• Launched Plastic Free Times
• Grew the coalition to over 150 institutional members, with a global reach to over 2 million people
• Grew the stellar lineup of Notable Supporters including American actress Bette Midler, Green Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Ali Al Nuaimi, Teamsters General President James Hoffa, Jr. and many other distinguished leaders and public figures.
• Launched  Plastic Pollution Coalition: Central America
• Launched Plastic Pollution Coalition East Coast, USA
• Launched Plastic Pollution Coalition’s online store
• Launched Plastic Free Campuses project, with its collegiate debut at the University of California – Santa Barbara
• Launched Think Beyond Plastic, a PPC initiative to spur innovation and entrepreneurship for solutions
• Launched the Plastic Pollution Coalition individual membership program, and signed up hundreds of members
• Reached thousands of people with the power of art and the message about plastic pollution
• And so much more! The list just goes on.

All of this was made possible because of YOU.

We approach 2012 with an extended team and many new projects. We are excited about the opportunity the future holds. But most of all, we are excited about working together, continuing to build our friendship and our success, and reaching even higher milestones in our work!

Thank you all for your support, for your friendship and for your dedication to a world free of plastic pollution!

We wish you a 2012 full of promise, hope and great deeds!

Shortly after the PSA was posted online, we received a letter from 19 Entertainment’s parent company, demanding that we pull the PSA down. The stated reason was that we did not have appropriate permissions. We were threatened that if we did not comply by pulling the PSA down, they would contact You Tube directly and our YouTube channel may be shut down.

We refused to pull down the PSA.

Here’s why.

This PSA is an eight-month collaborative project between Plastic Pollution Coalition, 19 Entertainment management, and all of Season 10 Top 11 finalists.  We have exchanged hundreds of email communications with this team, brainstorming ideas on  how to make the project even better. We sought and have obtained written approvals to launch the PSA.  In fact, Haley’s Wish was recorded by 19 Entertainment themselves.

Every Top 11 contestant has recorded a statement on their own free will and contributed their unique talent to the message; they all deeply care about the fate of our planet and our role and contribution towards that. Plastic Pollution Coalition has similar video statements from artists such as Ed Begley, Jr, Jeff Bridges, Jack Johnson, Daphne Zuniga, Jackson Browne, Benicio del Toro, Bonnie Raitt, Martin Sheen and others.

Clearly, as Forbes magazine stated today, this is not an issue of permission not obtained; but of permission withdrawn through pressure.

Who might be afraid that you would REFUSE single use and disposable plastic?

For a possible clue, check out the sponsors of the American Idol show.

“Every bit of plastic that has ever been created still exists in some form,” says Lauren Alaina, the runner-up from Idol’s tenth season.  Ms. Alaina further urges people to, “refuse single-use and disposable plastics,” an ethos emphatically reiterated by Haley Reinhart, who goes on to say, “Single-use plastics and disposable plastics are the main source of plastic pollution.”

The Idol contestants have all donated their time and efforts to the REFUSE disposable plastic campaign and will be running a Facebook “Wish” spanning several months, to raise $50,000 for Plastic Pollution Coalition.  Included in the fundraising event will be a prize for one lucky fan – an autographed guitar signed by all of the Top 11.  Go to www.facebook.com/PlasticPollution for more information.

Have a safe, fun, and plastic-free Halloween!

Plastic-free Halloween at a Glance

1. Skip plastic-wrapped candy and opt for mini boxed candy. Remind trick-or-treaters to reuse and recycle the boxes! DIY crafts like finger puppets ghosts and origami bats can replace plastic-wrapped mini candy bars for trick or treat.

2. DIY decorations are the best! Natural twine woven spider webs, leaf stuffed pumpkin headed scare crows, and corn stalks look more authentic and interesting than pre-packaged plastic junk.

3. Home-made Costumes are so much cooler, cheaper, and they tend to stick around longer. They can be passed down or donated to others. They make for more memorable times. Who is going to remember that plastic Dora mask if it gets thrown out a week later?

4. Plastic-free parties are simple if you just go back to the classics. Bobbing for apples, baked pumpkin seeds from carving leftovers, glass containers of cider, and plastic-free crafts that involve recycled items.

5. Lights those Jack-O-Lanterns with matches. The ocean is full of lighters as it is!

Basic Tips

Candy

If you must purchase candy because you can’t bear the thought of going without, we suggest non-plastic wrapped candies. We don’t like endorsing anything that has throw away packaging, but these items use materials that can be reused and recycled easily.

