It Starts With Me

Our Daily Ocean: Day 115

2012-01-28T23:45:00.000-05:00

There are some things that you just don't see when you look at beautiful pictures of the beach (or most photography for that matter). Things are often cropped and cut out so that you only see what is beautiful.

I think about this fact a lot.... especially now that I've seen pictures of places... especially beaches that I once thought were pristine.

If anyone were to look at pictures of Wrightsville Beach on the internet (barring some of what I share, of course), they'd see a beautiful North Carolina Beach. A place where families bring their children for a summer vacation, a place where surfers catch waves.... a place where amazing memories are created... a place of love. All of that is Wrightsville Beach. ....But Wrightsville Beach is also a place where we've picked up over 38,000 cigarette butts that had been put out in the WB sand. It's a place where cigarette butts can be found in sandcastles and tide pools. And, you obviously know that I have a problem with that. I said from the beginning that I was going to help make Wrightsville Beach Smoke-Free... and I've committed myself to my community because I want to help make a difference. BUT... here's the thing. I can't do it alone. I need YOUR help. When we work TOGETHER to create change... anything is possible....

Support Smoke-Free Wrightsville Beach

Speaking of together and community... my awesome friend, Tracy, was a freaking rockstar beach sweeper last night!! Seriously, she was digging through the wrack line finding all sorts of littered items from fishing lines with hooks to lots and lots of styrofoam (grr). She even found this:

A cigarette filter that has a root... maybe a branch of some sort growing through it. We wonder how long it take for this to happen??? Hmmmm....

20 minutes on January 27, 2012 at Access 43

Litter by weight: 3 lbs 12.4 oz
Cigarette butts: 217

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 115 days:

38,585

Our Daily Ocean: Day 114

2012-01-26T13:07:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday, while waiting for my daughter in the school pick up line... I sent a text to my friend Tracy letting her know that we were going to the beach. I mean, how could we not go to the beach on a 75˚ day in January?!? Litter project aside... I just wanted to walk... and I just wanted to sit on the beach and BE there feeling the air and listening to the ocean....

Of course, as much as I just wanted to do nothing but BE there.... I can't BE there without doing my part to help keep Wrightsville Beach beautiful. So, I took a nice stroll down the beach and took 20 minutes to pick up litter. During my short walk, I found a wide array of litter that included 30 bottle caps, 11 plastic straws, a balloon, and 181 cigarette butts. Then I sat down next to my BFF and we talked and talked while our kids ran around having so much fun. Before we knew it the sun was setting.... the perfect ending to a perfect afternoon at the beach.

Dear Wrightsville Beach, we love you.

20 minutes on January 24, 2011 at Access 43

Litter by weight: 1 pound
Cigarette butts: 181

Total amount of cigarettes removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 114 days:

38,368

More Than Resolutions Revisited

2012-01-20T22:04:00.000-05:00

Last year--as 2010 ended and 2011 began-- I began thinking about what I wanted to commit myself to for the year. You see... 2010 was absolutely ah-mazing. I had won the FilterForGood Film Project and began to "see" exactly what I was supposed to be doing. I wanted 2011 to be the year that I gave back for all of the amazing things that had happened in 2010. So... having a thing (err... obsession?) with the number 5... I decided that I would make 5 resolutions (or commitments) for the new year.

Now that we're well into 2012... I think it's about time that I shared how my 2011 "More Than Resolutions" went....

1. Join Surfrider. Yeah, we became members right away. Connected to our local chapter and made sure to attend all events. BUT... we didn't stop there. My husband and I both are now on the executive board of our local chapter-- Cape Fear Surfrider. We're really loving taking an active role in helping create change and being part of a community of people who care about the same things that we do!!

Learn more about Surfrider Foundation here.

2. Collect our plastic waste EVERY week for 2011. And I did. Every week I had a (small) pile of plastic sitting on my countertop to share on My Plastic Free Life "Plastic Trash Challenge." I didn't hide it away in a cabinet... I left it in plain sight as a reminder of where I was. Some weeks were AWESOME... others... not so much. There are definitely some things that we can improve on... but we're getting better... and that's what is most important. After a year of collecting our plastic, we have nearly perfected eating out and avoiding plastic and SO much more. This year, I plan to share more of what we're doing to reduce the amount of plastic we use... and in turn reduce MORE!

Check out my plastic tallies for the year here: Plastic Trash Challenge >> Danielle

Awesome outcome from collecting our plastic waste: I've been asked to teach a "Plastic-Free Food" class at Tidal Creek Co-Op! I'm super stoked to share some of how we're reducing our use of single-use disposable plastics and most importantly "why". :)

3. Continue to support the efforts of Bonnie Monteleone. If you've been reading this blog for awhile now... you know that I absolutely adore Bonnie. She is a constant source of motivation and inspiration for me. From traveling to research plastics in our ocean gyres to sharing what she's discovered through art... simply put she's amazing. So ~~amazing~~ incredible that she was chosen as a finalist in the global competition "In Search of Incredible". Bonnie has big plans for this year, including traveling to the Indian Ocean.

Plus, we have some things we are going to be doing together and I can't wait to share them with everyone! :)

4. Become one of Wallace J. Nichols 100 Blue Angels. We did this right away as well. Then when it came time for my birthday in June, I asked that in lieu of gifts my friends and family donate to J. We also took part of our California vacation and attended the 100 Blue Angels appreciation dinner. It was a great time and we're so happy to contribute to a person who is such a strong voice for our oceans.

Learn more about the work J does and become one of his 100+ BlueAngels.

5. Ban the Bag Wilmington. Ok, so we didn't ban the bag in 2011. (I never thought we would.) But, after writing a letter to Senator Goolsby regarding his sponsorship of a bill to repeal the OBX (that's Outer Banks) plastic bag ban, I got very involved in my local chapter of Surfrider (see #1)! International Surfrider board member and local chapter Chair, Sean Ahlum, has given presentations at all of the beach towns and has garnered their support for a countywide plastic bag ban! Now Sean and Bonnie are working side-by-side to garner even MORE support to ban the bag! Community support is high for this to happen! Ban the Bag Wilmington 2012?? I sure hope so!

Oh yeah... and thanks to my friends Kevin & Chris of Odysea Surf and Kiteboard School.... I totally learned how to surf! (well... kind of... I can stand up on the board and ride a wave in.... that's surfing, right??) ....and since I tried my legs at surfing in the summer and winter... I also learned that I'm not a fan of wetsuits or booties. I like to feel the water... and well, I'm just a girl that always prefers to be barefoot. Sooo.... I will only be surfing in the summer ;)

Happy 2012 everyone... here's to another year of giving back and making a difference. May all the days of the year be filled with abundance... :)

Our Daily Ocean: Day 113

2012-01-14T22:28:00.001-05:00

On Thursday evening, my husband and I went to the Wrightsville Beach Town Hall to show our support for our friends that were presenting "Smoke-Free Wrightsville Beach" to the Board of Aldermen. The purpose of the presentations was to request a public hearing to revisit banning smoking on the beach strand. After what seemed like the longest process to vote on having a public hearing added to the agenda... (including a strong motion to not have it on the agenda... grr).... a public hearing to "BAN SMOKING" on Wrightsville Beach is on the agenda for March 8!!! <--- Mark your calendars!!!!

As I would imagine everyone knows... I started this project specifically for this very reason. I'm passionate about helping make Wrightsville Beach the first "Smoke-Free" beach in North Carolina!! Solana Beach was the first in California... and now there are 38 other California municipalities that have followed suit. Curious about California and other states that have banned smoking on their beaches?? Check out this list!!

Some may say, "Why ban smoking? There's so much other litter on the beach." Here's my take on it. Sure, we find a lot of litter on the beach besides cigarette butts... BUT... and this is a big 'but'... as many times as we've been to the beach... we have never picked up more _________ than cigarette butts. As we passed the 38,000 mark today, I can attest to the simple fact that in 113 clean ups we have not picked up 38k of anything else. The most littered item worldwide... this is a problem that isn't being fixed by education or fines. What is in place now (obviously) isn't working. Yeah, I have 38k+ cigarette butts to back that up.

I am committed to contributing everything I can to this community. I love Wrightsville Beach and I'm stoked to be part of an amazingly inspiring and motivating team that's passionate about protecting, cleaning up and enjoying our beach. Big thanks to my friend Bonnie for joining my husband and me at the beach today!!

20 minutes on Janurary 14, 2012 at Access 16

Litter by weight: 10.1 oz
Cigarette butts: 484

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 113 days:

38,187

Homemade Potato Chips

2012-01-09T07:50:00.000-05:00

For all of 2011, I told myself... I'm going to make potato chips. I can do it. I mean, how hard can it really be?? But I time after time, I talked myself into not making them. It wasn't until November when we had dinner with Beth, Michael and Manuel that I finally decided that I was really going to do it. What happened during dinner?? I was inspired. Manuel was telling me about how his sister was craving jalepeño potato chips. Hey... I crave those too!! Instead of buying her a bag chips, he went to the store and bought everything to MAKE the chips for her! Color me impressed... I vowed from that moment, that before the year was over that I was going to MAKE potato chips. Aaaannnnndddd..... I procrastinated until December 29!!

YES.... they were so incredibly yummy that we ate the whole batch in one sitting. My kids were crazy impressed to see that chips can be MADE! If anything, I feel like that was the best reward of making potato chips. I really love when my kids see where food comes from and how it's made.

And how potato chips are made is one of the easiest things I've ever done! (Yes, I say that a lot, but it's true!!) This is all it takes:

Homemade Potato Chips

2 lbs russet potatoes

Peanut or canola oil (I used both.)

Sea salt

Slice the potatoes very thin with a vegetable slicer or mandolin. Soak the potato slices in cold water. Drain, then soak again. (This step will help eliminate some of the starch which means crispy chips!)

Place 2-3 inches of oil in large pot (one with high sides is best) to 375 degrees on a candy thermometer. Drain the potatoes and pat them dry. (Remember water makes oil "pop"... so dry them well!) Place a handful of potatoes into the hot oil and fry until they are golden brown. This takes a few minutes, so be sure to gently toss them around to ensure they cook evenly. Remove the chips with a slotted spoon and drain. Season with sea salt or whatever other seasonings you like :) Repeat frying with remaining potatoes.

Ok... now as awesome as the homemade potato chips were, I do have a couple of issues that I feel are important to share. One thing that I wasn't crazy about was having a hot pot of oil on my stovetop. In fact, that was my main reason that I kept procrastinating on making the chips. Of course, it wasn't as bad as I had made up that it would be... BUT.... having kids that like to be actively involved in whatever I'm making in the kitchen made me a bit nervous. In order to have them be involved in the chip making, I kept them at a distance from the oil and had them pat the potatoes dry to prepare them to be fried! The other thing is that when I was done frying the potatoes, I was left with a pan of used oil. I was so perplexed as to what I should do with it that I let it sit on my stovetop for a day! Not completely sure what to do with used oil, I dumped it on my compost pile. (Yes, I know... it was probably the wrong move.) Any ideas?? What would you do??

That being said, I think that everyone should make homemade potato chips. The end result is so much more rewarding than tearing a bag open. And even though I'm not crazy about all the oil, I would totally make potato chips again. It's definitely something special... potato chips are a rare treat in our house (I bought 7 bags in 2011!). I'm hoping that making potato chips will trump buying them. BUT... I'd like to try making them differently. I think my first stop will be here.

Our Daily Ocean: Day 112

2012-01-01T23:08:00.007-05:00

Well... that was fast. 2011 is gone and here we are in 2012!! Just like last year, another gorgeous New Year's Day!! Starting off the year right with awesome weather and going to our favorite places makes us super excited for what's to come in 2012!

I'm not overly into making resolutions, but I am big on making commitments that help create change within me. Over the next month, I'll be updating my 2011 "More Than Resolutions" and writing down what I hope and plan for the new year. I am excited about all of the possibilities. Even things that seem impossible... yes, I'm reminding myself that the word "possible" is engrained in "imPossible."

Every day in every way is a chance to make this world a better place. It's that time of year when I need to remind you that "YOU are the difference."

Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it.

20 minutes on January 1, 2011 at Access 36

Litter by weight: 6.6 oz

Cigarette butts: 65

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 112 days:

37,703

Vegetarian Fried-Rice

2011-12-28T09:58:00.001-05:00

For as long as I can remember, I've loved to cook. There's something so amazingly rewarding about creating a masterpiece in the kitchen that keeps me hooked. However, as much as I love to cook, there is always a point where I become completely bored/burned out with everything.

One afternoon while at the library, I was stressing about what to make for dinner. I was mentally running through what I had at home in my pantry and what veggies I had from my CSA... when all of the sudden inspiration hit me-- Fried Rice!!! I had never made fried rice before, but I knew that I could totally make a meal out of it AND it could be 100% plastic-free!!!! With renewed confidence and purpose, I headed back to the "Cooking" section of my library and grabbed "Simple Chinese Cooking" by Kylie Kwong then headed to Tidal Creek Co-Op :)

Yeah, I was excited to cook dinner. And once I was finished I was even more excited to eat dinner!! Homemade fried rice is AH-MAZING because a.) I know what's in it, b.) it was fast and easy and c.) plastic-free!!! Ahh... the quintessential Chinese take-out food made with love :)

Vegetarian Fried Rice

4 main dish servings

4 cups steamed rice (1 1/3 cups uncooked jasmine rice* bring to boil with 2 2/3 c water. Let simmer for 10 minutes then turn off heat and let steam for an additional 10 minutes.)

