.

“The concentration of the heavy metals on the plastic can be more than one thousand times the concentration of that same contaminant in the ocean water.”

Those contaminants include heavy metals like lead, mercury and cadmium, known to affect the liver, kidneys, respiratory and neurological systems in animals and humans.

The two researchers discovered heavy metals in the feathers and wings of sea birds, suggesting that those contaminants were being absorbed into animal tissue. They found that plastic was acting as a facilitator or conduit of contaminants into the animals system.

“Regardless of the size…any plastic can act as a vector,” she said. “Hands down, across the board, we now know this without a doubt.”

Dr Lavers also found a correlation between the birds’ condition and the amount of plastic in the bird – the higher the amount of plastic, the higher the level of heavy metals and the poorer the body condition, including emaciation and dangerously short wing spans. The results are ringing alarm bells.

“Seabirds are highly respected as indicators of the health of the marine environment,” she said.

Dr Lavers believes her discovery is ground breaking because environmental scientists have traditionally focused on quantifying the physical effects of plastics on sea life, like throat or intestinal blockages and plastic bags wrapped around the head. A molecular pathway of toxicity is a whole other level.

“What is happening we can’t see and that is far more widespread than anyone understands,” she said.

Rethinking plastic

While many people may be aware of the toxic nature of some plastics, particularly Bisphenol A (BPA), vinyl chloride (PVC) and polystyrene, the study highlights the dangers of any plastic including biodegradables.

A combination of starches and plastic in the form of polychromes, biodegradables can be broken down in industrial facilities using specials conditions like extreme heat and other processes, but they do not break down by floating around in cold ocean water.

“Plastic does not biodegrade, polymer chains do not biodegrade, that is the definition of their chemical structure, they do not break down, they truly last forever,” said Dr Lavers.
As a result of his molecular line of research, Dr Banati says the pervasive nature of plastic requires a rethink.

“A traditional approach to environment management has been ‘the solution to pollution is dilution’. However researchers are becoming concerned about this approach,” he said in a statement.

“Specifically we are finding that mass plastic consumption, together with increased degradability of plastics, may actually lead to a steady increase of hazardous contaminants in the environment which would be difficult to reverse.”

Dr Banati says showing the traceablity of plastics allows a more comprehensive analysis of the lifecycle of plastic well beyond what can be seen with the naked eye.

The results indicate clear environmental, biological and social concerns and raise questions about industry standards for reusable or biodegradable plastics and for their collection.

“These are interesting questions and, if anything, what research at the atomic scale shows is that they are at least worth putting out there and discussing,” Dr Banati said.

Original Unverpackt: Germany's First Zero-Waste Supermarket to Open this Summer

Published in inhabitat.com by Beverley Mitchell, 06/02/14
Germany is set to unveil the country’s very first zero-waste supermarket. Berlin’s Original Unverpackt is the brainchild of friends Sara Wolf and Milena Glimbovski.

Frustrated by the overpackaging and wastefulness they saw in the retail food industry, the young women decided to take action and launched a crowdfunding campaign in early May that has succeeded beyond all expectations. They now have the funds to open their first outlet this summer, with a second to follow soon after.

Read more: Original Unverpackt: Germany's First Zero-Waste Supermarket to Open this Summer | Inhabitat - Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building

The concept of the store is simple: all food is provided in bulk and customers bring their own containers. If you forget your containers, you can borrow multi-use ones from the store, or make use of recycled paper bags.

While the concept is familiar to food co-ops, Original Unverpackt will be on a larger scale and will provide absolutely no single use packaging or pre-packaged goods.

The team have been carefully sourcing stock as they prepare to open and their philosophy remains simple too. As they say, “You won’t find countless brands for each product because one, the right one, is enough.”

Where possible, produce will be sourced locally to reduce food miles, and both organic and less-expensive conventional products will be on offer as well “Everyone should be able to afford to help the environment in the way they can,” the duo adds.

Related: Fruta Feia Saves a Whopping 21 Tons of ‘Ugly’ Produce from Going to Waste in Portugal
Dry goods will be dispensed from gravity bins, allowing shoppers to customize their purchase and avoid wasting food at home caused by buying more than they really need.