• Boxed mini candies (Note: Some boxed candies do come with a plastic coating and some do not. Internet searches can provide you with specifics on this.)
• Foil Wrapped Coins in from Bulk Bins
• Mini DIY toys made from recycled materials

Get creative and skip the candy this year. Passing out DIY toys made from recycled materials is a great way to refuse disposable plastic! And, it’s not as time consuming if you have your kids or family help you. It’s a great Halloween activity. Ideas?  Finger Puppet ghosts Origami Pumpkins, Cats, Bats, Spiders, etc

Decorations

Some of these decorations will take a few minutes, others might require a sewing machine. Mostly, they are just meant to be fun substitutes and fun family projects.

• Carved pumpkins – Skip those horribly ineffective plastic carving tools. They don’t work and you have plenty of knives at home. If you’re interested in having your kids help you carve but don’t want them wielding knives, then have them help you pick a design, draw it, and scoop the seeds
• White Sheet/T-shirt Ghosts
• Natural (non synthetic) twine tied spider webs
• Mini pumpkins and gourds – Put them in your garden when you’re done and get ready to harvest them next year! Most are not organic, but if you live by an organic patch, try and support them if possible! Or grow your own organic pumpkins! At least let the pumpkin decompose or compost.
• Black socks stuffed to make a giant sock spider
• Pumpkin Head Scare Crow stuffed with Leaves Dried Corn Stalks

Trick-or-TreatBags

• PPC Member totes!
• Reusable canvas or cotton grocery totes
• Orange or Black pillow cases

Costumes

Home made costumes are the best. Don’t buy those tacky plastic masks and shirts. They are expensive, unoriginal, and most importantly, they get worn, torn, and thrown out. (Also, just a side note, super heroes don’t normally wear a picture of their own face on their chest. Come on people, let’s not break the fourth wall.) Here’s a list of costumes that can be made with stuff around the house.

• Flower Child – dust off those bell-bottoms, headbands, and John Lennon sunglasses. And if you’re trick or treating in San Francisco, be sure to wear a flower in your hair
• Zombie – ripped up, old jeans, Misfits tshirt, sunken eyes make-up, messy hair, and a lot of “UUuuughhhhhhh Brrraaiiinsssss!!”
• Captain Mega Awesome Super Kid – Made-up super heroes are the best. Tights or leggings, underwear on the outside of your clothes, blanket cape, and homemade bandanna mask, balled up socks for bicep enhancement, bracelets, a sense of altruism and inflated ego. This will be a great photo to bring out when your kid grows up and brings home a date.

Parties

• Mini metal cauldrons full of pumpkin seeds
• Internet Halloween radio stations – Instead of buying Spooky Sounds or Halloween music wrapped in plastic CD cases, download music from iTunes or go to www.pandora.com and they will create a Halloween Station for free! Hook your computer up to speakers and have endless party music. Purchase a membership and there won’t be any commercial interruptions.
• Bobbing for apples – Classic and always plastic-free if you buy those apples in bulk (using your reusable produce bag!)
• Reusable Cups, Silverware, and Dishes – Although clean-up times for parties vary, and many people want to avoid the dreaded dish washing task at the end of the night, some people will spend as much time, money, and effort finding ways to avoid washing dishes that by the time they are done it would have been more time saving to load the dishwasher. There IS a significant money saving element to consider and, let’s face it, throw away items aren’t nearly as impressive-looking.
• Jack-o-Lanterns – line the stairs with a couple of small jack-o- lanterns instead of buying those plastic skeleton lights. Pumpkins are classic. Remember to use matches instead of lighters to light them!

La Ruta de los Conquistadores is a unique and demanding adventure for competitors and spectators. For 19 years, the event has brought together the best mountain bikers in the world for an extreme event that challenges the best skills of each. For more information about the event, you may contact info@adventurerace.com or visit their web site www.AdventureRace.com

Since its inception, La Ruta has been dedicated to the spirit of conservation of biodiversity, and preservation of the fragile eco-system of Costa Rica. In support of the growing movement to reduce plastic pollution, La Ruta is making the commitment to REFUSE all disposable plastics at the event.

La Ruta and Plastic Pollution Coalition are excited to collaborate on an important effort to keep Costa Rica free of plastic pollution.

Below is the press announcement in Spanish.

“Lets all REFUSE disposable plastic”, “We have only one planet, we must come together to keep it healthy!”, “It is time to understand the true cost of our disposable lifestyles” – are just some of the messages people wrote to us. The coalition members report similar impacts from the conference.

Read the press release just out.

The four challenges, delivered at the conclusion of the conference, are listed below. In the days to come, all talks will be made available on the event web site.

To Individuals and Businesses – REFUSE disposable plastics

These objects, created to be used for only a few moments, stay with us forever at a tremendous cost to the planet and the environment.
We challenge all individuals and businesses to end their dependence on disposable plastic. Today.

