Rise Above Plastic

Last week on Coastal Cleanup Day a half million volunteers in dozens of countries all over the world spread out along beaches, lakes, rivers and creeks and removed thousands of tons of trash.  

Just for the fun of it.

All along our shores local organizations joined the effort and made the coast shine, the way it should.

If you were one of those people, thank you.  And if you know one of them, please thank them for cleaning up our mess.  

These kinds of efforts make a difference for obvious, and less obvious, reasons.

Removing trash from the environment prevents it from contaminating our waters, marring the natural beauty of our coasts and strangling or starving ocean wildlife, such as the leatherback turtles, migratory birds and fish.

The National Research Council considers plastic in the ocean a “global concern that is likely to increase”.

Participating in cleanups also opens our hearts and minds to the impact of wasteful and careless aspects of our society.  Globally, we consume about a trillion plastic bags and a similar number of plastic bottles each year.  Most are not recycled.  Many end up loose in the environment.  Not to mention the dizzying quantities of plastic items, packaging and packaging for the packaging.

Spread out, those bags and bottles alone would cover the entire state of California. Twice.

Up to 90% of trash picked up on our beaches or encountered at sea is disposable, single-use plastic.  Stuff we really don't need.

Thanks to musician Jack Johnson, my kids know the three R's of plastic: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.  But these days, we've added two more: Refuse and Remove.

The best way to keep plastic out of our ocean and the stomachs of sea turtles is to refuse it whenever possible, dispose of it properly when you must use it, and help remove the stuff that slips through the cracks before it does harm.

As individuals, we can easily reuse glass or metal water bottles, bring our own cups, carry a bamboo spork and stash reusable bags here and there for those times we need to carry things.  In our communities we can champion efforts to ban wasteful non-biodegradable single-use plastic and foam containers.  And we can support legislation that will help keep our ocean, beaches and river clean for future generations.

Recently Walmart (WAL-MART!) announced that they’d be cutting their use of plastic bags by 1/3 by 2013.  That’s a small step in the right direction, certainly.  Trouble is that the stuff that fills the shopping carts is made of plastic, packaged in plastic and even double wrapped in plastic--for security and stacking/shelving reasons I’m told.  And many question whether we can wait that long for real change.

Achieving “zero-waste” can be difficult, but there are off-the-shelf alternatives to petroleum-based plastics available now, and many more planet-friendly technologies on the way. 

Most importantly, the power to say NO, THANK YOU to plastic-packed items is in your hands.  It’s not all that hard to out-green Walmart and cut your own plastic use by MORE than 1/3, far sooner than 2013!

The U.S. can be a leader, at home and abroad, on these issues.  Let's rise above plastic and show the world how it's done.  

I promise, you won't miss plastic: water tastes better from a glass bottle anyhow.  

And the sea turtles, the beach cleanup teams and the kids will thank you.

Join the growing campaign to Rise Above Plastic at 5actions.com

Dr. Wallace J. Nichols is a scientist, activist, author and father living in Davenport, CA.  wallacejnichols.org