The Ocean is Turning Into a Plastic Soup. Pledge to Rise Above Plastics.

Hello Everyone-

Just wanted to send a quick reminder of why each of your individual pledges to Rise Above Plastics is so important!

GOOD recently published an article on the health of beaches, and I thought you all would find it interesting: http://bit.ly/KZXUXi. Pristine beaches may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think about New York and New Jersey. Oil refineries, “suburban sprawl”, and the New Jersey Turnpike tend to be the leading images associated with these two industrial laden cities. However, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), New York and New Jersey have some of the country’s cleanest beaches for swimming. Los Angeles, on the other hand, may be a beach town, but its beaches are among the most dangerous in the country to take a dip.

Most of the pollution that streams into coastal waters comes from storm water runoff and sewage overflows. When rainwater flows down streets, it picks up the dirt, oil, pesticides, animal waste, and trash that’s accumulated on the streets and flushes it into the ocean. By adhering to the Rise Above Plastics pledge, you are helping to eliminate a portion of the plastic waste that makes its way into our oceans.

After decades of monitoring beach pollution, groups like NRDC and California’s Heal the Bay say water quality has improved. Last week, Heal the Bay's annual beach report card concluded that water quality in the past year has been between “very good” and “excellent”—93 percent of the California beaches it monitored received an A or B grade from the group. Although seven of the 10 most polluted beaches the group identified were in Los Angeles County, researchers found that the county’s beaches had improved from the year before. We at Surfrider are positive that your dedication to the Rise Above Plastics pledge will greatly contribute to the continuation of this upward trend in water quality.

As always, I encourage you to tell your friends and family why you support this cause and invite them to take the pledge: http://bit.ly/JRSBXB!

Thanks again for your support.

If you would like to learn more about Surfrider Foundation, the campaigns and programs we are working on, or to sign-up for our weekly e-newsletter, please visit http://www.surfrider.org

Hello everyone -

Just wanted to send a quick note to say thank you SO much for taking the pledge to Rise Above Plastics!

We're proud to announce that there has been a lot of movement on single-use plastic bag bans around the country! Earlier this month Hawaii became the first state in the nation where every county is covered by a plastic bag ban. This was not done by the state legislature, but instead by all four County Councils - a great example of local activists and decision-makers addressing the serious issue of plastic pollution.

This week the Los Angeles and Santa Barbara City Councils each voted to move forward with plans to ban plastic checkout bags and place a ten-cent fee on paper bags at grocery stores, convenience stores and similar retailers within each of their respective city limits. Both cities have held a series of public hearings on the issue and both have made a strong commitment to draft final ordinance language and perform the appropriate environmental review. Once those are done the will be a final series of votes, hopefully by the end of summer. If Los Angeles gives final approval later this year it would pass San Francisco as the largest city in the United States with a plastic bag ban!!

The Surfrider Foundation supports plastic bag bans and fees because the ocean is turning into a plastic soup and source reductions of plastic pollution are needed to help protect the coastal environment and wildlife that can ingest or be entangled in plastic litter. Plastic bags are the tip of the plastic pollution iceberg and the easiest to control with switching to reusable bags. Hopefully more people will get the message and also reduce plastic consumption other ways.

I encourage you to tell your friends and family why you support this cause and invite them to take the pledge: http://bit.ly/JRSBXB!

Thanks again for your support.

If you would like to learn more about Surfrider Foundation, the campaigns and programs we are working on, or to sign-up for our weekly e-newsletter, please visit http://www.surfrider.org