The women aim to provide a real alternative to Germany’s larger supermarket chains and plan to expand the number of outlets as finances allow.

With a crowdsourcing campaign that has already more than doubled their €45,000 goal, they are well on their way to making a difference to the 16 million tons of packaging waste produced each year in Germany alone.

While the biggest battle now will be getting customers to remember their containers, similar concepts elsewhere show it can be done.

+ Original Unverpackt
Via takepart and Startnext.de

Photos by Original Unverpakt

Read more: Original Unverpackt: Germany's First Zero-Waste Supermarket to Open this Summer | Inhabitat - Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building

Oceans of Plastic: Melbourne Filmmaker Sees Firsthand the Effects of Plastic on Marine Health

Published in the Epoch Times by Philippa Rayment, May 28, 2014


Melbourne-based filmmaker Michael J. Lutman has made two documentaries, 'Plasticized' and the newly-released 'Baykeepers', about plastic pollution in the world's oceans and on local Australian shores. (Michael J. Lutman/Facebook)

When Melbourne-based filmmaker Michael J. Lutman agreed to film a scientific expedition examining water quality in a section of the Atlantic Ocean in 2010, little did he realise how much it would change his life.

Mr Lutman, 33, says he knew nothing about boats, had never been out to sea before, and was not a conservationist. Yet in 2010 he joined the research vessel Seadragon on the very first scientific expedition to document plastic waste in the South Atlantic Gyre.

“Somehow, after a couple of drinks in San Francisco with a very passionate friend, I found myself in a port in Brazil about to sail for South Africa,” Mr Lutman recalled.

Essentially a landlubber at heart, Mr Lutman defied seasickness to film this research expedition. It involved four weeks at sea in a yacht in all weathers, trawling the surface of the ocean. His intention was just to film and remain neutral in his thinking. But the expedition had a profound effect on him, leading him to reflect on his own lifestyle and consuming habits.

Leading the expedition was Dr Marcus Ericsson, co-founder of the 5 Gyres Institute, a California-based organisation focused on raising awareness of the impact of plastic waste on the world’s oceans and in particular in all of the gyres.

The gyres are whirlpools where the currents of the oceans meet. Above Australia and lying between California and Hawaii is the North Pacific Gyre, commonly called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Below this and relatively close to Australia is the South Pacific Gyre.

In gyres, plastic pollution accumulates to such an extent that they have become vast floating garbage patches. Sea vessels tend to avoid travelling through gyres, so the effects of plastic pollution in these areas was not well-known.

Mr Lutman says the scientists were expecting to find plastic. “But unfortunately,” said Mr Lutman “we found plastic in every single sample that was pulled in.

By the time we got to the very centre of what is known as a gyre, the samples were becoming more like handfuls of plastic particulate, almost like if you put your hand in pebbles and picked them up.”
 

He recalls the crew hardly saw any marine life on their voyage even though they were at sea for 33 days. Sometimes fish could be seen around larger chunks of plastic and nibbling at it.

But most disturbing for him was seeing one whale travelling alongside the yacht, all the while like a giant sieve drawing into its stomach the small particles of plastic, just as the research team was doing the same with their own trawling sieve.

“I never was an environmentalist before, it was just an interesting topic for a film maker. Now I realise how big of a problem it is,” Mr Lutman said.

“It has altered my shopping habits and I am also telling my friends about it.

“They see me as being kind of a bit eccentric so to speak – not buying a tomato sauce that comes in a plastic bottle, I’ll buy the ones that come in glass. I won’t take the store’s bag, I’ll bring my own.

Mr Lutman’s resulting documentary, Plasticized, calls attention to the toxic soup that has resulted from decades of dumping used plastic into the ocean. He says that the biggest shock for the crew was that it wasn’t a plastic island that you can go out and walk on.

“There weren’t the bigger chunks. But when you looked a little bit closer, there were little bits of plastic in every single square kilometre of that ocean,” he said.