1/3 c vegetable oil*
4 free-roaming eggs (mine come from my backyard hens), lightly beaten
1 small carrot*, diced
1 small onion*, diced
1 TBSP freshly minced ginger
3 1/2 oz fresh shiitake mushrooms*, sliced
1 tsp sea salt
2 TBSP finely chopped cilantro or parsley (optional, but nice)
1 TBSP tamari* (or soy sauce)
2/3 c spring onions

* = Bought in bulk using my own jars or bags.

Other veggies to add: Finely shredded Chinese cabbage, fresh bean sprouts, red pepper or whatever you have on hand that sounds good :)

On med-high, heat half of the oil in a large skillet or wok until shimmering. Pour beaten eggs into pan and leave to cook for about 10 seconds then fold the mixture over onto itself with a spatula and lightly scramble until almost cooked through. Remove eggs from pan and set aside.

Heat remaining oil and stir-fry veggies and 1tsp salt. Add rice, tamari (or soy sauce), cilantro, and eggs and stir-fry for a few minutes. Use a spatula to break up the egg into smaller pieces while cooking. When finished, toss in spring onions until well combined. Season to taste with salt.

Serve with extra tamari and some steamed green veggies (broccoli, green beans, snap peas, kale... whatever you have on hand.)

Our Daily Ocean: Day 111

2011-12-26T08:37:00.000-05:00

Ever since we moved to Wilmington, it has been a sort of tradition to go to the beach at Christmas. True, it all started as a way to brag to our family and friends in the midwest, but now we find it's sort of a way to brag to ourselves about how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful place and how much we love it here.

There is something so amazing about spending Christmas at the beach. AND... since I'm not much for cold weather... this was one of the best Christmases ever! This girl doesn't need snow... Running around and playing on the beach barefoot is my kind of Christmas!! :)

Of course, we did more than play at the beach. Christmas is about giving... so my kids and I gave Wrightsville Beach the gift of a 20 minute beach clean up!

At first, the beach didn't look too bad. Some littered cigarette butts along the tideline, but overall not much... UNTIL... at about 5 minutes into the clean up I decided to go up to the beach grasses... then I found a huge area packed full of caps, straws, styrofoam, various plastics, and cigarette butts. As I was picking up all the litter, I heard a rustling in the grasses... and then saw a rabbit dart away from where I was. :) In that same area, I found a couple of tubes of Chapstick which immediately made me think about the plastic-free Organic Essence lip balm that I recently purchased through the recommendation of a friend. Besides being plastic-free (the tube is paper and compostable!!), it's also petroleum-free... and I dig that :)

I also dig it because I'm a believer in the fact that change has to start somewhere.

20 minutes on December 25, 2011 at Access 38

Litter by weight: 14.3 oz
Cigarette butts: 588

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach in 111 days:

37,638

Our Daily Ocean: Day 110

2011-12-25T22:47:00.000-05:00

When I first started this beach clean up project in August of 2010, I set a "goal" to do at least two beach clean ups a week. Some weeks I have done way over two and others... well... not so much. As the end of 2011 is approaching quickly, I'm attempting to do my best and get out to Wrightsville Beach more often. With us having a beautifully mild winter this should be easy!

We made it out yesterday on Christmas Eve and found the usual amount of litter-- caps, straws, wrappers and cigarette butts. Now that the beach is less busy, I haven't found many plastic bags in a LONG time. That's a good thing, but just because I'm not finding them on the beach doesn't mean that I'm not finding/seeing them elsewhere. In fact, I'm seeing them EVERYWHERE. I often wonder if I decided to clean up a section on the side of the road how many plastic bags I would find. Not long ago, my friend Bonnie decided to do just that. A small stretch on the side of the road with too many littered plastic bags.

Bag Bans are popping up all over the country and our world. We're ready to Ban The Bag Wilmington!! Want to help? Join us at Cape Fear Surfrider :)

20 minutes on December 24, 2011 at Access 16

Litter by weight: 5.2 oz
Cigarette butts: 301

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach in 110 days:

37,050

Our Daily Ocean: Day 109

2011-12-22T21:29:00.001-05:00

Well... would you believe that we had another warm mid-70's winter day!?! Last year, I was begging for warmer weather... and here it is Winter Solstice and it feels like spring. (I am not complaining!!) Today is officially the half way point to both summer and my birthday... and that makes me happy!!! :)

Before sitting down to write this post, I caught up on reading The Daily Ocean... and seems that as usual Sara and I are on the same wavelength. After doing so many beach clean ups, what the heck is there to say about the same litter picked up over and over again?? It's difficult sometimes. Sometimes, I'll come back from the beach with too much to say... then other times... well, the words are lacking. Tonight, I asked my friend Tracy, "What do I say??" She said, "Come on people... pick your shit up!!! :)" That works, though I think I've said that before. (Yup)

Whether we're the ones who made the mess or not... it's so very important that we take the time to pick it up. Last week, I was reading about the death of a gray whale whose stomach was filled with plastics... everything from duct tape to a Capri Sun. Soooooo sad :(

"He reached his hand inside the whale and removed a piece of plastic. Then, a length of rope, a golf ball, a plastic bag, a piece of cloth. Another piece of plastic, more cloth. Duct tape. A towel. Electrical tape.Fishing line. More rope. Surgical glove. Plastic funnel. More plastic bags. A huge piece of fabric – it was half a pair of sweatpants. Work around us stopped and everyone gathered, stunned. Over twenty plastic bags in all were removed from the whale’s stomach." (For a full list of items and photo of the stomach contents of the whale, click here.)

Everything we do (or don't do) impacts the world we live in. It's true.

20 minutes on December 22, 2011 at Access 37

Litter by weight: 1 lb .2 oz
Cigarette butts: 138

Total amount of cigarettes removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 109 days:

36,749

Our Daily Ocean: Day 108

2011-12-17T21:37:00.000-05:00

Cigarettes. The most littered item worldwide. Somewhere around 2 billion cigarettes are littered daily. In regards to my efforts cleaning up the most littered item in the world... some may say, "Why even bother??" or "What's the point??"

The other day, I was reading my friend Harry's blog "The Flotsam Diaries". If you haven't checked out what he's been up to in Maine... you MUST!! :) In his post "Hope, Despair, and that Strange Place In-Between" he sums up quite perfectly why he keeps doing what he does... cleaning beaches even though really there is no end in sight. He writes:

"So I do what I do because I love my daughter and I think the world is beautiful and I want to preserve it..."

... 'Hoping' puts the burden on someone else. "Doing" puts the burden -- the control -- in my own hands. So no, I can't change the world. But I can change my part of it. And no, I can't make it better forever. But I can make it better for today. This one moment when the beach is deserted and the gulls are crying and the surf is pounding and the breeze is carrying salt on the air... and the sand is clean.

And it just might stay clean long enough for the next lonely wanderer to look down. And notice.

Sometimes, the point isn't to do the right thing because you hope or think something awesome will come from it. It's because, it's the right thing...."

20 minutes on December 16, 2011 at Access 36

Litter by weight: 9.5 oz

Cigarette butts: 95

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 108 days:

36,611

Our Daily Ocean: Day 107

2011-12-15T21:14:00.184-05:00

Well... after an18 day beach cleaning hiatus...I have finally made back to Wrightsville Beach!! AND... today was the most beautiful amazing day!! Mid-December and it was 72˚!!! I kid you not... it was colder in the beginning of October!!!

It is such a pleasure to go to the beach in the winter and not freeze... it's days like today that I'm reminded why I love living here. Why I can't see myself ever living somewhere without a beach. *sigh* :) I just love everything about it.

As I sit here thinking about the fact that I've done 107 (plus) beach clean ups (whoa!)... I can't help but think of my friend Sara, who writes the blog The Daily Ocean. Sara has done a whopping 241 (plus) beach clean ups. In those 241 days, she has removed over 900 lbs of trash from a small stretch of Santa Monica beach and has inspired countless people to get out and start cleaning up our world.

Inspiring people is what it's all about. Creating ripple effects with simple actions is a huge catalyst for change. Earlier, I watched a video from Peaceful Protest Against Litter . I love the video because of its simplicity in pointing out that anyone can make a difference and together we can do so much....

1 becomes 2

2 become 4

Before you know it

You got yourself a movement

Yup, a movement is happening. Beach clean up revolution! ;)

20 minutes on December 15, 2011 at Access 16

Litter by weight: 4.8 oz
Cigarette butts: 181

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 107 days:

36,516

Salt Dough Ornaments

2011-12-13T15:13:00.000-05:00

I wouldn't normally consider myself a crafty person-- maybe it's the season or maybe it's me taking time away from the beach...I'm not sure-- but as my kids and I began making salt dough ornaments.... a wave of creative inspiration came over me.

....and I created this ornament with a cookie cutter and plastics removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC.
(yes, I'm proud)

So what is it?? Salt dough painted with water colors, decorated with small plastics that I found on Wrightsville Beach... and it's hanging from littered fishing line (that I also found on the beach).

Wanna make your own? YAY!! It's super easy and lots of fun. <--- says the very uncrafty girl ;)

Salt Dough Ornaments

1 cup salt

1 1/2 cups hot tap water

4 cups all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 325˚ F.

Dissolve salt in hot water. Mix flour into salt water until completely combined. Kneed briefly until soft and pliable.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough ball out into an even thickness of about 1/8"- 1/4". Cut shapes using cookie cutters, then add a hole at the top. (TIP: I cut the dough ball into 4 pieces... one for each of my kids and me)

Place on cookie sheets and bake at 325˚ F until hard, about 40 minutes to an hour. Remove from oven and let cool.

Decorate: Get crafty and use what you have.... or go hit the beach for some inspiration ;)

P.S. Before we decorated them, my husband thought they were cookies and took a bite! YUCK!! Do your loved ones teeth and taste buds a favor and let everyone know that they are not cookies! ;)

Our Daily Ocean: Day 106

2011-11-28T22:07:00.001-05:00

Ever since we got home from California, the weather here has been down right perfect. I'm not sure that it can get much better than mid-70's in late November! Knowing the warm days are numbered, we've been trying to spend as much time at the beach as we can. Sunday afternoon-- after a couple of hours playing in the sand-- we met our friend Bonnie at Access 43.

Not long ago, Bonnie went to Access 43 and picked up litter for 20 minutes... her focus is on plastics... but she took the time to count the 390 cigarette butts that she collected. I've added that amount plus the 118 cigarettes that Bonnie picked up last night to the Community Count (on the sidebar). Bonnie's addition pushes the Community Count for Wrightsville Beach to over 10,000!!!

Big things are happening with Bonnie. She was recently selected as a finalist in the international competition "IN SEARCH OF INCREDIBLE." I was sooooo thrilled when I found out that she was a finalist because 1.) I told Bonnie about the competition and encouraged her to enter. 2.) Others are recognizing how AWESOME.. err... incredible she is. 3.) Her art is something that everyone needs to see. AND... 4.) An opportunity to create more awareness about plastic pollution in our oceans.

More awareness to this problem of plastic pollution is the opportunity to reach more people. Believe it or not... there are people who don't know about the Pacific Garbage Patch... there are people who don't know that sea turtles mistake plastic bags as jellyfish... there are people who have no idea that albatross are eating plastic and feeding it to their young... and dying on one of the most remote islands on earth.

Last night, we picked up 179 bottle caps in 20 minutes. In those bottle caps, I see Midway. That makes me sad. So I continue to repeat myself... I don't want to miss anyone. I make no assumptions... even if I think you know... I just want to make extra sure, because this is important. One of the most important things we can do is to stop using single-use plastics. I started with something simple: I stopped buying/accepting/drinking beverages in plastic bottles. Every time I see the photos of the albatross, I am reminded that my decision makes a difference.

20 minutes on November 27, 2011 at Access 43

Litter by weight: 1 lb 14.8 oz
Cigarette butts: 448

This is the area that we focused on for 20 minutes. The section that is "turned up" looking is the section that we cleaned.

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 106 days:

36,335

Our Daily Ocean: Day 105

2011-11-25T22:48:00.001-05:00

Since today was "Buy Nothing Day"... I really had the best of intentions of not buying anything... but, I couldn't help myself from buying this amazingness from the comfort of my own home ;) Then, while many people were spending their day shopping, my family and I took it easy at one of the most relaxing and fun places we know... umm... yeah, that'd be the beach!! We turned "Black Friday" into "BLUE Friday"... and I think a new tradition may have been born!

