Impact Of Coronavirus On Plastic Pollution

Speaker 1: 00:00 Millions of people in more than 175 countries worldwide are pledging a plastic free July, a personal effort to cut down on their use of plastics. This month, it's a movement that started small, nearly a decade ago in Australia, but involve some 250 million people. Last year in 2020 plastic free July comes at a time of setback for those fighting plastic pollution due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Joining me to discuss this it's Mitch Silverstein, San Diego manager for the Surfrider foundation, Mitch, welcome to midday edition. Great to be here, Mark. Well, this plastic free July effort. Uh, it's something that melts perfectly seems to me with the ongoing campaign to ban use of plastic that Surfrider and other environmental groups have been doing for years in San Diego, start with some background, how much plastic gets into our oceans every year Speaker 2: 00:52 Standing amount. Um, it's one of the top three crises that our ocean faces today. And when you think about just the billions and billions and billions of tons of single use plastic that our throwaway society relies on just to get by every day, um, you know, with less than 10% of that being recycled, we know there's over 5 trillion pieces of plastic in the ocean and the statistics keep growing every day. In fact, now, you know, we know that there's more plastic in the ocean than there are stars in the sky. Wow. Speaker 1: 01:23 And break this down for us, the consequences of all this plastic ending up in the ocean. Speaker 2: 01:28 Sure. So, um, you know, plastic is a synthetic material it's made from petroleum and a lot of toxic chemicals. So it is, it's just naturally it's not natural, it's a poisonous material and it doesn't biodegrade like a natural material like paper or wood or anything like that. So it stays in our environment for hundreds and hundreds of years and rather than biodegraded photo degrades, meaning that the sun breaks it down into smaller and smaller pieces, which is then an ocean, uh, you know, eaten by wildlife mistaken is food often killing wildlife and ultimately ending up on our plates when we have seafood as well. So there's bad health consequences really throughout the food chain ending with humans. Speaker 1: 02:09 And what tips would you have for individuals to try and reduce plastic use in their own lives? Speaker 2: 02:14 Sure. I mean, it's very easy to get started and really plastic free July is all about getting people stoked on this, making an effort to reduce their single use plastic use the easiest way to do that. You know, that the starting point is reusable bags, a reusable water bottle and a reusable coffee mug. I think those three things are really the best way to start on this journey towards creating less waste and especially less plastic waste. If you can, if you can switch those out in your personal life, you're going to reduce 20, 25% of your trash right off the bat. Speaker 1: 02:48 And with the July 4th weekend upon us, the folks at Surfrider normally you'd be busy organizing a massive beach cleanup, but not this year, explain how the pandemic is impacting your yearly event. Sure. Speaker 2: 03:00 So are we, you know, normally we're very well known for our beach cleanups and really our beach cleanups is a great way to invite the general public and to kind of open their eyes to the plastic pollution crisis, uh, by doing a positive stewardship activity. So on July 5th, we always do a big cleanup series called the morning after mass cleanup. Um, obviously July 4th is a great time to go to the beach to celebrate our nation's independence, but unfortunately, a crowded day at the beach usually results in a huge mess the next day. And July 5th has historically been known as the dirtiest beach day of the year. And just to give you a snapshot of what that looks like last year, we did a morning after mass cleanup series with our partners at five different beach locations, almost 800 volunteers participate, participated, and together they removed 3,900 pounds of trash from five beaches and only three hours. Speaker 1: 03:54 And a lot of that's plastic, I imagine. Speaker 2: 03:56 Yeah. I mean our, you know, we take data, we do over a hundred beach cleanups a year when there's not a pandemic and we have volunteers collect data on everything they pick up. It's a great way to spread awareness about this problem. And what we found in our data is that about 80% of what our volunteers collect at our beaches is either made from plastic or has plastic in it. And the vast majority of that is single use plastic, which is designed to be used once and thrown away. So it's a really big problem. And it's the it's by far the majority of what we're finding in terms of litter and trash and not properly disposed stuff on our beaches, Speaker 1: 04:35 But no organized event this year, what will Surfrider be doing Speaker 2: 04:40 Well? We we've taken some measures. Um, obviously we cannot do a public beach cleanup due to public health concerns and County and city restrictions on group events at the beach, which is totally understandable, but because the beaches are open and parks are open, we are expecting thousands of people to flock to the beaches, to celebrate the holiday. And we do want to preserve this important cleanup effort for those willing to participate. So if you go to Surfrider sd.org, you can join our morning after mass virtual cleanup, which is just a very loose grassroots effort to, uh, encourage individuals who want to still do a cleanup to really that they can still do it, and that they're still empowered to do it. And we have plenty of materials and resources and data sheets, uh, to make that, you know, make those individual efforts part of something bigger. Speaker 1: 05:28 As I noted the COVID-19 crisis is proving to be a setback in the battle against plastic pollution. And what ways? Speaker 