He says studies of blood samples have revealed the transference of these chemicals into our body and into our blood streams. “We are at the top of the food chain, so that pollutant builds up in our fatty tissue and ultimately affects our health.”

At a screening of Plasticized in Melbourne earlier this year, one viewer said she found it fascinating and very disturbing at the same time.

“It is just absolutely mind boggling the amount of plastic that there is getting into our system,” said Ms McWilliams. “We are all consuming things from the ocean in some way, shape or form. So we are throwing this rubbish away, but it is actually coming back into us at some point. It was mind blowing.

“I do have a recycled coffee cup that I use every morning. But I am sure there is a lot more that I will be thinking about after this.”

Awareness comes with being able to see what is happening, and as a documentary producer, Mr Lutman says it is the magic of film that inspires him.

“It is a great tool to show the beauty of the ocean and talk about something that is really important. It allows people to go on the journey that I went on, and to feel the same way as I do from having that experience,” he said.

Now four years on from the Seadragon research expedition, Mr Lutman says some progress has been made to stop the overflow of plastics into the ocean. A few months after a screening of Plasticized in Fremantle, WA, and a chat with the Mayor, the city put forth legislation to ban single-use plastic bags.

“I feel like there is hope despite the pessimistic outlook,” Mr Lutman said.

After screening Plasticized at the Eco Centre in St Kilda, Mr Lutman was commissioned to make another film, called Baykeepers, into the investigation of plastic pollution on a local Australian level. He’s been busy filming seals entangled, dead birds with bellies full of plastic, and even a dolphin that had ingested plastic bags.

“It was all quite startling,” Mr Lutman said, “but essential to show in my new film, as it shows this plastic pollution problem is happening everywhere, including Melbourne, Australia.”

A free screening of Michael Lutman’s new documentary Baykeepers will be held at the Royal Yacht Club in Williamstown, Melbourne on May 31.


To learn more about Plasticized, visit www.plasticizedthemovie.com.

5 Gyres To Study Ocean Plastics Off Bermuda

Published in Bernews May 29, 2014 | 1 Comment

 

On the heels of a successful plastic microbead campaign and four years of sailing the world’s oceans to complete the first global assessment of microplastics, the 5 Gyres Institute is returning to Bermuda to embark on a new mission to survey microplastics in the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre and the subpolar ‘Viking Gyre’, yet to be studied for plastics.

A spokesperson said, “The expedition will embark on June 8, 2014 from St. George’s, Bermuda, sailing with a crew of 14 professional sailors, scientists, advocates, artists, filmmakers, photographers, and journalists northeast to Iceland. 5 Gyres co-founder and Research Director Dr. Marcus Eriksen will serve as expedition leader and principle investigator.

Dr. Eriksen said, “5 Gyres is on the frontier of oceanic plastic pollution, reaching beyond the North Pacific to discover garbage patches around the world. We’re always striving to learn more about how plastics affect ocean ecosystems, which brings us to monitor remote seas, like the area south of Iceland. These waters are where microplastics, including the microbeads we found in the Great Lakes, likely find their final resting place. We’re going there to find out.”

“5 Gyres has already seen positive change occur from their unique approach of utilizing scientific data to drive solutions to plastic pollution. On other expeditions to the Great Lakes, 5 Gyres discovered high concentrations of plastic microbeads traced back to personal care products that use beads as exfoliants, such as facial scrubs and other cosmetics. This data, published in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin, is the basis for 5 Gyres’ advocacy campaign to ‘Ban The Bead.’

Carolynn Box, a 5 Gyres Research Coordinator who will also join the expedition, said, “These products are designed to be washed down the drain, often escaping sewage treatment, which means they’ll eventually find their way to the ocean. We’ll be on the lookout for microbead pollution as well as the typical, photo-degraded plastic that blights our oceans.”

“Thus far, armed with irrefutable data, 5 Gyres has successfully worked with several of the companies that manufacture these products to agree to a voluntary phase out.”

