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Community Corner

Local Groups Campaign to Limit the Wasteful Use of Plastics

From beach sweeps to ask-if-you-need-a-bag campaigns, Ocean City is working to keep plastics from reaching the ocean.

Groups ranging from the local Surfrider Foundation to the regional Wawa food market corporation are rallying these days behind a common cause: limiting the use of plastics.

Because clean beaches are essential to the resort's economy, Ocean City residents and businesses are particularly sensitive to the issue.

The Surfrider Foundation’s Rise Above Plastics campaign focuses on “reducing the impacts of plastics in the marine environment by raising awareness about the dangers of plastic pollution and by advocating for a reduction of single use plastics and the recycling of all plastics.”

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The local chapter of the nonprofit organization says plastic bags and one-time-use water bottles are the most commonly discarded plastics. By using reusable water bottles and reusable shopping bags, consumers can reduce their “plastic footprint.”

Wawa markets in Ocean City and throughout the region have started a "Help Us Conserve" campaign that encourages customers to ask for a plastic bag only if they need one and to carry reusable travel mugs for their coffee.

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The Ocean City Environmental Commission and the Surfrider Foundation have been encouraging Ocean City’s year-round residents and visitors to carry reusable cloth shopping bags to grocery stores.

In 2008, China banned plastic bags and has saved 39 million barrels of oil a year. Westport, CT has successfully banned plastic shopping bags. Local supermarkets, including ShopRite and Super Fresh, provide small credits for bringing in reusable bags. ShopRite credits customers 5¢ for each reusable bag used and Super Fresh 2¢.

Last spring, Clean Ocean Action held a beach sweep along New Jersey’s coast. In three hours, volunteers collected 5,523 single-use plastics bags.

The Surfrider Foundation holds a beach sweep every year on International Surf Day at the 57th Street beach. The Environmental Commission helps organize two to four sweeps every year.

Much of the discarded plastic that reaches the ocean will end up in one of five garbage patches that are created by prevailing currents. They are located in the South Pacific, the North and South Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. The largest and most well-known is 1,000 miles off the coast of California. This patch is twice the size of Texas and includes 100 million tons of plastic, according to the Surfrider Foundation.

About 80 percent of it comes from land. Plastic is not biodegradable, but it can break down into tiny bits and eventually wash ashore or even enter the food chain when marine life seeking plankton eats plastic instead. Places such as Kamilo Beach in Hawaii have seen 10-foot piles of plastic accumulate on the shoreline.

Plastics by the numbers:

  • 5 billion plastic bags are used worldwide every year
  • 7,400 tons of plastic is used to bottle water every day
  • 2 liters: the amount it takes to produce a single 1-liter water bottle
  • 123,000 tons of debris entering the world's oceans every day (2,500 from the U.S.)
  • 90 percent of ocean debris is plastic
  • 70 percent of it will eventually sink
  • 1 million seabirds are killed every year from plastic debris
  • 100,000 seals, sea lions, whales, dolphins and other sea animals are killed every year by plastic debris

Sources: Riseaboveplastics.orgSurfline.comThedailycontributor.com

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