Last week, my family and I were in California... we had such an amazing visit!! One of the highlights of our trip was seeing our friends Sara & Garen in Monterey Bay! Our timing to visit the aquarium couldn't have been better as Sara had just spoken at the Monterey Bay Aquarium O.N.E Teen Summit and was getting ready to head back to Santa Monica. It had been over a year since I last saw Sara & Garen... they're awesome awesome people... wish that unexpected visits could happen more often! :) After we visited with our friends, we spent several hours at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. NOW... We've been to a lot of aquariums, but this visit is one that we'll remember for a long time to come... ever see an albatross in person? (We did.) Ever have an animal educator ask you to reduce the plastics you use and refuse single-use plastics like bags and straws?? (You can and more at the Monterey Bay Aquarium)

My son and I picked up 19 straws in 20 minutes today. Can you guess how they got on the beach?? (See photo for hint)

Also during our California vacation, we had great evening hanging out with Beth Terry (My Plastic-Free Life), her husband, and Manuel Maqueda (co-founder of Plastic Pollution Coalition). As a family really striving to reduce the amount of plastic we use... it was great to share dinner, straw-free drinks ;) and conversation with others who are striving to do the same (or more) and connect over our common bonds. One of the many things we talked about is how one of American Idol's sponsors (cough Coca-Cola) isn't happy about a video with Season 10 American Idol contestants asking us to REFUSE single-use plastics. So in order to appease their sponsor, the company the produces AI threatened to shut down Plastic Pollution Coalition's YouTube Channel if they didn't remove the video. The video is still up (woot!)... SO... If you haven't watched the video yet, watch it now... then share.

Are you afraid to REFUSE disposable plastic?

(if you are, don't be... I'm here to help)

20 minutes on November 25, 2011 at Access 36

Litter by weight: 4 oz

Cigarette butts: 96

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 105 days:
35,887

Our Daily Ocean: Day 104

2011-11-09T15:11:00.001-05:00

There was a scent in the air as we walked onto the beach yesterday afternoon. My son Henri said, "It smells weird." I started to wonder if we had been away from the beach too long... BUT... as we approached the shoreline we figured out exactly where the smell was coming from...

Thousands of dead jellies lay strewn about the shoreline. My kids were completely mesmerized. How did they get here?? Why did they die?? ....and then they felt compelled to start burying them in the sand. While my kids were busy examining and burying jellyfish... I swept the beach for 20 minutes at Johnnie Mercer's Pier.

I forgot how enjoyable it is to go to the beach in the cooler months. During the summer months, I often find it hard to just sit back and do nothing. In the summer, a walk to the shoreline ends with me making several trips to the trashcan. BUT... now... it's different. There are few people on the beach and fewer people means a lot less litter than during the hot summer months. I can relax. I can take time to not think about anything but the waves, the sand, the birds.... my kids :)

My kids are pretty awesome. I would gladly admit that they are the driving force behind nearly everything I do. It's true... I want to help make this world a better place for them. ....And through doing that they learn how to live connected and in "harmony" with the world. Through this litter project, my kids have learned about how personal responsibility (or irresponsibility) impacts our world.

I had to explain to my kids yesterday, that as much as we pick up cigarette butts... because somewhere around 4.5 trillion are littered every year... we will never be able to get them all. To explain to them how large of a number that is... I shared with them (a scaled down version) of an interesting calculation from my friend Harry of The Flotsam Diaries:

A cigarette butt is about 1" long. The distance from the earth to the moon is 238,000 miles -- 15.1 billion inches. 5.5 trillion cigarettes are made each year. If even 90% were disposed of properly, enough cigarette butts are littered to reach the moon once every 10 days.

Think about it.

20 minutes on November 8, 2011 at Access 16

Litter by weight: 6.8 oz
Cigarette butts: 182

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 104 days:

35,791

Our Daily Ocean: Day 103

2011-10-31T14:41:00.000-04:00

Well, I guess it's really official...cold temperatures mean that summer (gasp) is over. (boo!) With the rushing in of cold weather, no longer are our feet going to burn from the hot sand or will we get a glowing tan from being at the beach...nope... now starts the season of cold fingers and sniffly red noses. It was so cool here yesterday, that when we headed to Wrightsville Beach, I had to break out a long sleeve shirt, my "winter" jacket, and shoes!! AND... I also broke out all my new beach cleaning bags from Green Bag Lady!!

Now, as excited as my kids were to use their new bags... the cold northerly winds and cold sand put them in a constant state of whine and they only lasted about 5 minutes before they called it quits!! *Sigh* It's more fun when they call it quits because they're running to play in the water...

For the month of October, our beach clean ups have been few and far between. In fact, with this clean up... we ended up doing only 3 clean ups for the entire month of October. Realizing we hadn't been to Access 36-- our adopted beach access-- since September 9... my husband and I agreed that we needed to go there. The beach was empty and the amount and type of litter we found is starting to change. However, somethings just don't change. Through the changing of the seasons, we have found that we always find large amounts of cigarette butts.

One thing I wasn't expecting to find a lot of yesterday, was straws. With the oceanfront restaurant Oceanic at Access 36, we always find loads of plastic straws that blow from their dining pier. BUT... I thought with the weather being fairly cool that we wouldn't find many straws. Boy was I wrong!!! We collected a total of 35 straws... AND.... 31 of those straws came from Oceanic!! (shocker) Some black, some clear... and some-- like this one I found at the steps leading up to the pier-- still in wrappers.

If you recall, I've been in contact with the district manager of the company that owns Oceanic. This problem along with an employee smoking area, has been something that I've been assured they're working on. I have to say, that I was very impressed to see very little cigarette litter under the pier... BUT... BUT... BUT.... the amount of straws from their restaurant that we found on a cold day at Wrightsville Beach... is completely ridiculous. Since I've talked to Oceanic about this problem... they know it exists. They know that they are part of the litter problem at Wrightsville Beach...and they don't want to be known as the littering restaurant. But... 31 straws, 6 coasters, 10 candy wrappers and a mix of other various items... I hate to be the one to let them know ------> When you offer (or use) single-use disposable products... you are part of the littering problem. I recognize this fact in my own life and because of this connection we choose to make changes. ...So, if Oceanic (or anyone else) wants to change that trend... if they truly want to be part of the solution, they have to start making changes. RETHINK, REFUSE, REDUCE, REUSE .... Guess it's time to make another phone call...

20 minutes on October 30, 2011 at Access 36

Litter by weight: 9.3 oz
Cigarette butts: 198

The pile on the left are littered items that are specific to Oceanic: coasters, straws, candy wrappers, coffee creamer, cracker wrappers.

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 103 days:

35,609

Our Daily Ocean: Day 102

2011-10-24T17:29:00.002-04:00

After over 20 days, I finally made it back out to Wrightsville Beach last night to do my 102nd beach clean up!!! My husband and three kids had some things to do... so, it was just "me" and one of our brand new beach clean up bags straight from Green Bag Lady!!

Teresa (Green Bag Lady) made special beach bags for several of us that do beach clean ups... and sent us 5 for our family to use!! Now, I attempted to make a video showing what sets Green Bag Lady Beach Bags apart from the rest... but *sigh* I just can't listen to my recorded voice!! (must figure out how they made me sound good in my FilterForGood film ;) ) Anyhow, the bags are made of vinyl with MESH bottoms... a mesh bottom means that all of the sand falls through and stays where it's supposed to-- the beach!!! YAY!! No more piles of sand in my driveway!! Thanks so much Teresa!! I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE our new beach bags!! So AWESOME!!!! :)

When I saw this single use plastic spoon on the beach last night, I immediately thought of the poster-- "The Spoon" by Max Temkin-- that I shared on my FB page back in September. (Thanks Sean!) If you haven't seen the poster, check it out here. It may seem like an absolute no brainer to not use disposable plasticware, but it's easy to get stuck using the stuff. So... my advice: Either buy a nice travel set of utensils or grab some out of your drawer and keep them handy! Please and thank you :)

Still picking up cigarette butts on Wrightsville Beach... and still no resolution as to how the Town of WB is planning on dealing with the problem. As beach season is now over, I have no doubts that this issue will be (once again) put off until next season... guess I'll be at this longer than I anticipated.

No worries though, because I decided a few months ago that I'm going to continue doing the 20 minute beach clean ups until Sara finishes her 365 non-consecutive day goal. (She just finished up with Day 227) Here's to at least another year... and our awesome awesome community! :)

20 minutes on October 23, 2011 at Access 29

Litter by weight: 1 lb 9.6 oz

Cigarette butts: 132

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 102 days:

35,411

What Goes Around, Comes Around

2011-10-23T00:00:00.002-04:00

Step forward... lean...step back... tilt... repeat...there's an art to the whole process of admiring and understanding art. Meant to stir something in us... we all connect to masterpieces of art differently... and for different reasons. Recently, my family and I went to see my friend Bonnie's art exhibit at UNCW... and just like all the great works of art that I am drawn to... I could spend hours admiring the brilliance of simplicities and complexities found in what Bonnie has created...

Using plastic she's collected, Bonnie morphed the 19th century painting "Great Wave of Kanagowa" into 5 distinctly different waves that represent the 5 ocean gyres.... it's beautiful and disturbing all at the same time. Bonnie often talks to me about the time Charlie Moore told her that if we don't get this problem [of plastic pollution] under control... that we would eventually be swimming in it. As the majority of litter we pick up on Wrightsville Beach is plastic, I understand it and can see how it is a possibility for our future. BUT... during a research trip to Bermuda, Bonnie saw what most of us don't even want to imagine.... she watched plastic wash in as children swam in the ocean.

....in some places, eventually is happening right now.

In an attempt to share Bonnie's art exhibit with people that can't make it to Wilmington, I took a short video. BUT... I offer you this thought. What if Bonnie could bring her exhibit to where you live?? I, personally, think that "What Goes Around, Comes Around" needs to travel... everyone needs to see it in person.... what do you think??

"The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life."

~William Faulkner

P.S. You can contact Bonnie here :)

Life Rolls On

2011-10-18T22:57:00.002-04:00

For the past few weeks, I've been somewhat MIA. From taking unplanned trips to visit family to a broken computer... it feels like forever since I posted. fyi: Forever = 15 days ;) In my last post, I mentioned the awesome AWESOME day we had at Wrightsville Beach. Now... computer fixed and my feet firmly planted back in Wilmington... it's time to rewind to October 1!! :)

Just like last year, my husband and I volunteered with Ocean Cure for "Life Rolls On: They Will Surf Again". It was something that I decided I wanted to get involved with after attending a benefit concert in February 2010. During the concert, I saw "Wrightsville Beach" pop up on the screen and wondered why I had never heard about this organization. So... if you don't know anything about Life Rolls On (LRO)... it's a subsidiary of the Dana & Christopher Reeve Foundation that was founded by Jesse Billauer, a young surfer who was left quadriplegic after a wave pushed him head first into a shallow sandbar. His story is really really inspiring and motivating... I would highly recommend everyone watching "Jesse's Story."

I would also... tell anyone and everyone (my friends will vouch for it!)... that if you can ever volunteer for "They Will Surf Again"... you must. It's one of the most inspiring things to be a part of. Words can't begin to describe it and pictures can't capture how unbelievably amazing it is... you have to be there to feel the energy... to see the hope, happiness and witness the freedom.

"LRO is an avenue to hope, independence, freedom, happiness, inspiration, and teamwork. It is about bringing people together and changing lives one day, one program, and one person at a time. Each of LRO's amazing programs offers the opportunity for the physically disabled to open their minds, help them forget about their challenges and to be thankful for the opportunity to still be alive."

While my husband spent the day in the ocean with our friends and community helping get the participants surfing, I (much like last year) hung out on the beach. BUT... this year, I actually got to do a lot more!! This year, I not only volunteered with Ocean Cure for the LRO event... but I was also doing double duty by volunteering with Surfrider!

During the event, I had a container of cigarette butts on display for playing "Guess How Many"... and we-- Bonnie, Ginger, my kids and I-- constructed a giant footprint in the sand to help raise awareness to the amount of litter-- especially plastics-- picked up off our beach! From plastic water bottles to kids toys... all of the litter in the footprint (minus the containers of cigarettes we displayed) was picked up by my friends Ginger and John on their Monday morning turtle walks during nesting season. What they were able to do during their morning walks... is just more proof that with simple actions we DO make a difference.

Having the footprint on display during the event, had many advantages. The obvious is that people were interested, but what was also great about it is that kids came to borrow toys that were in the footprint. :)

Since I'm now volunteering with my local chapter of Surfrider, this is an awesome opportunity to plug Raptoberfest. Rap...what?! You ask. The whole month of October, Surfrider is dedicating to Rise Above Plastics (RAP)! ...AND you know I'm ALL about Rising Above Plastics. :)

So... without further ramblings....straight from Surfrider... Here are 10 easy ways to reduce your plastic footprint:

Stop using single-use plastic water bottles. In nearly all cases, the water out of your tap is just as safe – if not safer – than the water distributed in single-use plastic bottles. Instead, buy and use a reusable bottle and fill it with water.
Whenever possible, buy food in bulk. Buying food in bulk helps to reduce the total amount of packaging materials consumed.
Buy your music electronically. By purchasing your music electronically, you avoid the need to create plastic compact discs, plastic jewel cases, and cellophane wrapping.
Stop using plastic grocery bags. Each year over one trillion plastic bags are used worldwide. Because these bags are so light and thin, they are easily carried by the wind out into the environment. Instead, use reusable bags to get your groceries and other purchases home.
Say “NO” to pre-packaged single serving portions. These types of products are among the worst when it comes to excess packaging.
Reusable containers are rad! When it comes to lunch and leftovers, ditch the plastic bag and use reusable containers instead. Reusable containers are just as easy to use and far less harmful to the planet
Buy a reusable travel mug. Use a reusable travel mug or to-go cup for your coffee, tea and other beverage purchases. Think of all the lids (as well as the waxed paper cups) you’ll save.
Always look for alternative packaging. Many items such as soft drinks, detergent, cat litter, etc. come in alternate packaging (such as aluminum or cardboard) that can be more easily recycled than plastic.
Buy and sell secondhand. Clothing, toys, baby gear, furniture, household supplies, sporting goods and many other consumer items can often be found through secondhand sources, thereby reducing the amount of new plastic entering the waste stream.
Recycle! In those instances where you must use plastic, please make sure to recycle it.

