Facts about plastics:
- Plastics now comprise one of the biggest threats to marine environments
- Over 24 billion pounds of plastic is produced a year in the United States alone.
- Plastic does NOT biodegrade.
- 100,000 marine mammals and turtles die/year because they eat, swallow, or get tangled up in plastics
- The production of petroleum-based bags requires 12 million barrels of oil/year
- 26 billion plastic water bottles are produced a year requiring 17 million barrels of oil
- If you use cloth bags, you can save six bags/week…
- That’s 288 bags/year…
- If just 1/5 people in our country did this, we could save roughly 1.3 trillion bags in our life time!
The goal of the Rise Above Plastics Campaign is twofold:
1. The campaign aims at engaging our youth– and community-in a fun educational experience where they connect environmental education with local issues.
2. Asking our local businesses and county commissioners to support our efforts by reducing the amount of plastic production in the Tampa Bay.
How can you get involved?:
After our May 4th meeting, we have received interest from several people to get involved in this campaign. Ideally, a committee will be created of dedicated individuals comprised of the positions listed below. Help is needed! Please email for more information.
PR coordinator
City Council Meeting
Captains
Tabling Events
Education outreach
Budget/Data Collection
General Volunteer
Make a promise, be informed decision makers…
• How to live plastic free with fakeplasticfish.com
• What’s going on in other cities taking an initiative? http://riseaboveplastics.blogspot.com
_________________________________________________________________________
Suncoast Surfrider Foundation Makes Waves July 24th 2010
By Victoria Spera
The Suncoast Surfrider Foundation hit the beaches this past weekend to partake in an early morning beach cleanup at Archibald Park on Madeira beach. Fifteen members participated in the cleanup following a morning caffeine boost donated by Starbucks. The cleanup was motivated by the Rise Above Plastics Campaign. With the large concern for plastic use, the event itself was plastic-free; cloth bags were used to hold the trash and reusable water bottles and coffee mugs were also used throughout the event. Ending the cleanup was a raffle for two Ray’s tickets.
Following the cleanup was the construction of our 7 foot tall plastic wave. Twenty members gathered sorting plastic water bottles, sawing PVC pipes and talking waves. The chapter provided volunteers with an assortment of food, water and music to keep the momentum going. After four hours and 500 plastic bottles, our wave was constructed. Congratulations to Tammi for winning the Jack Johnson ticket raffle!
The concept of the wave was a product of passion, creativity and commitment to the Surfrider Foundation. The goal of the RAP campaign is to instill in others the same passion and creativity in hopes that the community can join together to protect our beaches and oceans by limiting their consumption of single use plastics. The wave represents each individual pledge to rise above plastic use. Collectively, everyone’s written pledge will be on a piece of blue paper, which will transform a clear, dull plastic wave into a vibrant blue wave. The message here is that each individual can make a difference; even on a larger scale.
Jessica’s write up in Creative Loafing can be seen here.
To view pictures from this great event click here.