Respect the Beach

International Surfing Day was held 20th June around the world. We took part by volunteering with Surfrider Foundation at their booth and with a beach clean up at Huntington Beach.

Unfortunately the surf and weather was not the best at Huntington Beach for the festivities. Rain and wind forced us to spend more time under the tent, but we were there to have fun and respect our regular beach and that's just what we did. We hope you too were able to enjoy the beach or the ocean and that you did something to keep that beach clean and a place we will all enjoy visiting.

Here are a few pics from our day out.

Dennis in his International Surfing Day T-Shirt manning the Surfrider Newport Beach Desk.

If you were a surfer there were numerous boards available to test ride, although the conditions probably didn't allow surfers to really push their limits.

Tiki carving, live music, free mini burritos and energy drinks were all part of the action on the beach.

Remember that you can still pick up a personalized Go Green Travel Mug from http://www.gogreenmug.com/ for only $14.99. So visit the site today.

Have a great week and reduce your waste.

Too Much Trash in Our Oceans

International Surfing Day is on June 20th 2009. The day was created by Surfing Magazine to promote and celebrate surfing. The day is not only about surfing , it is also about the ocean and protecting it for our recreation both in the water and on the beaches.

On International Surfing Day, Go Green Mug will be at Huntington Beach, CA to take part in the fun and help with the beach cleanup. We would love to see you there too. Check out http://www.surfingmagazine.com/isd/ to find International Surfing Day activities in your area.

The recent crash of the Air France flight was a terrible disaster and the search for the remains of the plane highlighted another disaster, this one environmental. In the early stages of the search for the plane, the searchers thought they had found some of the debris from the crash, but on further investigation it turned out that this was not part of the missing aircraft but other, all too common, ocean trash.

The ocean is unfortunately full of trash, from large items such as couches and refrigerators to the tiny pieces of plastic that we have discussed before in the blog http://gogreenmug.blogspot.com/2009/01/coffee-shop-discounts.html. This trash circles around in the ocean currents and destroys marine life.

How can so much trash end up in our oceans that it becomes difficult to identify parts of a plane from other debris that just happens to be there? The fault of course lies with all of us, particularly in the USA. We know we can do more about our consumption of single use plastics or paper or polystyrene.
We know we do not need to buy bottled water.
We can bring our own canvas bags when we go grocery shopping and reject the plastic bags.
We can drive more fuel efficient vehicles or drive less and use public transport or bikes.
We can use reusable travel mugs at coffee shops and eliminate our use of paper cups.
And we can help at beach and/or river clean ups and prevent the trash from running into the oceans.

http://www.gogreenmug.com/ is still selling personalized travel mugs at only $14.99 with shipping. If you are not using a travel mug when you visit a coffee shop, then get one now.

Earth Day Activities: Surf, Hike and Reduce Waste

April 22 is Earth Day. Earth Day was originally conceived to celebrate life on our planet and to encourage us to enjoy this life. The first Earth Day celebration was held back in 1970. Unfortunately since then we have not treated earth very well, as we have continued to waste and overuse the planets resources. In 2009 the day has taken on a much more important and urgent message. This message is for everyone on planet earth and hopefully will encourage us to do more to reduce our waste not just on April the 22nd but for the rest of our lives.

GoGreenMug.com will be involved with a number of activities celebrating Earth Day over the next 2 weeks. We are committing our time and resources to raise awareness, promote environmental causes and reduce waste. Here are some of the events that we will be taking part in over the next 2 weeks:

• We have signed petitions against offshore drilling and asking congress to take strong action to reduce global warming.
• April 18 from 8:00 AM until we are tired, we will be enjoying the beach and surf in Southern California. Exactly where will depend on conditions on the day. If you would like to join us send us an email at support@gogreenmug.com or leave a comment on this blog.
• April 19 from 10:00 AM until 12:00 PM, we will be helping Surfrider Newport Beach at a beach clean up. The beach cleanup is held at the most southerly end of Huntington State Beach. There is also an Earth Day Celebration at the Rainbow Disposal Center (on Nichols St.) in Huntington Beach, where people can bring their e-waste, tour a Materials Recovery Facility, and view fuel-efficient vehicles and energy conservation displays.
• April 23 from 9:30 Am until 11:00 AM, we will be at another beach clean up once again organized by Surfrider Newport Beach. This time at the Newport Beach Bilboa Pier.
• April 25 in the afternoon, we will be hiking the canyons around Laguna Beach/ Crystal Cove in Southern California. Once again send us a message at support@gogreenmug.com if you would like to come along. Distance and exact location will be determine by participants.
• April 26, we will be at Newport Bay’s Earth Day 2009 - “Learning From Nature” celebration.
• From now until Earth Day April 22, visit http://www.gogreenmug.com and get yourself a personalized reusable travel mug for 20% off with coupon code: svplntmg