Happy Raptoberfest... get your rethinking, reducing and reusing on. Join your local Chapter of Surfrider... get involved in an organization that makes you feel awesome because you're doing awesome. Do something that matters... and most importantly have fun. :)

This post is dedicated to my Grandpa.

September 20, 1927- October 1, 2011

Our Daily Ocean: Day 101

2011-10-03T23:21:00.000-04:00

It feels like an eternity since I've been to Wrightsville Beach. After I did my 100th clean up, my family and I had to take an unexpected trip back to St. Louis to visit family. But this weekend, I got back to the beach and loved every second of it!! On Saturday, I spent 7 hours at access 4 volunteering with Ocean Cure for Life Rolls On and with Surfrider for our "One Foot At A Time" beach clean up! It was an awesome AWESOME day... and I can't wait to share it with you all!! :) Here's a little peak of what we were up to on Saturday ;)

Sunday evening, my family and I met Nina (and her family) at Wrightsville Beach. I met Nina (on Facebook) about 5 months ago, and when she told me she was going to be visiting family in my area... we both agreed that we just had to meet up!! Nina lives in Florida and picks up litter and other treasures-- such as sea beans-- off of her local beach. But not only is she another kindred spirit, she's planning on sharing her knowledge and love for the environment with children by having her first children's book series "Adventures with Nina & Steve " published. LOVE that!

Fall is definitely here in Wilmington. Over the weekend, the temperatures took a dip into the 60's. The change in weather, marks a change in the amount of litter found at the beach. As much as I'm bummed that summer is over... I'm happy for the break in picking up overwhelming amounts of litter.

One thing that Nina and I talked about is how at her beach, they get a lot of litter that washes up from other places... Wrightsville Beach, for whatever reason... doesn't get debris washed in. The litter we pick up (unless there's been a hurricane or off-shore storm) is from beach goers. People pick up your sh*t!! Love (y)our beach! ...and if you see someone leave something behind... speak up or pick it up... please and thank you :)

20 minutes on October 2, 2011 at Access 15

Litter by weight: 2 lbs 1.7 oz
Cigarette butts: 175

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 101 days:

35,279

Our Daily Ocean: Day 100

2011-09-16T13:02:00.001-04:00

I went to the beach with every intention of not doing a 20 minute clean up. You see, I knew my next clean up would be my 100th... and I had big plans for #100. I had been thinking about it for awhile... I really wanted to invite people to come out and join us for the momentous clean up... but sometimes things don't happen the way we think they should. As I sat on the beach eating my dinner and snapping photos of the seagulls flying all around us, my husband said, "Look, there's a girl back there picking up litter." Sure enough, I looked. Then I paused and said, "Hey! That's Susan!"

Susan is a volunteer with the Wrightsville Beach Sea Turtle Project and contributes to the WB- Keep It Clean blog where she shares not only the litter she picks up, but also the treasures she finds! Seeing Susan on the beach, made me change my mind about my 100th clean up... I mean... as much as we go out to Wrightsville Beach, we hardly ever run into people we know. This was a rare event that I couldn't pass up!! (Guess I'll have to do something for my 101st clean up... ;) ) In our 20 minutes at Access 40, Susan picked up 128 cigarette butts. I'm adding that amount to the Wrightsville Beach Community Count (found on the sidebar)... THANKS Susan!!!

Another rare find at the beach last night: a horseshoe crab. My daughter spotted it and I was super excited that she immediately knew what it was! All those visits to the NC Aquarium payed off!! ;) Did you know that horseshoe crabs are considered living fossils?? AND... that they actually are more closely related to spiders and scorpions?!? Really amazing animal!! Now, of course, it was no longer living... but it was still super cool to find on the beach especially considering I had started to wonder if they existed in the wild since I've only ever seen them at the NC Aquarium.

On October 1, I'll be at Wrightsville Beach Access 4 volunteering with Ocean Cure for Life Rolls On: They Will Surf Again. If you'll be in the area, learn more and register to volunteer here.

On the same day (and same access), Surfrider Cape Fear Chapter is going to be having a beach clean up to mark the beginning of RAPtoberfest!! What's RAPtoberfest?? Well... Surfrider will be dedicating the entire month of October to organizing beach clean ups and passing along tips to RISE ABOVE PLASTICS!!! Bonnie, Ginger and I will be setting up our litter awareness art to help raise awareness to the amount of litter found on the beach... especially plastics! So come out and see us!!!

20 minutes on September 15, 2011 at Access 40

Litter by weight: 1 lb 7.5 oz

Cigarette butts: 163

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 100 days:

35,104

Our Daily Ocean: Day 99

2011-09-13T22:19:00.000-04:00

Sunday evening, my family and I met our friends Bonnie, Ginger and John at the beach to do a ~~little~~... ok... a BIG litter awareness art project in the sand with (almost) all of the litter that Ginger and John picked up on their morning turtle walks at Wrightsville Beach. It took us a few trips up the steps to Johnnie Mercer's Pier and a good hour before we figured out exactly how it should be. As we made adjustments and discussed how we could make it better, we watched as people walked by and slowed down... it definitely grabbed the attention of beach goers that passed by, which was super exciting because bringing awareness to a problem is the first step to changing a problem.

Speaking of art. Bonnie is having an art exhibit that will run from September 22- October 27 at UNCW's Boseman Gallery. Since I've seen a bit of what Bonnie has created...I'm super excited to see it all come together!! So, if you're in Wilmington (or nearby) mark your calendars.

WHAT GOES AROUND, COMES AROUND

Just in today: The lawsuit that was brought on ChicoBag by plastic bag giants has been settled!! WOOT! Such great news! Plastic bags blow!! We picked up 2 plastic bags on the beach on Sunday evening AND Sunday morning my husband picked up several plastic bags in the water as he was SUPing two of our kids around Wrightsville Beach. Every time I'm able to snap a photo of a plastic bag in the environment, I add it to Surfrider Foundation Cape Fear Chapter's photos on Facebook, if you catch a plastic bag in "action" snap a photo, grab it... then post your photo!

Saturday, September 24th is NC BIG SWEEP!! Volunteers are needed, so come on out and help clean up our beaches and waterways!

"Big Sweep will begin at 9:00 am in Wrightsville Beach at the Gazebo at Johnnie Mercer’s Pier, Carolina Beach at the Boardwalk Gazebo, Kure Beach at the Pier, and Greenfield Lake at the Boathouse.

Please come prepared to be outdoors: wear sunscreen, sturdy closed toe shoes and clothes that can get dirty. Help us reduce the amount of waste at the event by bringing your own reusable water bottle and gloves if you have them."

20 minutes on September 11, 2011 at Access 16

Litter by weight: 6 lbs 10. 8 oz

Cigarette butts: 759

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 99 days:

34,941

Our Daily Ocean: Day 98

2011-09-10T21:34:00.000-04:00

Friday night was a SUPER exciting night!! Moments after doing our 20 minute clean up at Access 36, we walked a bit north on the beach to see a Loggerhead sea turtle nest excavation!!!

It was so amazing seeing the teeny tiny baby sea turtles make their way to the ocean... and being there to witness this event solidified even more how important what we are doing really is...

One of my favorite sites for learning about sea turtles is SEEturtles.org. If there was anything you ever wanted to learn about sea turtles... that's the place to go :) By the way... did you know?

It's estimated that only 1 in 1000 sea turtle hatchlings will make it to adulthood. (...whatever it is that we can do to help them make it to adulthood... I feel like it's our responsibility to do so.... "No thank you plastic _______.")

Hatchlings use the natural light horizon along with the white crests of the waves to reach the water when they emerge from the nest. Any other light sources such as beachfront lighting, street lights, car lights, camera flashes, etc can disorientate the hatchlings and send them in the wrong direction. (That's no bueno!)

Sea turtle hatchlings have a long road to adulthood... the moment they emerge from the nest, they have natural predators-- ghost crabs, birds, dogs, raccoons, fish, etc-- to scoot and swim past. ...And once they make it... they now have to contend with deciphering between what is edible food and what is our completely unnatural toxic trash. (Only WE can change that.)

Rewinding a bit: On Thursday evening, we met our friend Sean with the Surfrider Foundation at Wrightsville Beach Town Hall with all 33,989 cigarette butts we've collected off of Wrightsville Beach. Sean presented to the Board of Aldermen about micro-litter (specifically cigarette butts) on WB. He ended with asking the board to revisit the idea of banning smoking on the beach...

Only time will tell what the board decides to do with the information that Sean presented to them. In the meantime... we'll still be heading out to Wrightsville Beach... doing 20 minute clean ups and counting cigarette butts.

20 minutes on September 9, 2011 at Access 36

Litter by weight: 2 lbs 10.6 oz

Cigarette butts: 193

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 98 days:

34,182

Our Daily Ocean: Day 97

2011-09-08T13:08:00.000-04:00

Once again we made it to the beach VERY late... this whole end of summer thing is really throwing me for a loop!! I need to make a mental note to head to the beach 30 minutes earlier than I think I do!! Check it out... this is what it looked like when we got to the beach!!! Absolutely no time to spare... we headed right and got a move on doing our 20 minute clean up...

Walking around on Wrightsville Beach last night, something looked different. There was a noticeable lack of litter. Turns out that a local church group decided that-- since Labor Day had just passed-- it was important to do a beach clean up at Wrightsville Beach. Agreed! High 5's to them!!! :D Since they were picking up the majority of "bigger" items... it left us to focus on the "smalls."

During clean ups post Hurricane Irene, we've noticed a drastic increase in plastic caps. My thinking is that those caps were buried in the sand and when the hurricane moved the sand around on the beach... she uncovered things (such as bottle caps). Well... last night at the high tide line I saw this bottle cap peeking out from the sand. Made me wonder how many more are buried...hmmm??? Guess we'll find out if we get another hurricane...

Over the weekend, I got messages from my friends Julie and Ginger. Julie went to Access 36 with her family and picked up 370 cigarette butts. Ginger and her husband John adopted Access 18 and in 15 minutes Ginger picked up 406 cigarette butts!! Those amounts have been added to the community count on the sidebar! The new Wrightsville Beach community count total is at: 9,617!!

Rewinding: A year ago on September 7, we did our 8th beach clean up! At the time, the fact that I had 2,291 cigarette butts sitting in my garage was something that was so unbelievable to me. Now... a year later....we have almost 34,000 cigarette butts. And all it took was 20 minutes at a time...

20 minutes on September 7, 2011 at Access 19

Litter by weight: 1 lb 6.8 oz
Cigarette butts: 1,633

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 97 days:

33,989

Our Daily Ocean: Day 96

2011-09-06T22:20:00.000-04:00

After 11 days, my husband and oldest son are back from their vacation to Alaska and back to helping do our 20 minute beach clean ups!! Since they were gone so long, they missed out on Hurricane Irene and our record breaking clean up on Day 95 at Access 17. In case you missed it, my daughter, Bonnie and I picked up 2,026 cigarette butts!! Naturally, my husband was bummed that he missed that and wanted to see if we could beat that record. We didn't beat the record... but surprisingly we came CLOSE!! This clean up marks the 2nd largest pick up we've ever had!!!

Since we felt like we left A LOT behind on Day 95, we made the decision to go back to Access 17. Low and behold the mess was still there, but with it was leftovers from Labor Day beach goers. One of the greatest things about being at the beach ~~around~~ AT sundown-- we made it to the beach fairly late... around 7:30 PM and the sunset was A LOT earlier than we expected-- is that it is completely obvious what things have no ownership. Boogie boards to water bottles... we found them last night. By the way, the Wrightsville Beach Sea Turtle Project is wrapping up their season... that means their morning walks for turtle tracks and talkin' trash are nearing an end for the season. While the numbers are still coming in, they've picked up an astonishing 663 grocery sized bags full of litter from WB. If you haven't checked in on their blog in awhile, go stop by! :) Wrightsville Beach-- Keep It Clean

Every 20 minute beach clean up we do, I weigh the amount of litter we pick up (minus boogie boards and chairs) for The Daily Ocean Community Count. After weighing last night's haul, we've officially picked up over 200 pounds of litter off of Wrightsville Beach!! WOW!!! Talk about having proof that taking a little bit of time to clean up our world can make a HUGE difference :)

20 minutes on September 5, 2011 at Access 17

Litter by weight: 6 lbs 14.6 oz

Cigarette butts: 1,879

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 96 days:

32,356

Our Daily Ocean: Day 95

2011-09-04T17:15:00.000-04:00

Last night... was a record breaking night. Our 20 minute clean up turned into almost 30 minutes... and even when we finished the section we started, as we left the beach we could see that there (literally) was no end in sight. But, maybe I should rewind a bit... as much as I want to blurt everything out right now... let's start from the beginning.