2: 05:36 Well it's, I mean, it's been really hard for us. Um, you know, in the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, when the, you know, there's so much public fear and there still is, um, you know, reusables kind of were attacked and there's been so much progress we've made in, you know, San Diego County and statewide to reduce our use of single use plastics. And, you know, the first, you know, one of the first things that happened is that the governor, as part of his emergency state of emergency suspended, the California bag ban, that we all fought so hard to approve, and that California voters also approved in 2016. Now it's, it's important to note that this bag ban suspension wasn't really about reusable bags being dangerous. Somehow it was really a part of a larger effort to prevent unnecessary contact with, with people's stuff for our essential workers and grocery workers are part of our essential workers right now. Speaker 2: 06:31 So, but what we, you know, what we found in our, in our research was a very strategic effort by the plastic and petrochemical industry, lobbying groups to exploit this fear that the public has of the pandemic and create a false narrative in the media that reusable bags are somehow responsible for spreading Corona virus. And there's no science to back that up. And what's also interesting is that the timing of these media stories coincided with some scientific studies showing that Corona virus actually survives longer on plastic surfaces than most other materials. So I don't, you know, I can't, I can't tell you that this was a, this that's proof that the plastic industry was trying to double down on that, but I don't think the timing's a coincidence. Speaker 1: 07:11 Many of us said grocery stores have noticed that they're giving away bags, free plastic bags, of course, and not allowing reusable bags, but, uh, that really isn't the restriction anymore, right? Speaker 2: 07:22 Governor Newsome did not extend the suspension. So for all intents and purposes, the California bag ban is back in effect. And what that means is that grocery stores should be charging 10 cents per bag, again for a paper or reusable bag, and they should no longer be distributing those flimsy single use plastic bags that we as a state and a majority of San Diego wins, voted to get rid of in 2016. Speaker 1: 07:45 And the fight against plastic suffered a setback before the pandemic, as legislation that was aimed to drastically reduce it, the distribution and use of single use plastics failed in Sacramento. What's the status now in the California legislature. So again, Speaker 2: 08:00 And it's the, you know, the Corona virus has taken precedent understandably over all other laws right now. And this was a, a assembly bill, 10 80 and Senate bill 54, um, very comprehensive, uh, you know, innovative bill that would, that would kind of address plastic pollution and waste reduction all in one it's, it's a much better, you know, it's kind of what we want rather than these piecemeal bills, you know, banning straws or foam or bags. We really want to see something that's comprehensive and just, you know, attacks the problem at its source. Now this, this law would be really great. It would be the first in the nation as a comprehensive statewide plastic pollution reduction bill. Um, it did pass both houses of the state assembly, and now it's sort of just on hold to be finalized and then get passed one more time before it sees a vote. Speaker 2: 08:48 So it may not happen this year, but we are hoping and advocating for it to, to get final vote next year. And there's powerful industry forces opposed to restrictions on use of plastic, a lot of money involved here, obviously what's your sense of the public's mood in California to really crack down on plastic pollution for Surfrider being, being focused on coastal issues and the coast and all of our beach cleanups. I mean, we see widespread support for our efforts and especially our policy efforts to really convince and work with cities, uh, to, to pass local ordinances that reduce plastic pollution at the source. Uh, of course there are powerful forces that have a lot more money than us, and a lot more influence than us, uh, and you know, plastic lobbying groups and petrochemical lobbying groups. Uh, and so, you know, luckily I feel like we're, we're in the right on this, uh, and the public is going to be on our side. Speaker 2: 09:41 There's a sort of, you know, there are many false narratives. One of them is about recycling being the solution. When, when the fact is that less than 10% of single use plastics are recycled in the U S and there's really, we're, we're making, you know, our society and these corporations are making so much plastic waste. There's really no way that this, that we could have a meaningful recycling program for all of it. It's just too much. Um, and then the other false narrative is, you know, kind of about freedom and that we're trying to take away. People's freedom to, I don't know, you styrofoam or use a plastic bag. And I, I really feel like that's a botched definition of freedom, you know, freedom in America and, and what we're celebrating, you know, July 4th, we're celebrating our freedom and freedom doesn't mean that we should be able to do whatever we want and corporations should use whatever materials they want without any regard to how that affects our planet, our wildlife, our environment. And of course that our future generations access to all the great things that we have today. And right now we're compromised in that. So I think a better definition of freedom is yes, we're independent. We're free to do we want, but we really need to take into consideration the environment that we rely on and what we're leaving future generations. I've been speaking with Mitch Silverstein, San Diego manager for the Surfrider foundation. Thanks very much. Thanks for having me Mark. Appreciate it.