Earth Blog

Method (people against dirty), the makers of an eco-friendly line of liquid soap products for the home and body, have debuted their sustainable bottle made from a blend of plastic marine debris and post-consumer recycled plastic. The packaging has been roughly a year in the making.

The company worked with volunteers from Sustainable Coastlines Hawai’i and the Kokua Hawai’i Foundation to collect several tons of the rigid, opaque plastic needed to make the bottles from Hawai’i’s beaches  -it’s like shell-collecting: done by hand but not quite as delightful.

“Trash jeopardizes the health of our ocean, our economy and people," said David Pittenger,  the director of Ocean Conservancy's Trash Free Seas program, "Sometimes there are uncontrollable events – like the Japan tsunami – that add to the larger problem of marine debris. That's why it's important to tackle what's preventable."

The Ocean Conservancy’s 27th annual International Coastal Cleanup is scheduled for September 15th. We may not yet be able to clean up the soupy muck that makes up the patch floating in the ocean but it’s true what Pittenger said: we can prevent further damage to the marine ecosystem by developing better habits.

The non-profit is asking for people to pledge to participate in a cleanup or reduce the amount of trash you create.

This week Mike Lee, an environmental reporter with the San Diego Union- Tribune, wrote an article that discussed the recent findings of a study about the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” conducted by UCLA and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.

A rapid increase in the amount of plastic trash floating at sea has impacted the marine environment but not in the way you are thinking.

Jaymi Heimbuch over at treehugger posted a little bit about her experience at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge where over 2 million seabirds live and the effects of the Pacific Garbage Patch are evident. The atoll might be remote but our plastic trash is still managing to ride the waves out to a part of the world most of us will never visit.

Heimbuch wanted to see firsthand what she had only seen on the Internet -the sad photographs of decomposing birds with the contents of their stomachs exposed.  Shards of plastic and even more identifiable objects like lighters, bottle caps, toothbrushes and fishing wire have all been found in birds that wash up on the island’s shore or die on the island.  That's why the Midway bird images are a poignant teaching tool: almost everyone that looks at the image can see something they have once used.

This week in bag ban news the idyllic hamlet of Ojai is on course to become the first city in Ventura County to ban single use plastic bags.

The Ventura County Star reported that the Ojai City Council passed the ordinance but it will still require council’s approval later this month to be officially deemed a law.