Earlier in the day, I called Bonnie to see if she wanted to go for ice cream with us... ummm... YES!! Then we decided that we would meet beforehand at Wrightsville Beach to do a 20 minute clean up. :) By the way, if you don't know who Bonnie is... you should! She's been to 3 of the 5 ocean gyres studying the accumulation of plastics in our oceans. AND... I'm super excited because she's currently working on an art exhibit that will be shown late September...

So... as it were... Claire and Henri were playing in the ocean... I saw a cigarette butt in the tideline...Bonnie grabbed a piece of plastic... and then Henri ran out of the water with a plastic bag (no not that kind... a package for rubber gloves). As my kids finished playing and our clean up started, my kids made a beeline for the dunes/grasses... finding odds and ends of plastics along the way.

Then it happened, Bonnie called me over to the wrack line. It was reminiscent of the wrack line that we came across on Day 11 at Access 20. If you recall, we picked up 1,833 cigarette butts that day. But, this day... we picked up more.... I attempted to take a picture, but realized that I couldn't fit into one frame what we were seeing... a photo couldn't explain why we didn't stop at the 20 minute mark. As Bonnie says, "We were soooo outnumbered... the sun went down before we could even come close to finishing."

I'm not sure where all of those cigarette butts came from, but here's the fact that matters:

They were all littered.

We went over 20 minutes on September 3, 2011 at Access 17

Litter by weight: 2 lbs 6 oz
Cigarette butts: 2,026

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 95 days:

30,477

Our Daily Ocean: Day 94

2011-09-03T23:27:00.000-04:00

Last night, my two youngest and I stopped by Lovey's Market & Café to pick up some food for a picnic dinner at the beach with our friends :) We ended up staying at the beach until it was pitch black and everyone was gone (yes, even all of the surfers)... the only thing we could hear was the crashing of the waves... ahhh.... the perfect music :)

When we first started our 20 minute clean up, I wandered over to Oceanic. The wrack line was still pretty crazy, so I did quick sweep for straws. Super happy that I didn't find any that appeared to have blown off of the pier!! But, I did find this little guy... ok... he's kind of big! AND... yes, I had to do a double take at first ;)

I don't always mention it, but I have the most awesome interaction with kids on the beach. When they figure out what we're doing they're most often the ones who come to me and say "thank you" or quickly look around for something they can pick up to contribute to helping clean up the beach. Kids are awesome like that. Last night, as I was picking up litter, I heard a faint "Excuse me, what are you picking up?" As I looked up, I saw a little boy with his parents. I told him that I was picking up trash and with that he said, "Here's some trash" Then he and his (maybe 2 year old) little sister each handed me a cigarette butt.

While I was picking up cigarette butts and bottle caps... my friend Tracy was slowly picking up little balls of styrofoam in the wrack line. It was tedious (and slightly frustrating) work... one move of the wrack line and the styrofoam blew everywhere... Tracy was committed to getting as much of it as she could... and thinks that it's about time styrofoam was banned!! I mean really, why are they still making that crap anyway????

20 minutes on September 2, 2011 at Access 36

Litter by weight: 1 lb 13.8 oz

Cigarette butts: 244

Wondering where my "group" photo is?? Well, I put my camera on manual focus to take this photo of Tracy holding this starfish that she found while sifting through all of the styrofoam... forgot to change my settings back, didn't pay any attention and took a blurry "group" photo!! oops!! (shrug) Starfish are much more beautiful than a pile of trash anyway! ;)

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 94 days:

28,451

(Plastic-Free) Sweet Corn Tomalito

2011-09-01T09:14:00.000-04:00

In the winter of 2006, pregnant with my third child, we left Wilmington to live by family in St. Louis. The move didn't really work for us and was (obviously) short lived... we lasted a whopping 13 months before we could finally make our way back to our beautiful coastal community. While I was super happy to be "home"....not long after moving back to Wilmington, I realized that I missed a few things about St. Louis. Yes, the thing I missed most was family... but I also missed some random yummy foods.

During our short stay back in the Midwest, we grew very fond of Chevy's. Ok, really... Chevy's wasn't amazing or anything... BUT... they had a super yummy corn pudding-like side dish. Every time I would have Mexican, I would think about that corn pudding. Sooo... I did what anyone these days does. I googled... and voilà magic ;)

I've been making this yumminess for the past four years... but not until a year ago did I start making it plastic-free!! Ummm... maybe you remember that I said I was going to share the recipe back on day 1 of Plastic-Free Food week last September?!? Sorry for being a slacker!!

Sweet Corn Tomalito

Recipe from St. Louis Post Dispatch (circa 1997)

1/2 c organic butter at room temperature
1/2 c Masa (for tamales)
1/2 c + 2TBSP sugar

4 c fresh corn removed from cobs (4-6 ears of corn depending on size), divided
3/4 c water
3/4 c cornmeal
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 c milk (I use homemade almond milk to make this plastic-free, but really any kind of milk will work.)

Oven directions: Place roasting pan in the oven. Fill it with water to a depth of about 1". Preheat oven to 350˚F.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter, masa and sugar together until light and fluffy. Spread in a glass dish with 2" sides. (Use a 2 qt round with a lid or an 8" square with aluminum foil.)

Blend 2 cups of the corn and water in a blender until smooth. Transfer to a bowl (I use the same bowl that I mixed the butter mixture in) and add remaining 2 cups of corn, cornmeal, salt & milk. Mix well, then spread on top of the butter mixture.

Cover with lid (or tightly with aluminum foil). Place the dish into the water-bath. After 15 minutes, stir... then stir again after 45 minutes. Continue to cook for an additional 15 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center of the tomalito comes out clean. Keep tightly covered until ready to serve.

To serve, use an ice cream scooop :)

Approximately 16 (ice cream scoop sized) servings.

TIP: If you don't have a roasting pan (or large enough pan to make a water bath)... you can steam this on the stove-top using the double-boiler method :)

Our Daily Ocean: Day 93

2011-08-30T21:48:00.003-04:00

Another day, another post Hurricane Irene beach clean up. Yup... we've been out to Wrightsville Beach three days in a row!!! Of course, my kids are still super excited about all of shells that are still lining the beach...

The past two posts I've mentioned how Hurricane Irene has completely reshaped the southend of the beach... so in an effort to really share how different the beach is... we went back to the far southend of Wrightsville Beach :) Here's what the southend looked like (looking from Access 42 to 43) back in January on our 36th beach clean up:

This is what it looks like now...

While at the beach on Saturday, I talked to some people and most often I heard people say "this is just horrible" about the fact that so many of the sand dunes were gone. While it does look a lot different without all the dunes... it is exactly how nature intended it to be. I watched this great educational film entitled "North Carolina: The Beaches Are Moving" about barrier islands and how they are constantly changing... and how this change (even the drastic changes from a storm) is natural and good. It's long, but it's definitely worth watching :) By the way, if you didn't know... Wrightsville Beach is a barrier island!

I now interrupt this lesson on barrier islands to jump full on into a semi-rant about plastic caps!!! On Friday, Susan with the Wrightsville Beach Sea Turtle Project picked up 122 plastic bottle caps. On Saturday, Tracy and I picked up 92 bottle caps... Sunday, I picked up 25... AND now (on Monday evening), I along with Michelle-- another beach sweeper!!-- picked up 115 plastic bottle caps!!!

Ok, so maybe you're wondering where all the bottles are that go with those caps?? Hmmm... not sure what happened to the bottles... but I have an idea about WHY there are so many freaking bottle caps. The story I make up goes a bit like this: Beachgoer takes cap off of plastic-- water/soda/gatorade/Vitamin-Water-- bottle... cap isn't attached in any way so it easily gets lost... and one way or another gets buried in the sand. THEN... one day a big storm comes and moves all the sand... and VOILA! the mess that was once buried is now uncovered for us to see...

So... maybe this wasn't as big of a rant as I thought was going to come spewing out... but here's the deal. Maybe you no longer drink bottled water... rock on! That's awesome. How about rethinking all of the drinks that come in plastic bottles with plastic lids?? Gatorade, sodas, flavored waters... little by little stop purchasing them and start filling a reusable beverage bottle instead. Do it so our beaches stay being made of sand... do it so we find shells and not plastic... do it to save wildlife... whatever it is... find a reason and go with it. (please)

20 minutes on August 29, 2011 at Access 43

Litter by weight: 3 lbs 12.1 oz
Cigarette butts: 182

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 93 days:

28,207

Our Daily Ocean: Day 92

2011-08-29T22:44:00.000-04:00

For the second day in a row, we made it out to Wrightsville Beach. This time to play, collect shells, and marvel at how much the beach has changed. Claire and Henri were especially loving this new "balance beam" that Hurricane Irene installed at the beach ;)

As I mentioned in my last post, the wrack line is fairly overwhelming because it's full of litter that for the most part blends. It takes a bit for my eyes to adjust... the colors are all the same... sometimes I think I'm grabbing litter and it's not... sometimes I probably miss litter. Question: Does this cigarette butt immediately pop out to you?? (Now imagine putting the photo on the floor and looking down...)

When I'm looking through the wrack line, I always think about the "Magic Eye" analogy that my friend Bonnie uses to describe plastics in the oceans:

"...the problem with plastics in our marine environment goes unnoticed because most of it is underwater or broken down into small bits floating on the surface. Not that it takes a trained eye to see it; you just have to recognize that it’s there. Once you do, it likens to the "Magic Eyes" from the 90s. Remember staring at a random series of blotches until an image imbedded in the blotches could be recognized? Once your eyes discovered it, you could always see it. And you wondered why you hadn't noticed at first glance."

20 minutes on August 28, 2011 at Access 42

Litter by weight: 12.7 oz

Cigarette butts: 270

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 92 days:

28,025

Our Daily Ocean: Day 91

2011-08-29T00:39:00.000-04:00

The whole time that Hurricane Irene was barreling down here on Friday and Saturday, I kept thinking about going to Wrightsville Beach. So... obviously, as soon as Wrightsville Beach lifted the "RESTRICTED ACCESS" on Saturday late afternoon... my friend Tracy, her daughter, my two youngest and I hopped in the car without any hesitation and headed to Wrightsville Beach! :)

Hurricanes are so powerful... reshaping the beaches... giving and taking.... helping the ocean purge.

I can't tell you enough how the beach after a hurricane (even a big offshore storm) is one of the most amazing things! I'm continually left in awe of the ocean's power...

The power to change the beach is the power to uncover things that had been long left behind and buried in the sand... now left uncovered by the oceans waves. Normally, I kick over the wrack line and pick up all of the litter embedded in the organic debris: plastics, straws, caps, cigarette butts... but the wrack line was so littered on the surface that it was hard to focus, let alone dig deeper.

Honestly, I haven't been overwhelmed in awhile... but I really couldn't find focus... there was just so much. For example, Tracy and I picked up a record 92 plastic bottle caps. It was insane... every direction we looked bottle caps were there.

I've been trying to figure out how to explain the overwhelmed feeling I had on Saturday... then I hopped on over to WB-- Keep It Clean and read this:

"As I was walking today, one thing that I found really overwhelming was the number of cigarette butts. There were so many that I couldn't even focus on picking them up-- I didn't know where to start. It got me thinking about how Mother Teresa once said, "If I look at all this mass, I will never act." .... if we see one cigarette butt on an otherwise pristine beach, it is easy to pick it up, throw it away, blame the sole smoker for being careless, and move on. But when we walk down the beach and see 1,000 cigarette butts, which ones do we pick up? Where do we start? And whom do we blame? I think this is why so many people walk past the cigarette butts and don't stop to pick them up. The enormity of the problem is so great."

It completely sums up how I felt picking up litter on Saturday... there was no end in sight... sure I had 20 minutes... but this wasn't a day at the beach... this was DAYS and MONTHS at the beach spit out by the ocean... that's a lot to take in...

(A little more than) 20 minutes on August 27, 2011 at Access 41

Litter by weight: 8 lbs 11 oz
Cigarette butts: 344 (though Tracy said there was probably more like 34,400.)

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 91 days:

27,755

Bottled Water

2011-08-26T22:36:00.000-04:00

Hurricane Irene is pounding the North Carolina coastline as type. Just sitting here, I can hear the wind whistling and the heavy rains being whipped with every gust. Since we're in the middle of "extreme weather" I thought I'd take a quick moment to share how I do "bottled" water! Of course, you know that I've made the commitment to not buying bottled water, so I have to get creative in prepping emergency supplies just in case we lose power or don't have access to drinkable water. This morning, my daughter and I filled glass juice bottles full of water from our very own tap! Check it out.... 16 (32 oz) bottles of water ready in case of an emergency!

Curious what's happening here in Wilmington/Wrightsville Beach? Check out this short video I found on YouTube from earlier today. (In case you're wondering... No, I didn't even attempt to make it out to the beach today!!)

It's going to be a windy night... wherever you are, be safe.

