Monday, August 17, 2009

Day 45 - August 16

Life Guard Station 26, Ocean Park, Santa Moncica CA
trash collected for 20 minutes
estimated pounds of trash collected today - 4.5 trash, .9 recyclable = 5.4
estimated pounds of trash to date - 253.1
The Daily Water Bottle. If you follow my blog, you may be getting sick of pictures of single use plastic beverage bottles. Well, me too. Wish they weren't there to snap a shot of, but there's a multitude, and what better way to illustrate that than repetition.

It's all about the branding is the message of this picture I believe. Sure, less plastic, but here's a lovely fact:
AMERICANS USE OVER 50 MILLION PLASTIC WATER BOTTLES A YEAR, WHICH TAKE 700 YEARS BEFORE THEY START DECOMPOSING.

I got these facts from a website called cafepress, you can design your own metal, reusable SIGG bottle there. Check it out. I may do it for the Daily Ocean.
Siel, of la Green girl blog, had a good point on friday when she interviewed me. Not all of the cigarette butts found on the beach are from people who are smoking them here. Urban run off is a big problem. When it rains, which is seldom here in Los Angeles, the contents from all the storm drains dump into the ocean. For example, if you empty your ash tray into the gutter in Pasadena (40 miles from the beach), eventually, it's going to get into the ocean. This system of drainage always strikes me as surprisingly short sited. Anyone else agree?

I'd like to see grates on all these openings in the street. That spray painted dolphin you see while walking along saying "Don't Dump Drains Lead To Ocean" isn't kidding. Wish it was.
Very expensive sun screen someone left behind that just got trashed.
I may have said this before, but the only way I feel comfortable taking pictures of people at the beach is by backlighting them so they become anonymous. If you follow this blog, you may also be getting tired of pictures like these. Sorry, I'm obviously not done taking them. I like these photos because it makes me remember how much people love being in the water, and that's a good thing.
Light + Water = Magic