Stiv Wilson, the 5 Gyres Associate Director who has headed the ‘Ban The Bead’ campaign, said,

“Though voluntary phase-out is a good first step, we realized that we needed to take a legislative approach to ensure that these plastic beads are eliminated from commerce. We’d love to see Bermuda merchants voluntarily phase out products that contain these beads, as a model for other island nations.”

“5 Gyres has successfully introduced legislation in several American states, and the policy is on the way to passage.

“In addition to searching for microbeads, 5 Gyres will be researching the subsurface distribution of microplastics and the impact of plastics on foraging fish, and testing new collection equipment at sea.

Dr. Eriksen said, “We’ll be studying the water column to look at plastics below the waves, as well looking at the toxins this plastic absorbs, what kind of fish are eating them, and how this might affect a major food source for humans worldwide.”

Dr. Eriksen said, “Research is costly at sea. When we have the opportunity to do our work, I seek collaborations with the global scientific network, collecting samples for my colleagues who concentrate on related fields of study to plastic pollution. With this partnerships, we can further our scientific understanding of plastic pollution while managing the costs associated with data collection in the most remote parts of the world.”

“There will be several opportunities for the public in Bermuda to join the 5 Gyres team and crew to learn more about plastic pollution:

• On June 5, 5 Gyres will work with Bermudian scientists and volunteers at Keep America Beautiful, a long time collaborator of 5 Gyres, to conduct beach surveys at various locations around the island.
• On the evening of June 5, 5 Gyres will give a lecture at BIOS from 4.00pm through 6.30pm that will be free and open to the public.
• On June 6, the team will conduct more beach surveys and will host an evening fundraiser/cocktail party at BUEI [please contact 5 Gyres for details].
• On June 8, The Viking Gyre Expedition will embark from St. George’s, sailing for three weeks and conducting research as they sail for Iceland, hoping to arrive by the end of June.

“For details on events or to get involved with our beach survey, interviews, and high-resolution images please contact Stiv Wilson, Associate Director, 5 Gyres, via email at stiv@5gyres.org or via telephone at 503-913-7381.

“For information on how to participate in beach surveys, please contact Anne Hyde, Executive Director, Keep Bermuda Beautiful, via email at kbb@northrock.bm.”

Beach cleanup removes tons of garbage from South Florida beaches

Published on CBS News by David Fleshler, Sun Sentinel

 
Volunteers also collect all the caps that are found all over the beach and donate them to the non-profit Caps of Love that takes them. (Lourdes Ferris / Keep Palm Beach County Beautiful / May 21, 2014)

PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. -- A car door, a mailbox and a set of plastic vampire teeth were among the items picked up off Palm Beach County beaches as part of a worldwide event to clean coastlines and waterways.

A total of 17,431 pounds trash were collected in Palm Beach County during the International Coastal Cleanup, an annual event run last summer and fall by the Ocean Conservancy, according to a tally made public Wednesday.

The most common items were cigarette butts, with 11,463 collected, followed by bottle caps, food wrappers, straws, bottles and plastic bags.

Also collected were 118 condoms, 28 diapers, 82 syringes and 138 tampons or tampon applicators.

A total of 3,240 volunteers walked beaches from Boca Raton to Jupiter and cleaned up many inland areas as well.

"We take the position that anyplace in Palm Beach County where there is litter it could get to the beach, carried by wind and rain," said Lourdes Ferris, director of Keep Palm Beach County Beautiful, who coordinated the event. "Everything empties out into some body of water."

Nicholas Mallos, a conservation biologist and marine debris specialist for the Ocean Conservancy, said the 12 million pounds of junk picked up worldwide this year reflected the same mix seen in prior years.

"Unfortunately year after year the same items are on our top 10 lists - disposable food and beverage packaging, cigarettes, plastic forks and knives," he said. "We are overwhelmingly concerned about the presence of plastic, as well as fishing nets and ropes."

A total of 6,847 pounds trash were collected in Broward County and 12,456 in Miami-Dade County, with the list of most common items similar to those found in Palm Beach.

In Broward County, unusual items included a blonde wig and a pair of scissors. In Miami-Dade County, they include a refrigerator, a Bible, more plastic vampire teeth, an urn and a voodoo doll in a jar.

