Fw: Trash Pollutes the Bay

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-----Forwarded Message----- Save The Bay Sep 12, 2006 5:05 PM Mark Martone Trash Pollutes the Bay

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trash Pollutes the Bay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo: Save The BayIn anticipation of Coastal Cleanup Day and next week’s pollution prevention week, today Save The Bay named seven of the worst trash hot spots around San Francisco Bay. Trash is a serious problem in San Francisco Bay. Because much of the trash in our water is plastic, it never biodegrades and is accumulating in massive amounts. Trash harms wildlife, threatens vital habitat that our fish and wildlife depend on for survival and is an obvious eyesore. Current prevention and cleanup efforts are insufficient – more action is needed to reduce the trash flowing to the Bay.

How Trash Gets into the Bay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo: Friends of Coyote Creek

Trash in the Bay is a growing problem. A 2005 assessment by the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board found an average of three pieces of trash along every foot of streams that lead to the Bay! In the Bay Area, any loose trash item will likely reach the Bay. Items are picked up by wind or water, and storm drains and creeks carry it directly to the Bay. Rainstorms deliver concentrated pulses of trash into the Bay, starting with the “first flush” each fall. People also litter or dump trash into creeks and the Bay.More Trash, More PlasticWe are generating more trash, and more of it is plastic. Americans produce 60 percent more trash today than in 1960. Plastic consumption is also on the increase: five years ago the average American used 223 pounds of plastic a year, and five years from now we’ll use 326 pounds a year. Only 5 percent of plastic is recycled.

 

 

 

 

Kinds of Trash in Bay Area Creeks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source: A Rapid Trash Assessment MethodApplied To Waters of the San Francisco BayRegion: Region-Wide Results of SystematicMeasurement of Trash in Streams, bySteve Moore and Regional Water QualityControl Board, 2005

 

 

Before the rise of plastic, most trash was composed of natural materials. Plastic, however, never biodegrades. It can fragment into smaller pieces, but the net amount of plastic does not decrease. Trash collects in the Bay in trash “hot spots,” trapped between the downward flow of creeks and the push back from Bay tides. Vegetation can trap trash and weave it into the fabric of marshes. Click here for Save The Bay’s list of trash hot spots around the Bay. These spots need help to reduce the impacts of trash! Trash accumulation in oceans is unprecedented: the North Pacific Ocean now hosts a floating island of trash the size of Texas. The Eastern Garbage Patch contains shoes, basketballs, laundry hampers and every imaginable kind of plastic.

Harm to Wildlife: Junk FoodAccumulated trash harms fish and wildlife. It entangles and injures animals. Ingestion, however, can be even worse. Many fish and wildlife cannot distinguish between their natural diet and plastic junk. Seabirds in the North Pacific eat brown, pink and red pieces of floating plastic, mistaking them for shrimp. Many of the birds die, with their stomachs so full of plastic that they starve. Forty percent of albatross chicks in the Midway Atoll die this way. Smaller invertebrate filter feeders sweep tiny plastic fragments into their digestive tracts along with plankton.

What Can We Do?

 

 

Volunteer cleanups can help reduce the Bay’s trash problem. Coastal Cleanup Day is Saturday, September 16. Sign up for one of Save The Bay’s events at Eden Landing or Bair Island or one of the hundreds of other local cleanups .

 

Pick up trash in your neighborhood – you will stop the trash from accumulating in the Bay.

 

Put your cigarette butts in garbage cans, not on the street. Cigarette butts are the number-one trash item found on Coastal Cleanup Days every year.

 

Reduce the amount of trash created by your daily activities: carry canvas grocery bags, use reusable coffee mugs and recycle.

What is Save The Bay Doing to Address Trash?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo: DavidLewis

Save The Bay hosts monthly cleanup and restoration events at trash hot spot, Eden Landing, including this Saturday as part of Coastal Cleanup Day. In the coming months, Save The Bay will work to reduce the amount of trash at Eden Landing and the other hot spots through volunteer events, public education and advocacy efforts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Take Action

 

 

 

 

 

Discover The Bay

 

 

 

 

 

The Bay Classroom

 

 

 

 

 

Restore the Bay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Banana: 3 to 4 weeks

 

 

 

 

 

Paper bag: 1 month

 

 

 

 

 

Cotton rag: 5 months

 

 

 

 

 

Cigarette butt: 2 to 5 years

 

 

 

 

 

Rubber sole: 50 to 80 years

 

 

 

 

 

Aluminum can: 200 to 500 years

 

 

 

 

 

Plastic 6-pack rings: 450 years

 

 

 

 

 

Plastic jug: 1 million years

 

 

 

 

 

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