Mid November

I've reached 125 bike commute roundtrips this year now today. Feeling pretty good about it, I think I'll continue for at least a while longer.

This week the plastic trash blowing off the Kroger lot is getting notably worse, as the windy weather comes through. I can only imagine what it was like last year before we started trying to do something to curtail its passage into the creek. This morning I picked up about 12 plastic bags plus lots of paper ad circulars that were temporarily hung up in vegetation near the trail at the top of the creek bank, and in the greenway trail area that passes back by the store's dumpster. On the way home I retrieved another 8 plastic bags plus 7 beer and alcohol bottles, 3 snack bags and more paper at the same locations. Oh, and also on my way home I picked up about 8 election signs (4 for Coleman, 4 for various city council candidates) which had been knocked down by someone, but not picked up. They went into city trash cans.

I am really getting concerned about plastic accumulating in the marine environment after reading two articles last week. One in Orion magazine entitled Plastics Are Forever
and the other in the SF Chronicle. The "Garbage Patch" in the Pacific Ocean at the North-pacific gyre location is apparently 1000 miles in diameter, twice the size of Texas, and growing by leaps and bounds each year. It's being studied by the Alagita Marine Foundation.

The Orion article says there are 6 of these plastic islands of flotsam in our global seas. The amount of plastic there is mind boggling, as is the longevity of it in the environment. The effects on over 200 marine species are no big surprise, but I was taken aback to learn most of the junk appears to be sourced from continental urban runoff and river discharges, rather than, say, seagoing ships.

If today's experience for me is typical, and 10-15 plastic bags (but for my intervention) would have gone straight into this river from this one local grocery store, I can only imagine how many other similar sources are adding to the plastics eco-mess globally on a daily basis. Heaven help us. Or, better yet, education and proactive best management practices need to be taken now to control this pollution. Banning plastic bags like San Francisco has done, is starting to sound like a worthwhile option. I'd also like to see more trash excluding controls at storm drain inlets. Wider natural vegetated buffers along the rivers, like the 150 feet recommended here locally, would be another good start. Here's a link to a .pdf fact sheet with more tips and info. (requires Acrobat Reader )