Millions of Californians enjoy the state's coastline and waterways everyday. However, many of those people are unaware how their daily activities, from driving a car, to not properly disposing of their garbage, or even throwing a cigarette butt on the ground, can impact the plants and animals off our shores. This debris can harm or kill beach organisms. Pollution also makes using the beach less enjoyable for humans. Solving our water pollution problems requires everyone’s involvement.  

How Does Trash Become Marine Debris?

Look around the next time you walk down the street. When it rains, trash on sidewalks and streets accumulates in the gutter and is swept into your city’s storm drain system. Most storm drain systems discharge directly into the nearest waterway, which eventually flows to the ocean. Trash may also be dumped directly into the ocean by recreational and commercial boaters, and it is often left on the beach by beach-goers.

Trashing California’s Beaches

Californian’s love their coast and ocean — nine out of ten will visit the beach at least once this  year. When they arrive at the beach, they are finding a lot more than sand and surf. During a recent summer, Orange County collected enough garbage from six miles of beach to fill ten garbage trucks full of trash every week, at a cost to taxpayers of $350,000. Other California counties spend even more.

In 1975, the National Academy of Sciences estimated that ocean-based sources, such as cargo ships and cruise liners, dumped 14 billion pounds of garbage into the ocean. In 1988, the U.S. signed onto MARPOL Annex V, joining 64 other countries that signed the international protocol that regulates ocean dumping and made it illegal to dump plastic into the ocean. Laws like MARPOL have reduced the amount of trash on our beaches and in our ocean. Even so, plastic pollution is still a major problem. A recent study found an average of 334,271 pieces of plastic per square mile in the North Pacific Central Gyre, which serves as a natural eddy system to concentrate material.¹ Results of more than 10 years of volunteer beach cleanup data indicate that 60 to 80 percent of beach debris comes from land-based sources. And debris in the marine environment means hazards for animals and humans. Plastic marine debris affects at least 267 species worldwide, including 86 percent of all sea turtle species, 44 percent of all sea bird species, and 43 percent of marine mammal species.²

¹ Moore, C. J., S. L. Moore, M. K. Leecaster, and S. B. Weisberg, 2001. A comparison of plastic and plankton in the North Pacific Central Gyre. In: Marine Pollution Bulletin 42, 1297-1300.

² Laist, D. W., 1997. Impacts of marine debris: entanglement of marine life in marine debris including a comprehensive list of species with entanglement and ingestion records. In: Coe, J. M. and D. B. Rogers (Eds.), Marine Debris -- Sources, Impacts and Solutions. Springer-Verlag, New York, pp. 99-139
 

How Marine Debris Harms Wildlife

Entanglement

Common items like fishing line, strapping bands and six-pack rings can hamper the mobility of marine animals. Once entangled, animals have trouble eating, breathing or swimming, all of which can have fatal results. Plastics take hundreds of years to breakdown and may continue to trap and kill animals year after year.

Birds, fish and mammals often mistake plastic for food. Some birds even feed it to their young. With plastic filling their stomachs, animals have a false feeling of being full, and may die of starvation. Sea turtles mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, one of their favorite foods. Even gray whales have been found dead with plastic bags and sheeting in their stomachs.

Glass can be recycled to make new glass, insulation, and asphalt. In 1993, we recycled more than 600 tons of glass, sustaining 4,320 jobs

Many of our pollution problems are really problems of misplaced resources. For every item we recycle or reuse, that’s one less piece of trash that can become a part of the marine debris cycle threatening people and wildlife.

Nearly 75% of all metal is used just once. Recycling steel reduces air and water pollution and requires 70% less energy than producing it from raw materials.

By throwing these materials into our landfills, we drastically reduce the remaining supply of non-renewable natural resources.

Waste paper can be turned into raw material for new paper and paper products. Every 2,000 pounds of paper recycled saves 17 trees.

                  How Can I Help?

• Reduce, reuse and recycle at home, work and school.
• Buy products made from recycled materials with little or no packaging.
• Keep storm drains clean - they drain to beaches.
• Keep cigarette butts off streets and beaches.
• Properly dispose of fishing lines, nets and hooks.
• Participate in the Coastal Commission’s programs, call (800) COAST-4U:
  • Volunteer for Coastal Cleanup Day, Saturday, September 18, 2004.
  • Volunteer for the year ‘round Adopt-A-Beach program.
  • Buy a "whale tail" license plate.
  • Become a "California Coastal Steward".

RESOURCES

(800) CLEAN-UP

The Ocean Conservancy
Pacific Regional Office
116 New Montgomery Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 979-0900