(Watch Erica Williams deliver the challenge from the floor of TEDxGreatPacificGarbagePatch)

To manufacturers of plastic products, plastic packaging and virgin resin product

• We challenge you to accept a voluntary cap on non-biodegradable product, and to begin investing resources  into developing a new generation plastic product – plant-based, non-toxic in any stage of its existence, biodegradable.

• We challenge you to own the responsibility of your product till the very end. The packaging you choose to for your products is your responsibility, not the buyer’s.

• We challenge you to rethink design of products – to reduce both carbon footprint and plastic footprint of your goods shipped around the world.

(Watch Wallace “J” Nichols deliver the challenge from the floor of TEDxGreatPacificGarbagePatch)

To Policy-Makers around the globe

We challenge you to adopt and support policies that support individuals and businesses in their efforts to eliminate disposable plastics. Adopt policies that create economic incentives for businesses who reduce their plastic footprint.

(Watch Leslie Tamminen deliver the challenge from the floor of TEDxGreatPacificGarbagePatch)

To All Nations Threatened by Plastic Pollution

We challenge you to come together and form a union against the onslaught of plastic to your environment, economic wellbeing and public health.
(Watch H.E.Stuart Beck deliver the challenge from the floor of TEDxGreatPacificGarbagePatch)

Ever think about where stuff goes AFTER you toss it into your recycling bin?

It’s great to recycle, but the sad truth is that a small percentage of the plastic we contribute to recycle actually gets recycled. Most of the plastic stuff you virtuously toss into your recycling bin often just eventually becomes pollution somewhere else. Tragically, a lot of it winds up in the ocean.There it either chokes and hurts sea life or breaks down into tiny particles that are ingested by fish, and then by us. Not good. The TEDx Great Pacific Garbage Patch event will delve into all of this and more—sign up now to host a viewing party.

Disposable plastic too often does NOT get recycled so what we need to do is try to find ways to REFUSE to use disposable plastic. Take the Plastic Pollution Coalition REFUSE Pledge. It’s easier than you think. Drink water from stainless steel water bottles. Forego the straw and lid on your cup. Think about how often you bring takeout to your home or office, where you can keep real utensils. Just REFUSE the disposable plastic.

In our day-to-day life, we all want to be good. That’s why we all recycle. But now to be truly good to our planet, we can’t just recycle, we have to REFUSE.

Dear Kraft Foods.

Yesterday on a little half mile of beach we found 18 of your little cheese spreaders from your Kraft Handi-Snak cheese packs. The week before we found 21. And 13 before that. Given the sea-patina and bleaching it’s obvious they have been at sea and not left by pick-nickers. Congratulations! you are having a great year given the empirical evidence we’ve found. Isn’t it time you followed the golden rule now that you have been given the free speech rights of a person granted by the constitution.

Peace and love,

Richard and Judith

“The US Supreme Court has struck down a major portion of a 2002 campaign-finance reform law, saying it violates the free-speech right of corporations to engage in public debate of political issues.” Christian Science Monitor

In the late 1880′s corporations were granted “person-hood” essentially giving them as written in the declaration of Independence…”We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Although the progressive movement has railed against this idea of corporate “person-hood” by 2010 this genie is well free of the bottle. It’s a fool’s errand to fight against a wave that has long ago crashed ashore.

What to do?

While I am not a “believer” or a keeper of religious ritual, as an artist I feel myself to be a part of the 30,000-year continuum of humans engaged with the imaginal life. I feel engaged with the essence of human spirituality. Yet, in an age when religious fundamentalism is causing such havoc, it is treading on very thin ice to evoke any kind of religiosity. But, that said….

During the time of Jesus, Rabbi Hillel, when challenged by a gentile, who posed a question, as a taunt, saying, “I will convert, Rabbi, if you can explain your thinking while standing on one leg.” “Easy”, says Hillel, “Do to others as you would have others do to you. All our texts are commentary on that idea, now go and study them.” This simple moral code is the core teaching of all major religions on this planet.

There is no fighting the corporate nature of our global society, but we can insist that if corporations are to enjoy the rights of person-hood, it is time for them to adopt the one true moral compass of existence, “Do to others, what you have them do to you.”

~ Richard Lang

——————–

Artists Judith Selby and Richard Lang have been collecting plastic pollution from Kehoe Beach for 10 years and making art with it. More information on their Website http://www.beachplastic.com/

On every visit since the introduction of Kraft Handi-Snak cheese packs Richard and Judith have found these single use plastic spreaders washed up on the sand. These rectangular pieces of purple plastic last hundreds of years in the environment.

Gorgeous Kehoe Beach is located 40 miles north of San Francisco in Point Reyes National Seashore . See Kehoe Beach on BlooSee satellite imagery here.

You can contact Kraft Foods customer service by phone at 1-877-535-5666, or in writing by clicking the happy snack logo. Tell them how happy you are.