Addressing Marine Debris From LandBased Sources in California

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Addressing Marine Debris From Land-Based Sources
in California

• Eben Schwartz
• Outreach Manager
• California Coastal Commission
• NCRA Conference
• March 27, 2007

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Marine Debris What is it?

• Marine Debris Any manufactured or processed
  solid waste material that enters the marine
  environment from any source.
• Debris is everywhere found around every major
  body of water on the planet, and below water as
  well.
• Marine Debris is a global pollution problem that
  impacts human health and safety, endangers
  wildlife and aquatic habitats, and costs local
  national economies millions in wasted resources
  and lost revenues.

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Main Sources of Marine Debris

• Approximately 20 comes from ocean-based sources
• Commercial fishing vessels
• Cargo ships (discharge of containers and
  garbage)
• Pleasure cruise ships

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Main Sources of Marine Debris

• Approximately 80 comes from land-based sources
• Litter (pedestrians, motorists, beach visitors)
• Industrial discharges (pellets and powders)
• Garbage management (containers, trucks, landfills)

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Los Angeles River
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Ballona Creek
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Marine Debris Composition

• Shoreline Debris
• Between 60 80 percent comes from inland sources
  (including stormwater discharge, beach visitors,
  and non-point source pollution.)
• 60 percent of shoreline debris is composed of
  plastic.
• Ocean Debris
• Plastic accounts for over 3/4 of all debris found
  in the marine environment
• 90 of floating litter is plastic
• Plastic is prevalent in at all depths, from the
  surface of the ocean through the water column and
  in sediments (Southern CA Coastal Water Research
  Project)

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California Coastal Cleanup Day

• Largest volunteer event in the state
• 2006 Results
• 50,375 volunteers.
• 944,885 pounds of debris
• 2,100 linear miles of shoreline cleaned.
• Since 1985
• 750,000 volunteers.
• 12 million pounds of debris removed.

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Plastic Debris, Rivers to Sea Project

• Research (Algalita Marine Research Foundation)
• Extent to which urban runoff in Los Angeles and
  San Gabriel River watersheds are impacted by
  small plastic debris (mostly industrial runoff)
• Determine effectiveness of voluntary best
  management practices implemented by plastics
  processing facilities
• Awareness / Dialogue / Planning (CCC)
• Multi-stakeholder advisory board
• Educate stakeholders- NETWORK / LISTSERVE
• Plastic Debris, Rivers to Sea Conference Sept.
  7-9, 2005
• Develop action plan for state
• Funding California Waterboards, Proposition 13
  grant

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Statewide Effort in Process

• California Coastal Commission led the effort to
  develop An Action Plan to Reduce Land-Based
  Discharges of Marine Debris in California
• Worked with wide array of potential
  implementers representing industry, government,
  and environmental community
• Available on www.plasticdebris.org

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Voluntary Efforts by Plastics Industry

• Voluntary program of best management practices
  to control pellet and powder loss
• In existence since 1980s, not widely implemented
• Renewed industry commitment evident as a result
  of AMRF research and industry/government/
  environmental spirit of collaboration

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Bag Reduction/Recycling Efforts

• Progressive Bag Alliance efforts in City of L.A.
• Working with supermarket chains to reduce bag use
• Training employees to pack more items and single
  bag
• Developed thicker bags printed messages on bags
• Promoting bag re-use through customer education
• In-store bag collection for recycling
• Promoting bag-to-bag recycling
• City of San Juan Capistrano - Bag-2-Bag Recycling
• When City of San Juan Capistrano banned
  polystyrene, industry got proactive
• Hilex Poly and CRR joined city in collaborative
  effort to collect bags curbside and recycle them
  into new bags
• All 8,500 homes received blue bucket and years
  supply of blue bags for collection

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At CRRs recycling facility in Stanton, the blue
bags full of plastic bags arrive for sorting.
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Other Local Initiatives

• Cities of San Clemente and Dana Point joined
  Bag-2-Bag Program in June 2005
• City of San Jose developing curbside plastic bag
  collection program
• Smoke free beach initiatives being implemented in
  cities up and down coast
• Polystyrene bans (Huntington Beach, Malibu, Santa
  Cruz, San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, Santa
  Monica)
• Many municipalities installing structural storm
  water controls (screens, nets, catch basin
  inserts) to collect trash from urban runoff
• Dont Trash California and Erase the Waste
  education campaigns

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Statewide Effort in Process

• Feb. 8, 2007 The Ocean Protection Council
  adopts resolution to reduce and prevent marine
  debris. Resolution includes
• Consideration of expanding the California
  Redemption Value Program
• Commitment to increased enforcement of existing
  litter laws, in particular violations involving
  pre-production plastic pellets known as nurdles
• Expansion of beach and river cleanups
• Regional coordination with Washington, Oregon,
  British Columbia, Hawaii, and Baja California
• Creation of a proposal for reducing derelict
  fishing gear
• Development of a statewide plan for reducing
  single-use packaging and containers and a
  proposal for a phased-in ban of toxic materials
  used in plastic packaging by 2015.
• Statewide Task Force currently meeting to develop
  plans and adopt actions to implement this
  resolution Coastal Commission is chairing the
  Task Force
• Resolution text available at www.resources.ca.gov/
  copc

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Recovery of Plastics in CA
Plastic waste generation versus recovery
(recycling)- CIWMB
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(800) COAST-4U www.coast4u.org