The Ocean Conservancy said further study is needed to find ways to stop trash at its source.

"Ocean trash truly is a global problem that affects human health and safety, endangers marine wildlife, and costs states and nations countless millions in wasted resources and lost revenue," said Andreas Merkl, Ocean Conservancy's president and CEO, on Wednesday. "At its core, however, ocean trash is not an ocean problem; it is a people problem - perpetuated by the often unwitting practices that industry and people have adopted over time. But I am convinced we can solve it if we have the audacity to confront the problem head-on."

The next cleanup will take place Sept. 20.

Plastic trash from the ocean is art at S.F. Zoo

Published in SFGate.com by Jill Tucker, May 24, 2014

• 
  Joe Fitting taps out a beat at the Washed Ashore interactive percussion art exhibit at the SF Zoo in San Francisco, Calif. on Friday, May 23, 2014. Zoo visitors will be encouraged to rap, tap and bang on a variety of giant sea life sculptures, created from 11 tons of debris found floating in the Pacific Ocean, that will be on display in the Pachyderm Building until Sept. 23. Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

From a distance, the art hanging from the ceiling of the San Francisco Zoo's old elephant area looks like colorful kelp suspended in the ocean.

But get closer.

There, forming part of a strand is a yellow shampoo bottle. And several orange dog balls, half a faded Frisbee, a pink sand shovel, a toddler's shoe. And more. Hundreds, thousands more objects.

The overwhelming amount of trash, most of it plastic, suddenly comes into full focus. All of it came out of the ocean.

The display, open to the public through the summer, is part of the 12 tons of garbage turned art at the zoo's "Buoy, Beat 'n' Bop" exhibition created by the nonprofit Washed Ashore.

"I've created something I hope is beautiful and horrifying," said Angela Haseltine Pozzi, lead artist and executive director of the environmental education group of Oregon.

All of the materials used to create a giant starfish, a suspended wiggly eel, the kelp forest, and a range of fish and sea creatures were gathered by thousands of volunteers on the beaches of Oregon.

 

Trail of trash

Everything was sorted by color and type and then Haseltine Pozzi came up with the ideas for the sculptures, which can be touched, pushed, drummed on and spun.

"The more ways to get people to interact, the more they'll remember it," she said.

A lot of the trash flowed off streets into sewers and down rivers into the ocean, and some of it traveled thousands of miles.

The tail of the 10-foot-long eel is made from a Japanese property marker that probably drifted to Oregon after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Many of the plastic bottles on the 14-foot sea star were from the Beijing Olympics, the dancing figures on the sides unique to the bottles sold at the 2008 Games, Haseltine Pozzi said.

The plastic probably floated in the flotsam and jetsam of the ocean for years before being spit out into a current headed for America. The artist is hard-pressed to say what items are the weirdest or most disturbing.

"We get so much it's hard to say what's weird," she said. "We've just had everything wash up."
The most depressing sculpture is probably the "Fish Bite Fish," made up of bits of plastic that have been chewed on by sea life, the jagged edges an indication that part of the plastic ended up in an ocean animal's belly.

 

Rethinking plastic

Zoo officials say they hope the traveling exhibition, which has appeared in various incarnations at marine centers and other public venues, will spur people to keep better tabs on their trash and rethink the amount of plastic they use.

"This is the first opportunity where close to 300,000 people will see this," said Joe Fitting, the zoo's vice president of conservation and education. "The mission of the zoo is to connect people to the world's places ... to connect you and hopefully change behaviors."

Online extra
To see a video of the exhibition, go to: http://bit.ly/TCVrx5.

Joe Fitting walks through the Washed Ashore interactive percussion art exhibit at the SF Zoo in San Francisco, Calif. on Friday, May 23, 2014. Zoo visitors will be encouraged to rap, tap and bang on a variety of giant sea life sculptures, created from 11 tons of debris found floating in the Pacific Ocean, that will be on display in the Pachyderm Building until Sept. 23. Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: jtucker@sfchronicle.com