Plastic Bags are Growing on Trees! Thinking about Plastic on International Surfing Day

One of my favorite running routes on Oahu is up Diamond Head road to the lookout. Over four years ago I stood there after a run, looking out at the ocean and decided I wanted to move to Hawaii.

And I noticed a plastic bag in a tree.

A black, plastic bag, knotted and wrapped around the limb of an old tree, weathered and torn, one frayed strand of it swaying in the wind.

It is still there and I look at it every time I’m up there. It bothers me.

“Why haven’t you taken it down then?” someone asked me. You see, the tree is in a bit of a precarious location on the hill and the poor old thing looks as weathered and dead as the plastic bag hanging from it. Climbing it could be risky.

Tomorrow however, is the day the black plastic bag is coming out of the tree. It is International Surfing Day on June 20^th and the Surfrider Foundation’s Oahu Chapter is hosting its annual beach cleanup at Diamond Head Beach park. One way or another, with the help of my Surfrider friends and volunteers, that bag is coming out of the tree.

I went to snap a photo of said bag in tree today, and look what I found! Three more bags in the tree next door. If I didn’t know better, I’d think plastic bags were growing on trees!

So here’s my beef about plastic bags. They are not just in trees, they are everywhere and they are harmful to our ocean and environment. Plastic does not biodegrade, and record amounts of animals are ingesting plastic, mistaking it for food. (Check out this sea turtle, trying to pass a plastic bag.)  We need to seriously reduce our consumption. Most of us carry our groceries home in plastic bags, ONE time, and then throw them out or stuff them into the cabinet with the hundreds of other bags we’ve collected. “But I reuse them for garbage bags!” my friend argued. That’s fantastic, but let’s stop for a minute and just consider using LESS. The average person consumes four hundred bags a year. If we all just said “no” to plastic on a more regular basis, we would most definitely be able to reverse the growth of plastic bags on trees.

Since January, my boyfriend  and I have made a concerted effort not to accept plastic bags wherever possible. Yes, that means saying, “Oh, I don’t need the bag, thanks,” even after the cashier has thrown our purchase in a bag. It means running back out to the car to get our reusable bags when we forget them. It means (gasp!) carrying something without a bag. But slowly, we have changed our habits. Walking into the grocery store without our reusables now feels weird. I have “plastic guilt” if and when I do have to accept a plastic bag for whatever reason. Carrying a plastic bag is like smoking a cigarette; the long term effects are dangerous and it’s becoming just, well, totally uncool.

The plastic bag issue is near and dear to Surfrider Oahu’s heart. For the last two years we have urged the State for a plastic bag fee and ultimately a ban, through our Rise Above Plastics campaign. Despite much support from the community, industry, and organizations, our proposed bills did not pass again this year. We are most definitely not giving up.

I urge you to become conscious of your plastic bag usage. Think about the bag in the tree. And if you live on Oahu, come help me get it out tomorrow. (**UPDATE! We got the bag out of the tree! As well as all the other ones. Thanks to the courageous souls who helped!)

Happy International Surfing Day! Check for a beach cleanup happening in your area. Give back to your oceans, beaches and waves.

Details about the Surfrider Oahu cleanup are here.

Also, check out Surfrider’s Rise Above Plastics website with lots of great information and links on the plastic issues.

Finally, see the film, Bag It, an insightful and funny documentary about one man’s examination of plastic and its effects on the environment, marine animals and human health.

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/5645718 w=400&h=225]

Bag It Intro from Suzan Beraza on Vimeo.