Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/489304
By Paula Vergara winner we are destroying what sustains us. Locally, Heal the Bay has been doing its part for the past 30 years by organizing the annual International Coastal Cleanup Day, in addition to monthly cleanup events. "We've hosted more than 50 sites with 11, 200 volunteers," said Sarah Si- kich, vice president of science initiatives for the orga- nization. "Over the course of three hours, volunteers picked up nearly 45,000 pounds of trash." As helpful as this is for the local beaches, Sikich also notes that, "Eighty percent of the trash in the ocean comes from land-based sources. Of that, up to 90 percent can be plastic." Stemming the Plastic Tide So how does so much pollution from land end up in the ocean? Much of it travels through storm drain outlets that go into rivers and creeks. According to Heal the Bay, the two biggest hotspots for trash come from the mouth of the L.A. River and the mouth of Ballona Creek. It also stands to reason that more populated ar- eas produce more trash. Our city is one of the most highly populated areas in southern California, with approximately 4 million people—a 2.4 percent in- crease from 2010. ere are at least 11 million of us, if you include the entire L.A. Basin. A recent National Resources Defense Council study estimates that California coastal communi- ties are spending (collectively) more than $428M a year to prevent trash from getting into our wa- ters, including street sweeping, manual cleanup, beach cleaning and public outreach, but it's done little to stem the brown tide. Recycling expansion is not the best solution. Even with just 10 percent of our plastic being recycled, there's a $100,000,000 defi cit in the California Bottle Bill; it's actually cheaper to make new plas- tic bottles than to recycle them. San Francisco has just banned the sale of plastic water bottles, and Los Angeles should do the same. Styrofoam containers are the second-biggest problem—the ban against Styrofoam (EPS) extends only to city and county food containers, and does not include L.A.'s thousands of restaurants and fast food locations. But single-use, or "throw-away" plastic, is the big- gest culprit. Cleanup of plastic bags is particularly expensive. California spends an estimated $25 million annually to landfi ll dis- carded plastic bags, according to Beachapedia.org. Regulations help to mitigate the problem, but our precedent-set- ting California state ban on sin- gle-use plastic bags is now at risk of being overturned, a er the plastics in- dustry (with its lobby power and deep pockets) successfully delayed the July 1 st eff ective date. A fi nal vote is set for November 2016. "We still have a ways to go," observes Peirsol. e stakes are much higher now than they were 20 years ago. If the problem persists without practical and economically sound solutions to reduce plastic waste, we face radical changes to our ocean and will cause irreparable harm to the ocean's ecosystem. Mother Ocean—and we—will have very little recourse. goes for the plastic Photo: Aaron Peirsol, courtesy of Arena april/may 2015 27