Our Daily Ocean: Day 90

2011-08-26T09:34:00.001-04:00

For the past couple of days, I have been paying close attention to the hurricane models tracking Hurricane Irene. I want to go ahead and thank everyone for the kind messages of concern and wishes for our family to be safe during the storm. We were at Wrightsville Beach last night and could see the first signs of Irene in the form of clouds and some light wind gusts. As the storm approaches, this is one time that I will say, "Thankfully we don't live on the beach."

Speaking of hurricanes... I can't go any further without sharing this super funny Weather Channel commercial that was filmed at Wrigthsville Beach. If you're not familiar with Jim Cantore, he's the guy that always shows up when the weather is going to be bad...

With the hurricane swirling in our direction, there's a bit of nervous excitement in the air. Yes, storms are scary, but it's also exciting. Like the changing of the seasons, it's exciting to see the power of nature at work. BUT... even with how powerful nature is... she can't overcome everything. Found this Dasani plant-- made with 30% plant product to make you think you're doing something good for the environment-- bottle. If you don't know already... the "plant" bottle is plastic through and through.... and NOT biodegradable.

While not as busy as normal, Wrightsville Beach had its share of visitors last night. With the larger than normal waves, the ocean was filled with surfers and the beach full of onlookers armed with cameras! I was there to catch a glimpse of the before the storm and will go back shortly after to see what the ocean decides to spit out and uncover.

Every bit of litter we found last night was at the wrack line. Most often the litter we found was buried under a pile of organic debris. Kick over the wrack line and you'll find bits of plastic, bottle caps, and cigarette butts. Wet.... being washed out and being washed back in...

20 minutes on August 25, 2011 at Access 39

Litter by weight: 1 lb 9.1 oz
Cigarette butts: 176

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 90 days:

27,411

Our Daily Ocean: Day 89

2011-08-25T23:15:00.000-04:00

On Tuesday, Wrightsville Beach was bustling with activity. UNCW was having their annual "Beach Blast" and the Weather Channel was hanging out at Johnnie Mercer's Pier... and we were doing our 89th beach clean up! ;) AND... just look how gorgeous it was!!!

I was told by my friend Michelle that the (above) photo is deceiving. Why?? Because no one would ever guess the amount of litter that we remove from the beach in just 20 minutes based on that photograph. I never thought about it before, but it's been something that I've been doing from the moment I started these clean ups. Trying to convey the beauty of the beach with the juxtaposition of the litter. Hoping that people understand that even what seem to be small problems are inherently bigger than we realize. The fact of the matter is: Most people wouldn't even notice the majority of litter that we pick up.

I know that I probably beat this whole cigarette butt litter thing to a pulp... BUT... I can't seem to stop myself! When my kids are wading through a tidal pool (like the beautiful/clean/pristine top photo) and they come running to me with cigarette butts... I get sick to my stomach. I've seen what a cigarette butt in water does. It doesn't just look gross... it's toxic. THIS is reality... over 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are littered EVERY single year.... how many of those littered cigarette butts come in contact with water???? ummm.... We live on the blue planet. (just sayin')

20 minutes on August 23, 2011 at Access 18

Litter by weight: 1 lb 11.2 oz

Cigarette butts: 240

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 89 days:

27,235

Our Daily Ocean: Day 88

2011-08-20T22:41:00.000-04:00

Every time I go out to the beach to pick up litter... I think. I think about the fact that I've been picking up the same litter and taking the same photos for the past year. I wonder if I have anything to say... do I have anything more to contribute?? Is it possible to say anything that I haven't already said??

I find most often that I repeat myself over and over again. Cigarettes are nasty, straws suck, plastic bags blow... rethink, reduce, reuse... plastic is forever. Any other ones? I'm ok repeating myself. I'll keep repeating myself just to make sure that I don't miss any opportunities to help create change...

For the record, an "Eco-Slim" smaller cap may equal less plastic... but it's STILL plastic. Don't be fooled by the touts of greenness... the cap has nothing to do with being "eco" or green. To truly be an eco-consicous, green consumer say "Adios"... "Au Revoir"... "Sayonara" to bottled water and use a reusable water bottle filled with tap water. Don't like the way tap water tastes?? Easy fix: Get a filter :)

Shifting gears....

Back in July, I volunteered with Cape Fear Surfrider for Barefoot Wine & Bubbly's Beach Rescue at Wrightsville Beach. I had a really great opportunity to chat with Barefoot about my efforts at WB and they have been so kind to share what I'm doing with the Barefoot community! Check out their blogpost here: Getting 'Butts' Off The Beach

A month from today, Barefoot Wine & Bubbly will present the film "One Beach"... it'll play all day on Facebook. Yes, I totally think it's worth watching. It's a film about creativity, optimism, and fun at work around the world keeping our beaches barefoot friendly.

What happens when the world comes together?? I like that thought ;)

20 minutes on August 20, 2011 at Access 25

Litter by weight: 2 lbs 6.5 oz
Cigarette butts: 280

Missing from this photo is one Nike tennis shoe, a sock, and a styrofoam cup. oops!

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 88 days:

26,995

Our Daily Ocean: Day 87

2011-08-18T11:21:00.000-04:00

Have you ever stopped to think about your connection to things? Ever since I started documenting these 20 minute clean ups... I can't help but connect myself to the litter we find on Wrightsville Beach.

Besides the cigarettes, I can honestly say that I've used most everything that we found on the beach last night. Bottled water? Yup. Straws. Who hasn't! Juice pouches, fruit snacks, granola bars, plastic spoons, sandwich bags... they've all passed through my hands.

What's great about having realized our personal connection is that it has given us the opportunity to make positive changes. Every time I would connect to something we found at the beach, I suddenly felt accountable for the products I used. And rightfully, I should... even if I never littered a day in my life. (But who am I kidding even with the best of intentions... accidents happen.)

I connect myself to this... do you? How are you connected?

20 minutes on August 17, 2011 at Access 16

Litter by weight: 1 lb 11.4 oz

Cigarette butts: 370

This was my two sons' bucket. Together they collected 173 cigarette butts.

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 87 days:

26,715

Our Daily Ocean: Day 86

2011-08-12T22:46:00.002-04:00

On Thursday evening, over an hour before we started our 20 minute clean up, my son came across a plastic bottle at his feet in the ocean and came running to show me that it was filled with sand. (who does that??)

My kids and I spent a whopping 5 hours hanging out at access 36 with some friends.... we watched people come and go... we played... we picked up random pieces of litter... we ate dinner... my son & husband got stung by a jellyfish (ouch!!)... and we did our usual 20 minute clean up.... just another day at the beach! :)

When I first started doing these 20 minute clean ups, I had no idea how bad cigarette butt litter really was. Sure I knew that they were the most littered item worldwide... somewhere around 4.5 trillion are littered every single year. But what I didn't know was that the fact that as soon as a cigarette butt comes in contact with water, it begins leaching all of the nastiness it was designed to trap...

Before last night, it had been almost exactly a month since our last visit to access 36. Truth is, I've been consciously avoiding going there. A little after our last visit, I (got over my fears and) made a phone call to the district manager of the restaurant group that owns Oceanic. We ended the conversation on a good note... he was going to get the ball rolling on fixing two major problems: Straws and a high volume of littered cigarette butts in an employee break area. I wanted to give Oceanic plenty of time to work on these problems before heading back... my hopes were high... BUT... not much different than last time... I picked up 73 cigarette butts in the employee break area. :( I'm happy to share that Oceanic is committed to fixing this problem and I'm committed to helping make sure this isn't the norm....

OK.... now straws.... we picked up a total of 60 straws during our 20 minute clean up. Are you ready??? A whopping 53 of those straws came from the Oceanic dining pier!!! 31 of the straws were clear and the other 22 were the black sipping/stirring straws. Insane!! One of the easiest things to go without is straws!! It does take some practice, but it's as easy as saying, "No straws please." (Thank you in advance for going without a straw!)

As I talked to the district manager of Oceanic today, he let me know that they were looking into biodegradable straws like the ones made from corn. BUT... the biodegradable straws are 4x more expensive than their plastic counterparts! We talked about some different solutions, including having the waitstaff ask customers on the pier if they need a straw. I'm wondering if anyone else has some suggestions for how Oceanic can fix this problem?? I'm sure Oceanic would appreciate any feasible ideas... contact them here.

20 minutes on August 11, 2011

Litter by weight: 1 lb 12.7 oz

Cigarette butts: 545

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 86 days:

26,345

Our Daily Ocean: Day 85

2011-08-10T19:48:00.000-04:00

A year ago yesterday, one mom (that's "me") and three kids went to Wrightsville Beach, NC to start an experiment. Pick up litter for 20 minutes and count the amount of cigarette butts we find. August 9, 2010 we picked up 346 cigarette butts in 20 minutes....a year later, we've picked up an additional 25,454 cigarette butts... (!! insane, I know !!) Last night, we headed back (with some help) to that same spot where it all started....

A lot happened this past year... a lot of AMAZING wonderful things have happened. Not long after I published my first post, I started to receive comments and emails from people telling me that this blog was going to have a bigger impact than I knew... (they were right)

Then in mid-September, on a whim, before I really knew anything about how bad cigarette litter really is... I entered my project in the Brita FilterForGood Film Project. It's now been 8 months since three amazing and talented guys came and filmed our family of five for 3 days to make a short film meant to motivate and inspire people to become active in their own communities...

Over the past year, I helped get BaitTanks installed at WB, went to the Sundance Film Festival, got messages from friends saying they saw me on the Sundance Channel (!!), ...but best of all... I've gotten emails from all over the world from people sharing with me how what I'm doing has inspired them and what things they're doing to help clean up our world. I am so thankful for every person that has taken the time to reach out to me... in the moments when I'm so over picking up cigarettes or doubt that what I'm doing matters... it's your words that help keep me motivated :)

In saying that, I've connected with the MOST amazingly supportive and inspiring people (I really want to make a list, but it would be SO long and I know that you all know who you are :) )... proof to me that when we give without expectations... the most amazing "gifts" come barreling towards us... it's true that we indeed "get what we give." I have so much gratitude for every person who has joined my family and me at Wrightsville Beach this past year to help make it a little bit cleaner -- including our neighbors who helped us clean up last night. :)

...reminiscing is fun. I'm just feeling so much gratitude for the past year... this project has gotten more attention than I ever could have ever imagined... Thanks to all of the media outlets and bloggers who have taken the time to do a story on this mom trying to make a difference in our world. :)

Hmmm... if you know me personally... you know how I would often say, "I'm *just* a mom" ... but so much has changed because of this simple project. So when earlier in the year I saw this quote I felt it completely summed up this whole "Our Daily Ocean" year:

"When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and your discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be." ~Patanjali

I didn't know what would happen when I decided to do something... in fact, I still don't. I'm not sure how long we'll be picking up and counting cigarette butts.... I don't have a time frame for making a difference. I do what I can do... as much as I can do... and remind myself that it all started with reaching out to a stranger, then taking time to pick up one...

20 minutes on August 9, 2011 at Access 43

Litter by weight: 5 lbs .9 oz
Cigarette butts: 378

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 85 days:

25,800

Our Daily Ocean: Day 84

2011-08-07T21:35:00.000-04:00

Today we spent about 4 hours at Wrightsville Beach. It was plenty of time to play in the waves, build some drip castles, get a sunburn (yeah... I missed a couple of spots... oops!), and do a 20 minute beach clean up.

Normally we do our beach clean ups in the evening, but since we were at the beach to play it only made sense to spend 20 minutes picking up litter. One thing I learned about picking up litter at 2 in the afternoon is that the sand is crazy HOT!! Not wearing shoes, I tried my best to stay at the wrack line, but some plastic bags and food wrappers up in the dune grasses caught my attention... so I braved the burning hot sand!!! Completely unrelated to beach clean ups: I may have a future in walking on hot coals! ;)

While my feet were on fire, I picked up several sandwich bags/ziplocks. Here's the thing with plastics (especially bags and food wrappers): They blow. Even a person with the best of intentions to not litter, will end up littering... completely unintentional... it happens. But, it doesn't have to happen. All it takes is rethinking simple things and coming up with alternate solutions to things we commonly use.

Did you hear? Three of the largest plastic bag manufacturers are suing ChicoBag, a reusable bag company for "irreparably harming" their business. I, personally, think the lawsuit is completely ridiculous. And to be completely real about it.... if anyone deserves to be sued, it's those plastic bag manufacturers. Yes, I said it. ChicoBag isn't "irreparably harming" our environment and choking/suffocating/killing animals... the only thing ChicoBag has ever done was try to help create a solution to one of the most ridiculously wasteful products ever created... the plastic bag. Please take a moment to show your support for ChicoBag.

Support ChicoBag and Help Defend Small Business

After I grabbed the (above) Harris Teeter plastic bag, my feet were on fire... so I ran to the ocean to cool my feet down. Perfect timing... 5 cigarette butts were being washed around in the incoming tide... :(

20 minutes on August 7, 2011 at Access 38

Litter by weight: 10.4 oz

Cigarette butts: 242

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 84 days:

25,422

Our Daily Ocean: Day 83

2011-08-05T22:32:00.000-04:00

With the swell coming in on Thursday evening, the beach... err... the ocean was full of surfers. The weather was perfect... still warm from the day... and the ocean rolling with full waves was even better.

