I took my regular hike in the Santa Monica Mountains today.  From the trail I can see the skyscrapers of downtown Los Angeles and the glittering water of Santa Monica Bay at the same time.  As it is October, the dry trees and brush are skeletal remains of their leafy summer forms.  This allows me to see clearly into the distance and to peak into secret woody tunnels on either side of the trail.  Sometimes I see a rabbit, often I see birds, but the biggest category revealed in the undergrowth today was not natural.   It was plastic.  Plastic bottles thrown to the side of the trail, probably when the foliage was dense enough to give them cover.  

Who makes the effort to hike into nature but can’t be bothered to hold on to their trash until they get to a proper receptacle?  Who could throw plastic waste into the beautiful scenery they have come out to appreciate?  I don’t know, but I do know that I have never yet seen a reusable bottle on the forest floor, on the beach, or floating in the Bay.  

Reusable water bottles, whether steel or glass, are designed to be used repeatedly.  They aren’t sold as cheap packaging meant for one use and disposal.  Reusable bottles are purchased by people who know the chemicals that leach out of plastic bottles are toxic to people.   Reusable bottles are purchased by people who know that plastic waste is an epidemic environmental problem that can’t be alleviated by the token “recycling” that misleads the public to believe that plastic containers are sustainable.   These educated consumers know that in reality the small percentage of plastic bottles that make it to recycling centers (1 out of every 6 bottles) are mostly down-cycled into fill and other low grade material that fails to stem the production of more and more plastic containers that will last forever in landfills or in our environment.  

Americans buy more bottled water than any other nation in the world, adding 29 billion water bottles a year to a vast collection of permanent waste. Furthermore, it takes 17 million barrels of crude oil to make these bottles. Picture a water bottle filled a quarter of the way up with oil. That’s about how much oil was used to produce the bottle. Now think about all the environmental costs of obtaining crude oil.  Should we be using oil to make containers that are used but once?

There is a great deal of education needed to show Americans that bottled water is unhealthy for people and the environment. There are many groups including PlasticPollutionCoalition.Org engaged in this mission.  Despite the overwhelming statistics, I have faith that our mission will be accomplished, and plastic bottles will be seen as dirty and dangerous like cigarettes with their carcinogens and plastic filters that never biodegrade.  We can all be part of the educational process through leading by example.  I will be hitting the trail again tomorrow with my reusable bottle in hand.

I think we can all agree that the problem lies (literally and figuratively) on the roadside stretches BETWEEN the rest stops. Much like our oceanic gyres, our roadsides are strewn with trash – most of it plastic bags and bottles. I recently spoke at a local city council meeting considering a bag ban and concerned that I lacked evidence for a convincing argument, I counted plastic bags along the 30 mile drive of the I-5 freeway…and was shocked to tally-up 68 bags – and that was just one side of the highway and did not include areas where I had to pay attention to traffic versus counting the “urban tumbleweeds”.

Bottom line, the plastics manufacturers are again encouraging us to fix their problem of the instant waste by recycling their product. Why are items like extremely durable plastic bottles designed for one fleeting use? Answer: $$$$$$$, baaaaby!

I can still remember the days when you returned your glass drink bottles for redemption – and they’d be sterilized and refilled. But now the burden of dealing with the waste receptacle (plastic bottle) has been shifted/dumped into our laps.

Perhaps the ACC should sponsor some Adopt A Highway areas and put their $$$ where their green(back)-washing mouths are, yes? Much better to set a good example, be a good neighbor, turn a good deed, versus touting the tiresome and distracting rest-stop cosmetic make-overs…here’s the phone number (just in case there’s time to call, between trips to the bank): 1-866-ADOPT-A-HWY