You probably realized that many of these events are in Southern California, but we know there are numerous events taking place all around the world. So please visit http://ww2.earthday.net/ to find out what activities are available in your area and get involved or simply get out and enjoy the planet - take a walk, swim or surf in the ocean, climb a mountain, but enjoy Earth and think about what you can do to reduce your waste.

Earth Day is about awareness and action and there are many events happening not just on the day itself but for the days before and after. However one day or even 2 weeks will not be enough to reduce CO2 emissions or our use of single use plastic containers or even to clean all our beaches. We need to remain aware throughout our lifetimes and reduce and reuse every day.

Butts on our Beaches

Does anyone really care to see your butts on our beaches?

We are of course referring to cigarette butts. This Saturday we once again joined Surfrider Newport Beach Chapter at their regular Huntington beach clean up ( 4Th Saturday morning of every month from 8-12). We picked up many polystyrene coffee cups and broken plastic lids, just as we did last month. This month however we were made aware of the literally thousands of cigarette butts on the beach. So many that we could hardly make a dent ourselves in an hour picking them up.

Many of the beaches in California are designated Smoke-Free beaches. You can find a list of all smoke-free beaches on the Earth Resources Foundation Website. Huntington Beach (the site of the beach clean up) is on this list and we did not expect to find all these butts. Of course recent rains in Southern California have meant that our streets and gutters have been cleared out and the water has flowed down to the ocean via the watershed, bringing with it the disposed of butts and much more.

Most cigarette butts are made from cellulose acetate and are not biodegradable, only breaking apart over a long period of time, depending on conditions. This time frame can be up to 15 years. The butts therefore cause an unsightly environmental problem for many years before they break up.

The butts are also the filters for the cigarettes themselves and therefore contain the left over chemicals from the cigarette. Once they come into contact with water, the butts begin leaching these chemicals, which include cadmium, lead, formaldehyde and arsenic into the water. The butts make their way down through the watershed and end up polluting our oceans and inside the intestines and stomachs of fish, whales, dolphins, birds and the other numerous marine animals.

If you are a smoker, understand that your cigarette butts do not biodegrade and only break apart over a long period of time. They will cause numerous environmental problems. So hold on to your butts. Instead of throwing your butt out on the street or into the gutter, pick up a BUTTsOUT personal ashtray, check out http://www.buttsout.net/buttsout , or you can get them at one of the Surfrider beach cleanups.

For us non smokers, let your smoking friends know that their butts end up on our beaches and tell them what they can do about it. Join in at beach cleanups and don't be afraid to pick up the butts. At most beach cleanups gloves are supplied, so there is no need to touch them with your hands.

One way you can help reduce this type of waste on the beaches is to send a message to your State Assemblyperson and Senator through Surfrider Foundation's Action Network: http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/hotyb?rk=D7s41uFqBOJeE

Last week Dudley and Melanie were on the Island of Tonga which is in the South Pacific. This is a small country made up of many coral islands. There are no rivers or lakes on the main island of Tongatapu and the only fresh water is rain water, which is collected and stored. On small islands such as these sustainability is very important to a healthy human population. All items must be reused as much as possible. While on the island we visited a local coffee shop to sample the Tongan brew. There are no disposable coffee cups sold here, so we happily enjoyed our drinks in the glass mugs they provided.

Of course there is no reason why we as Americans and Canadians cannot do the same as the Tongans and reuse our coffee mugs and many other things too. Sustainability is important for all countries. We all need to reduce our impact on the environment in whatever way we can.

Start with your coffee mug. Remember to always bring your own when you visit a coffee shop. If you would like to create a personalized coffee mug, you can go to http://www.gogreenmug.com/ and pick one up there. And if you enjoy a smoke with your cup of coffee, remember to hold onto your butts when you are done with the cigarette.

Have a great week.