During our 20 minute clean up, I couldn't help but notice that the majority of cigarette butts were wet. Of course, wet cigarette butts make me think about the toxins that are released as soon as the littered butt hits the water... :(

The other day, my aunt called me to tell me about a boat cruise they went on in Lake Okoboji. She was so frustrated because when they stopped to go for a swim, she saw smokers throw their cigarette butts in the lake!! BUT... good news! My aunt took the time to write the company that did the cruise. Here's a bit of what she had to say:

"Cigarette butts are made of plastic and are not biodegradable. The filter is designed to trap toxins so when it hits the water, those toxins are released into the water. Which also means that they are no friend to the fish swimming below the surface. If you could PLEASE have ashtrays available and let riders know that if they have to smoke, not to throw them overboard. Thank you."

I'm happy to report that my aunt received an email from the company letting her know that they were "appalled that passengers would think it is okay to throw ANY type of trash into the Lake" and the issue was going to be addressed immediately. (YAY!!!)

My aunt isn't the only one paying attention to the cigarette butt litter problem. Daedra of Strawesome did a 20 minute beach clean up at Lake Michigan and picked up a pile of litter that included bottle caps, straws and over 300 cigarette butts! She writes:

"It was actually hard to stop picking them [cigarette butts] up because they were everywhere, but my back hurt so I had to stop.
I forwarded my findings to the park office and requested they install cigarette butt collection receptacles. If you saw piles of 300 cigarette butts on the beach you’d be grossed out, right? So, why is it ok when they’re spread out all over the land? It’s not!"
YES!! Since I've picked up over 25,000 (yup! milestone!!).... I completely agree!! High 5 to Daedra!! Check out her entire post: Just Beachy
Soooo... have you ever wondered what over 25,000 cigarette butts looked like?? (ok, me neither) But here they are... 25,180 cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC. Thank you thank you thank you to all of my family and friends who have joined us out at WB and helped remove all this nastiness from the beach...

20 minutes on August 4, 2011 at Access 25
Litter by weight: 15.7 oz
Cigarette butts: 294
Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 83 days:
25,180

Our Daily Ocean: Day 82

2011-07-31T12:49:00.000-04:00

What do you see when you look at this picture?? What's the first thing that catches your eye??

The first thing I saw when I walked up to lifeguard stand #7 were the words in spray paint:

------ Cigs Kill time------

I found those words so strange (and sad) to see at the beach. While it may be true that they kill the time of life of those who smoke and so much more. Who needs to kill time at the beach anyway??? Time doesn't really exist at the beach....

"At the beach, life is different. Time doesn't move hour to hour but mood to moment. We live by the currents, plan by the tides and follow the sun."

The words on the back of the lifeguard tower that we're supposed to see:

"May the waves of the ocean bring you peace and joy as they did for our loving Wife, Mother, and Grandmother."

20 minutes on July 29, 2011 at Access 21

Litter by weight: 1 lb 12.5 oz

Cigarette butts: 328

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 82 days:

24,886

Sippin' (the Plastic-Free Way)

2011-07-28T08:45:00.027-04:00

"Here can you hold this for me?" I said, while handing my daughter my glass straw. Then as I started to fill my bulk containers, I heard: Ping ping ping It was the sound of my glass straw hitting the concrete floor (at Tidal Creek). I cringed thinking the worst. Ok, I wasn't panicking or anything...Glass Dharma has a lifetime guarantee... so no need to fret... but still I cringed just the same. Then as I leaned over to pick it up... I noticed that it was perfect... absolutely perfect. No cracks, no chips... no nothing. :)

If you've been following along, I have been saying "no thank you" to plastic straws for quite some time now... and it's been almost a year since I committed 100% to not accepting plastic straws (no ifs ands or buts)-- even in my smoothies. Yup, from August to May I had at least one smoothie a week and not one of them was drank with a straw. That is until I participated in the Glass Dharma Earth Day Letter Writing Initiative... and got me some glass straws. When I first got my glass straws, I was super excited... my kids and I popped them into our waters and fun ensued. Seriously, it had been so long since we drank from straws that we forgot how much fun it was to sip, sip, sip....

Now I'd like to tell you that I take our straws with us everywhere and use them all the time, but to be honest.... I'm really really bad at remembering to take them when we go out to eat....UNLESS, of course, I'm getting a smoothie.

Admission: I have an addiction to smoothies. Seriously. I sip and slurp up A LOT of smoothies with my glass straws!

Just to let you in on my addiction. For the past year, I've been going to yoga every Friday. And every Friday after yoga, I get a smoothie at Tidal Creek. I've now upped my yoga to 3 times a week... and you guessed it... that means more smoothies!! Sometimes they're chocolate, sometimes they're fruity... but boy oh boy are they always super yummy!! :) Of course, I used to go without a straw.... I was cool with going without....really I was... yes, even with a green smoothie mustache and a line across my nose.... I was fine. But... you know what????!!! Smoothies are SO much better with a straw. A million times better!! No doubt the smoothie tastes good no matter what... but it's honestly more pleasurable to drink using a straw.

....Says the girl who always says, "I don't need a straw." ;)

Now that I officially have a major thing for glass straws... thanks Glass Dharma!! I feel this need to share them with everyone. It's fun to say "glass straw" and see people get very intrigued. BUT... even better than that is giving them to family and friends! They are definitely my new favorite thing to gift. When my family came out to visit for my birthday, I ordered a bunch of glass straws and gifted them to my family. Days after getting home (to Iowa), my aunt made my cousin a thick milkshake... and sent me his response. Thumbs up! His favorite feature was something I hadn't even thought of: The glass straw doesn't go flat like a plastic straw! Woot!!

While Bushwalla was staying with us, he came home with a drink with a plastic straw...yikes!... I asked "what's up with the plastic straw??". ...and then, being the person I am...I couldn't let him go around using plastic straws. Friends don't let friends use single-use disposable plastics. ;) Without hesitation, I said, "I have something for you" and gave him one of my glass straws. He immediately started using it... and a month later is still using it!!! Most recently during his live and online show at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf he talked about reducing the amount of plastic he uses and showed off his glass straw! Yay Yay Yay!! Go B!!! (another ripple effect in progress)

Ok... so it's been 3 months since I got my first glass straw. I'm super grateful that Glass Dharma asked me to participate in their Earth Day letter writing initiative because thanks to the glass straw I'm back to sipping my drinks... slurping up the end of my smoothies... taking my kids to get fun things like root beer floats... all while still encouraging others to kick their plastic straw habit. :)

Hmmm... it's still early... I think I need to go make me a smoothie... ;)

Responsibility Is Not Convenient

2011-07-24T10:13:00.002-04:00

After doing our 81st clean up at Access 16, we headed further down the beach to Access 39 so that my husband could stand up paddle board. When we walked up the access I saw this overflowing trashcan that normally would have made me so frustrated...

Even though trash was falling and blowing out all over the beach, I wasn't frustrated because I knew that I could fix this problem. I said to my husband,

"I'm not leaving it like this... I'm going to get a trashcan."

Hoping to find a near empty trashcan... I walked to the next access and then to the next... both trashcans were half full. I hesitated and thought to myself... "What am I doing?? ... I don't know if I can do this... wait, I have to do this. Responsibility is NOT convenient." I made the decision to choose the closer of the two and I drug it across the beach...

In the midst of dragging the trashcan, I called my friend Ginger to let her know that I had officially lost it. Dragging the awkward, sticky, ant infested trashcan across the beach wasn't easy... but this is the way I saw it: There was a problem that needed to be fixed. Do I wish that people would have taken their trash with them instead of leaving it on the beach?? Absolutely. But they didn't. I can't change that. I can't change what happened before me... I can only hope to change what happens after me.

Responsibility is not convenient. Doing the right thing takes extra effort... but trust me... it's always worth it. :)

Our Daily Ocean: Day 81

2011-07-23T21:50:00.001-04:00

As I knelt down to pick up a grouping of cigarette butts, my daughter said, "You might want to just stay on your knees... it'll probably be easier." She did have a point... we had barely made it past the changing area at Access 16 and we had already come across several areas that were highly littered with cigarette butts.

Then by the time we made it to the pier-- along with a lot of plastic litter-- we had picked up SO many cigarette butts that my husband asked:

"Was there a RJ Reynolds convention here today??" (hmmm)

Not one to normally watch TV, last night my husband turned it on for a split second before watching a movie and there in front of us was this commercial about imagining a world without cigarettes. It made me smile for so many reasons...

I love imaging a world without cigarettes for so many reasons including the fact that a world without cigarettes would be a world without littered cigarette butts. Considering 4.5 trillion are littered every year...and the fact that I've counted thousands.... a world without cigarettes sure would be nice....

... smiling??? I am. :)

20 minutes on July 21, 2011 at Access 16

Litter by weight: 3 lbs 1.9 oz
Cigarette butts: 487

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 81 days:

24,558

Our Daily Ocean: Day 80

2011-07-22T23:11:00.000-04:00

This week has been a really great week... yes, good things are happening!! On Wednesday, it was an absolutely gorgeous day for my husband's birthday and my 80th beach clean up! .... AND... inspiration is in the air!

Since starting this blog, I have connected with so many amazing people who continue to inspire me on a daily basis through their actions, motivating words, and amongst other things the synchronicity in our lives. One of my major sources of inspiration comes from my friend Sarah who writes The Daily Ocean blog. After meeting her (just over a year ago)... I became inspired to start these 20 minute clean ups! AND... now I've contributed nearly 157 lbs of litter to her community collection count. Yowza!

And just as I am inspired... I find there is something so motivating when I see others being inspired by my actions... connecting to people who are making a difference... really really makes me super happy!! Stephanie over at Good Girl Gone Green has been majorly inspired by my FilterForGood Film Project!! YAY!!! On her blog she writes:

"If small everyday actions have lead us to the current environmental state we are in, then maybe small everyday actions can just as easily reverse the damage."

YES!! Our everyday action DO make a difference. ...Yes, she did a 20 minute clean up. No, she doesn't live by the beach... she took time out of her vacation!! (High 5!) But, here's what's really exciting... she's going to start taking the time to pick up litter where she lives because all drains eventually lead to the ocean. Ripple Effect in progress!! LOVE LOVE LOVE!!! :)

20 minutes on July 20, 2011 at Access 40

Litter by weight: 8.2 oz

Cigarette butts: 153

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 80 days:

24,071

Homemade (Plastic-Free) Tortillas

2011-07-20T14:52:00.000-04:00

Two weeks prior to going camping in the NC Outer Banks, I had my friend and her two kids over for dinner. As we were eating, my friend said, "Can we do Mexican night when we go camping??" Ummm... YES!! I thought it was an absolutely brilliant idea! I immediately became super excited about having Mexican night while camping because:

I could live on Mexican food.
I knew that the meal could be plastic-free!
My kids dig quesadillas.
I had no doubts it would be quick and easy...
...and GUACAMOLE!!! mmmmm :D

So... over the weekend, my family and I went camping with our friends in Ocracoke and had our Mexican camping dinner! Check it out!! So YUMMY!!

Quesadillas made with homemade tortillas and plastic-free cheese**

Black bean corn salad (yup, some of us put it IN the quesadillas!)

Homemade guacamole (made before the trip and stored in a glass jar... and it stayed bright green!)

Local watermelon and cantaloupe

We will definitely be doing Mexican night every time we go camping... No joke... this was the best meal that I've had camping. In fact, I loved it so much that I would make it when we weren't camping and even serve it to company!!

Ok...so I've been ~~waiting~~ procrastinating sharing my homemade tortilla recipe. ...and I think that today is the day that it needs to be shared! As I'm striving to reduce the amount of plastics we use...homemade tortillas have become essential. When I don't have any bread, don't have time to make bread... etc etc etc... tortillas are quick and SUPER easy to make (why didn't I do this years ago?!?) and are so versatile that they can be used for so many different things. Sure we make quesadillas with them... BUT...we also make pizzas, wraps-- egg salad, hummus, pb&j--, tacos... you name it. Did I mention that they're SO much better tasting than store bought?? oh, right... everything is.

Homemade Flour Tortillas

From: The Bread Bible

4 c unbleached flour*

1 1/2 tsp baking powder*

1 1/2 tsp salt*

1/2 c organic butter, cut into 1" chunks

1 to 1 1/2 c warm water

To make vegan or low-fat tortillas: In lieu of using butter, take 1/2 c of the flour and blend it with 1/2 cup of vegetable or olive oil and freeze for 2 hours. Then use in place of the butter.

1. Mix the flour, baking soda and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. (If you don't have a stand mixer, use a large bowl with a fork or pastry blender.) On low speed, add the butter. When the butter is incorporated and the flour mixture looks crumbly, add the water in a slow stream with the mixer running, just until the dough sticks together and clears the side of the bowl. NOTE: Don't add too much water... not only will the dough be sticky and difficult to work with... too much water makes for tough tortillas! Knead briefly-- no more than 10 times-- until a smooth ball forms. Shape into a cylinder and cover with a dish towel. Let the dough rest for about 30 minutes or up to 2 hours.

2. After the dough has rested-- for 8"-9" tortillas-- divide the dough into 15 equal portions. Shape each portion into a ball, cover with the dish towel and let rest for 20-30 minutes.

