As cities and counties across the Bay tackle the problem of single-use plastic bags, cigarette butt litter continues to threaten the Bay’s water quality and wildlife.
Tag: Plastic Pollution
Archive, Pollution
San Jose considers banning styrofoam
San Jose is considering a ban on styrofoam that if successful would make it the largest city in the nation to nix the use of the non-biodegradable foamy plastic.
Pollution, The Ocean
What, exactly, is in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?
From the journal of Brian Kallen, who describes his journey through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Summer Issue 2012
Beachcombers Hunt Plastic, and Data
It’s early on a weekday morning, and Chris Pincetich is sifting through a small pile of debris on Stinson Beach. He’s at the high-water mark, called the wrack line. That’s where buoyant ocean flotsam gets stuck as the tide goes out. As we walk along, he stops and points out how plastic strapping looks a lot like weathered eelgrass. Pincetich isn’t your ordinary beachcomber. He’s a scientist trying to compile a local data set for a global problem: marine plastic pollution.
Art and Design, Kids and Nature, The Ocean
Kids Clean Up and Make Art at Ocean Beach
How do you get 500-plus kids to sit still on the beach? Tell them a helicopter is about to fly overhead and take their collective photograph, and that by the way, they’ll also be on television. It happened at Ocean Beach, and all in the name of ocean conservation.
Stewardship
San Jose a Trailblazer on Banning Single-Use Bags
Two weeks ago, Los Angeles supervisors voted to ban retailers from distributing single-use plastic bags in unincorporated parts of the county. Then on November 29, the governor argued for a statewide ban of plastic bags at a Sacramento press conference. Now San Jose becomes the nation’s largest city to ban plastic bags.
Summer Issue 2009
Turning Back the Plastic Tide
An innovative program uses albatrosses as “winged ambassadors” to help middle school students learn about the distant consequences of plastics that end up in our ocean.
The Bay
Plastic Pollution in the Ocean and What You Can Do About It
An extensive resource list and tips on how to minimize your plastic use and how to keep what plastic you do use from ending up in the ocean.
