Hold on to your butts

Cigarette butts are the most littered item in the world, often ending up in waterways and on our beaches. At beach cleanups, cigarette butts are the most common form of trash found, usually one in every five items collected is a cigarette butt. Cigarette butts are dangerous to wildlife that may mistake them for food. Many smokers think that cigarette filters are biodegradable and that it is not a big deal to to drop them on the ground, however they can actually take 15 years to decompose.

Rise Above Plastics

We vacationed at the beach this weekend and were reminded of the growing problem of plastics on our beaches... bottles, bottle caps, straws, bags, toys, toothbrushes, etc. The problem with plastics is that they never biograde, virtually every piece of plastic that has ever been made still exists. According to marine researcher and Surfrider Foundation activist Captain Charlie Moore, in certain areas of the ocean the amount of plastic particles in the water outnumber plankton six-to-one. Once in the ocean, plastics can be mistaken for food by marine animals. Over one million sea birds and hundred thousand marine mammals die each year from ingestion of or entanglement in plastics. Surfrider Foundation launched a new educational program called Rise Above Plastics (RAP) to educate the public on the impact plastics have on marine environments, and how to make changes in their daily lives and within their communities that will reduce the flow of plastics into the environment. The program calls upon people to reduce their plastic footprint by reducing or eliminating their use of single-use water bottles and single-use plastic grocery bags and when they need to use plastics to be sure to recycle them. Visit www.riseaboveplastics.org for more information and take the Rise Above Plastics Pledge:

I pledge to rise above plastics and reduce the amount of plastic waste I generate on a daily basis by doing one or more of the following:
Stop using single-use plastic grocery bags and use reusable bags instead
Use a refillable bottle instead of buying single-use plastic water bottles
Buy products with the least amount of packaging
Pick up at least one piece of trash or litter of the ground every day

Beach Clean Up

Yesterday my daughter and I participated in a beach clean up with her Girl Scout Troop. Last month we also did a beach clean up with a volunteer group to which we belong. Both times we found an alarming amount of fishing line, balloons, and other debris that can harm sea creatures, especially sea turtles. Our area has one of the largest concentration of sea turtle nesting sites in this country. Our county has been proactive in preventing sea turtle deaths by keeping lights out on the beach which can confuse turtles - instinct drives nesting, egg-laden female turtles and lure newly-hatched baby turtles from their nests on beaches towards the brightest horizon, ideally the waterline, but the bright lights of street lamps, illuminated parking lots, and buildings can disorient them towards artificial light sources. However the large amount of garbage found on the beaches can also contribute to sea turtle deaths. Discarded fishing line can become entangled around animals, balloons and plastic bags floating on the oceans surface can be mistaken for jellyfish a staple of the turtles diet. While we regularly participate in organized beach clean ups, we also do our part whenever we go to the beach. While wandering the beach searching for shells, we take two bags - one for sea treasures we find and the other for trash. At the end of the day the treasures come home and the trash is disposed of properly.