3. To roll out the tortillas, place the ball on your thumb and make an indention creating a "mushroom" shape. The air pocket inside helps the dough roll out into a (near) perfect circle :) Flatten the ball then roll it out into a thin circle just like you would for a pie crust. Start from the center, making quarter turns often and never pressing the edges.

Tip: I roll my tortillas out right next to my stove, so that I can flip them off the pan and on the pan quickly when I'm cooking them :)

4. To cook the tortillas, heat an ungreased cast-iron skillet or griddle over medium-high heat. Place as many tortillas in the pan that will fit without overlapping. Cook until bubbles start to form then flip to the other side. Also, as bubbles form just take a spatula and press them down. When the tortillas are done, the dough will look dry and have brown spots.

Remove the finished tortillas to a cooling rack (ummm... I always throw mine on top of my toaster!) and let cool. Don't worry about the tortillas overlapping each other... not a big deal. You can use the tortillas right away or let them cool. Once the tortillas are cool you can store them in an airtight container in the fridge for at least a week.

Storage Tip: A 9x13 pyrex dish with a lid or round glass baking dish both work really well for storage :)

Mmmm... all this talk of food and I'm all out of tortillas... see ya later! ;)

**Last month, I bought an entire wheel of cheese from Tidal Creek. It came in a wooden box with no plastic. I shred and chop it into cubes then freeze it until we're ready to use it :)

*Using my own containers, I buy these items in bulk at Tidal Creek.

It Starts With Us: A Letter to Tom's of Maine

2011-07-19T08:30:00.001-04:00

Back in June, I jumped in excitement and gave a virtual high 5 to Harry when I read his open letter to Tom's of Maine regarding their switch from aluminum toothpaste tubes to plastic tubes. I, like Ellen, had hoped that their inbox would be flooded with emails questioning and challenging their decision. I said, "I'm going to write a letter, too." Most often twitter illiterate... my excitement even got me to bust out some tweets:

@FlotsamDiaries OMG! Was just thinking about this today!! U ROCK!! I absolutely LOVE it!! Need to start a campaign w/ @PlasticfreeBeth ;)

RT @FlotsamDiaries Open letter to Tom's of Maine.http://t.co/QAgbZPX U switched to plastic tubes b/c u thought it was better. U were misled

@PlasticfreeBeth check it out! @FlotsamDiaries wrote an awesome letter to Tom's of Maine about their switch to #plastic bit.ly/kynpiF

@FlotsamDiaries I just thought about something. Tom's used to b a small (and awesome) company... aren't they owned by colgate? Hmm..$$$

Yup... I was excited. I felt motivated. Then I forgot... until today when I was reading "The House Behind the Other Houses." Thank you Ellen for the reminder. This time, I didn't give myself the opportunity to forget. Today, I followed through because Tom's will never know what I think or why I do what I do unless I tell them... the same goes for you ;) So here it is... my letter to Tom's of Maine:

"Over the past several years, I have been making a concentrated effort to make decisions that positively impact our environment. Part of this continued effort was started by doing beach clean ups and seeing the negative impact that plastics have on our environment... through production all the way to disposal. The knowledge I've gained about plastic pollution has led me to strive to reduce the amount of plastics that I do use.

Years ago, one of the first changes I made was to start buying Tom's of Maine toothpastes for our family of five. The decision to make the switch to Tom's over other "environmentally friendly" toothpastes was the metal tube. I appreciated the fact that I could recycle the tube and that the only plastic was the one single plastic lid. But, recently, that changed. I read that Tom's thinks it's more environmentally friendly to use the new plastic laminate in lieu of aluminum. I appreciate that Tom's invested in a study to determine the environmental impact of your toothpaste tubes. One thing that may have been disregarded in the study is the end life of the product. As a #7 plastic, the new toothpaste tube can't be recycled and certainly can't be reused... and even if it could be reused, it will eventually end up in a landfill or worse yet our oceans as new virgin plastic will continue being made...a completely unsustainable cycle... plastic is forever. In my opinion, it's time to rethink the packaging again.

As we're finishing up our last tubes of Tom's toothpastes, I can honestly say that I don't know where to go from here. I view my role as a consumer to be very important. I vote with my dollars. Sustainability is a top priority for our family. As of now I have yet to make a decision about whether or not our family of five will continue to use Tom's. My hope is that Tom's realizes this switch to plastic was a horrible mistake and as a forward thinking company is able to come up with a better solution.

Thank you for being a leader in sustainability for over 40 years. I look forward to Tom's getting back to their roots by dumping the unsustainable plastic trend.

Sincerely,

Danielle Richardet

http://itstartswithme-danielle.blogspot.com"

Ok... I've shared mine. Now it's your turn. If you use Tom's of Maine toothpaste, take a couple of minutes and write them. Let them know what you think about the switch from aluminum tubes to plastic. Tom's of Maine: Contact Us

***********************UPDATE: July 29, 2011**************************

I received the following email from Tom's of Maine. While I don't agree with everything that was said in the response (ummm... #7 plastic is not recyclable... it's only downcyclable and will eventually end up in a landfill.), I do appreciate the fact that I didn't receive a "form letter" and that they are (or at least seem to be) trying. So... after receiving their response, I made the decision to go ahead and purchase Tom's of Maine toothpaste. Over then next several months I'm going to attempt to figure out an alternative solution to plastic packaged toothpastes. :) My first stop will be trying out homemade toothpaste... I mean toothpaste is really just a recipe put in a tube, right???

"Hi Danielle,

Thank you for your email. I am very sorry to hear of your recent disappointment upon discovering our new laminate tube material. As you can probably imagine, switching to our new tube was a really big decision for our company. The aluminum tubes have been a part of our company for over 40 years.

I do want to assure you that our #7 plastic is recyclable, and we have identified a partner who will recycle and reuse the material as pallet corner protectors and other shipping materials. You can read more about the kinds of materials our tubes will be used to make, here:

http://www.angleboard.com/Sustainability.aspx

We understand that we are very lucky here in Kennebunk to have every code of plastic accepted for recycling in our municipality. If that is not the case where you live, we encourage you to save up any used tubes of ours and send them back to us for recycling. We will gladly reimburse your postage with new product.

Our tubes are also BPA-free, as well as phthalate-free, two considerations we took very seriously in choosing a tube that could withstand our strong natural flavor oils.

That said, we still recognize that plastic is not the perfect option. Like you, we are committed to sustainability and a clean world. Just today here at our plant in Sanford, Maine, we all took the lunch hour to pick up litter in the neighborhood surrounding our facility.

We are going to continue to look for ways to improve the sustainability of our packaging, and really hope that consumers like you will keep us aware of new options that arise. We appreciate that you do have an opportunity to vote with your dollar, and that you've used that vote to support us all these years. I hope that you will continue to support our company as we look for more sustainable packaging options.

I hope you find this information helpful. Please let me know if there is anything else I can do for you.

Sincerely,
Bridget M. Burns
Citizen's Advocacy Representative
www.tomsofmaine.com"

Our Daily Ocean: Day 79

2011-07-13T09:15:00.002-04:00

Back in the fall of 2010, we made the decision to adopt a beach access at Wrightsville Beach. Deciding on an access was serious business for us because we wanted to make sure that we adopted an access that really needed it. And so, with a large parking lot and bathrooms... we made the decision and adopted access 36.

Adopting access 36 has been difficult for us. Because it's our adopted access, we go there more often than other accesses even when we're not documenting our 20 minute clean ups. Sometimes I question whether or not we should have adopted a different access... maybe 24?? (Not to worry, my friend Gabby adopted access 24 shortly after we adopted our access ;) ) ....my questioning of our decision doesn't come out of the fact that it's a high traffic access point. Nope, my questioning of our decision to adopt access 36 only comes out of my frustrations with Oceanic restaurant.

Doing back to back clean ups at 36, only intensified my frustrations with the ocean front restaurant. On Sunday, 29 of the 36 straws we picked up came from the Oceanic dining pier. And on Monday, 16 of the 21 straws I picked up came from their dining pier. Fact: There is always a nice wind on Wrightsville Beach, straws (and other things) are guaranteed to blow off the pier. Knowing this fact, Oceanic needs to take responsibility.

On Sunday, after seeing the Oceanic employee break area completely littered with cigarettes... I made the decision to skip cleaning their mess. I had really hoped that Monday morning they would send someone out to clean up the grasses (always littered with restaurant litter) and pick up the cigarette butts. But when I returned on Monday to see an empty pack of cigarettes laying in the exact spot it was Sunday... I started picking up... and counting. In just a small (maybe) 10 foot area, I removed 99 cigarette butts. What bothers me most about this is that those same people who are employed by Oceanic and leaving their cigarette butts in their "break area" no doubt litter their cigarette butts in other places, too. Oceanic has a great opportunity to educate their employees about the effects of cigarette litter in our environment...

So... this blog is not a place where I mindlessly rant about the shit that bugs me. Ranting is pointless unless I'm willing to do something about it. Last fall, I contacted Oceanic about all of the littered cigarette butts in the employee break area and was assured by the general manager that the problem would be taken care of. I've written Oceanic about straws on numerous occasions. I get it, I am that girl. Maybe it's easy to dismiss one person?? Here's what I'm learning: just me writing Oceanic is not enough. Hundreds of people need to write Oceanic. A call to action if you will.

Here's the truth: We did not adopt access 36 to clean up after Oceanic. We adopted access 36 because it is a high traffic area that needed to be adopted.... but yet, we spend the majority of our time cleaning up after Oceanic. Wrightsville Beach is Oceanic's backyard... plain and simple: they need to take care of it.

...and so I remind myself that adopting Access 36 was the right thing to do. Bringing awareness to a problem is the only way to change it.

20 minutes on July 11, 2011 at Access 36

Litter by weight: 2 lbs

Cigarette butts: 287

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 79 days:

23,918

Our Daily Ocean: Day 78

2011-07-12T14:39:00.001-04:00

Lately, we have an evening ritual. We eat dinner... clean up... and head to the beach. When we get there, my husband gets in the water on his stand up paddleboard (SUP), my kids run to the water and I relax. Then as everyone starts to clear the beach 7:30ish... my husband gets out of the water and we do a 20 minute beach clean up. However, on Sunday, I had to start without my husband because my daughter wasn't feeling well (sleepyhead!) and we needed to get moving in the direction of home! Pronto!

Not but a couple of minutes into the 20 minute clean up... we were at the Oceanic/Crystal Pier. The entire north side of the pier was littered with straws that had blown off the dining pier. In total, we picked up 36 straws from Access 36... BUT... get this: 29 of those straws were from Oceanic. 29 straws blown from the pier. Here's what I know... it's doubtful that anyone on the dining pier knows how many straws fly off the pier in a day. Chances are they don't even think about it. Maybe the waitstaff at Oceanic doesn't think about it... BUT... Oceanic needs to think about it. Oceanic needs to DO something because it is their responsibility.

Normally, when I do a clean up at Access 36, I go under the pier to the Oceanic employee break area to count the number of cigarette butts left in the sand. But, since I was already pissed off by the number of straws (and other restaurant litter) that I found on the beach...as I got under the pier and saw the mess... I said to myself, "I am not cleaning up their shit. I'm so over this place." (sorry for the bluntness)

Oh... yes... I'm feeling a tad frustrated. (This is good... frustration moves me.) ...and it mainly has to do with the fact that I just did a back to back clean up at Access 36.... and guess what?? 24 hours after the first clean up... it's a continuation of the same old story. Yup, this post is to be continued...

20 minutes on July 10, 2011 at Access 36

Litter by weight: 1 lb 15 oz
Cigarette butts: 257

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 78 days:

23,631

52 Week Plastic Challenge: Half Way There

2011-07-12T08:34:00.000-04:00

Back in January, I made a commitment to take the My Plastic Free Life: Show Us Your Plastic Challenge for 52 weeks straight. When I made the decision to take the challenge for the entire year, I thought: "no big deal... I'll collect our plastic... I learn." Of course, I'm learning... but collecting plastic is a big deal. Seeing every week how much plastic we're using and striving to stay focused takes effort.... and sometimes makes me feel overwhelmed. Some weeks I just want to throw in the towel and go back to "not thinking" about plastic... but the truth is: I couldn't go back to "not thinking"... even if I tried. I'm too aware now. I'm too aware of the negative impacts that plastics have on our environment, I'm too aware of the recycling myth, I'm too aware of the adverse health effects of plastics... I'm aware that there is absolutely no such thing as away. I know too much to turn back now...

So... while this is the halfway point, I'm still learning and figuring out how to get around using plastic. I still purchase things in plastic... I'm not perfect, but I'm not striving for perfection. I'm striving for better. I was talking to my friend about this whole "better" concept. It goes like this. I look at what I buy and then make a decision to buy it less. If I buy something every week, I push it to every other week... then once a month and so on. Sometimes I give up a product-- like plastic bags, straws, & bottled water-- completely. It's one of those, could you imagine if everybody took the same approach things?? Individual actions-- good or bad-- when multiplied bring change. I want my change to be part of reducing the need for landfills and not trashing or poisoning our world....

To learn more about my weekly collection, go here.
To see my first 13 weeks, go here.