• Music Video: Plastic State of Mind

    Posted Nov. 18, 2010 at 11:41 a.m. to Heal The Gyre Public | Comment

    Remember your cloth bags! Clean canteens make great Christmas gift too :)

  • The Majestic Plastic Bag - A Mockumentary

    Posted Sept. 9, 2010 at 7:30 p.m. to Heal The Gyre Public | 1 Response

    This mockumentary helps demonstrate why Heal the Gyre, Leonardo DiCaprio and millions of others ask you to take the No Plastic Pledge -- no more plastic bags or water bottles!

    Ignoring growing cries to curb the plastic pollution plague, the state Senate failed Tuesday night, August 31, 2010, to approve AB 1998, the Heal the Bay-sponsored bill that would have barred the distribution of single-use plastic shopping bags at grocery stores, convenience stores and pharmacies statewide.  Read more here.

  • California Takes A Big Step in Plastic Reduction

    Posted June 9, 2010 at 11:46 a.m. to Heal The Gyre Public | 1 Response

    California lawmakers have voted to ban single-use plastic bags at check-out counters in supermarkets. Retailers will still be offered paper bags but these will cost a nickel each. This welcome news is one of far reaching environmental significance when you consider the statistics. California alone uses 19 million plastic bags a year and the state spends $25 million annually to collect and bury them. San Francisco was the first city in the country to ban plastic bags in 2007. Now the whole state is gearing up for life without the ubiquitous carry bag which has become the symbol for our culture of convenience at the cost of something much greater.

    With new support from the state’s grocery store lobby which wants a uniform statewide policy the ban in California is being introduced. This multiplicity of local laws prompted the California Grocers’ Association, which counts retailers like Safeway, Trader Joe’s, Costco, Whole Foods and 7-Eleven among its members to support the bill for a total ban.

    plastic bags used

    This is a great step for positive CSR and it is one of those actions where the impact of a collective effort can be measured. Consider the following facts:

    • Plastic bags are made of polyethylene which is a petroleum product
    • Production contributes to air pollution and energy consumption
    • Four to five trillion plastic bags are manufactured each year
    • Only 1% of the plastic bags are recycled
    • 60,000 plastic bags are used in the US every five seconds
    • It takes 1000 years for polyethylene bags to break down and this leaches toxic substances that enter the food chain
    • Approximately 1 billion seabirds and mammals die per year by ingesting plastic bags
    • Plastic bags are often mistaken as food by marine mammals and 100,000 marine mammals die a painful death as the plastic wraps around their intestines or they choke to death
    • Plastic bag choke landfills
    • Plastic bags are carried by the wind into forests, ponds, rivers, and lakes

    Plastic bags are the single largest urban impact on the environment. This is the reason why the UN is also proposing a global plastic bag ban - the result would be monumental. China and Bangladesh have already imposed a nation-wide ban and have seen significant environmental impacts. There is no reason why California shouldn't see the same change.

  • Visit our Heal The Gyre Booth at Earth Fair - Sunday, April 18 Balboa Park

    Posted April 16, 2010 at 4:26 p.m. to Heal The Gyre Public | Comment

    Join us at Earth Fair on Sunday, April 18 from 10:00a until sunset - learn more about the North Pacific Garbage Patch and the other oceanic gyres polluted with plastic....and how to help stop their rapid growth.  Take the No Plastic Pledge, sign up for San Diego's Annual Creek to Bay Clean-Up, participate in the children's parade as a Fairy Shrimp in a Vernal Pool, and learn more about how to help Heal the Gyre and preserve our Vernal Pools at our booth -- you'll find us by the San Diego Hall of Champions Sports Museum (#32 on this map) -- on the hill just above the lower parking lot on President's way. 

    no plastic pledge whale

    Here are just a couple of pictures of Heal The Gyre in the Children's Parade and at our Booth from last year's Earth Fair, taken by Bob Davis.  Fun (and education) for the entire family. See you there!

    Heal The Gyre parade start

    Heal The Gyre Booth

  • Volunteer For Oceanside City Beach Pier Clean-Up Mar 13

    Posted March 12, 2010 at 9:38 a.m. to Heal The Gyre Public | 1 Response

    Volunteer for the Oceanside City Beach Pier Cleanup!

    When: Saturday, Mar. 13, from 9 - 11 a.m.
    Where: Oceanside City Pier

    Help prevent plastic and trash from flowing from our beaches and streets into the ocean.  Meet on south side of the pier down on the beach and help our friends at San Diego Coastkeepers and Surfrider from 9 - 11 a.m.

    Click here for directions and a map.

    oceanside city beach

 
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