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Clearly, as Forbes magazine stated today, this is not an issue of permission not obtained; but of permission withdrawn through pressure.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

The time has come to work to PREVENT this terrible disease!

Mounting scientific evidence shows that our risk of breast cancer is increased by exposures to chemicals in our everyday environment—chemicals in our food, our products, our air and our water. Chemicals linked to breast cancer can be found in cosmetics, cleaning products, food can linings, certain kinds of store receipts, and the list goes on. And it’s not just breast cancer – many chemicals have been linked to a wide array of health impacts such as other cancers, reproductive disorders, immune suppression, diabetes and other metabolic disorders, cardiovascular disease, learning disabilities and autism.

One source for these chemicals – the various forms of plastics in our everyday lives. Chemicals like Styrene (used in Styrofoam), Vinyl Chloride and Dioxins (found in PVC, the most common form of plastic), bisphenol A (BPA) (used in hard clear plastics), and phthalates (an additive used to soften plastics, including PVC). These chemicals are either known or likely to cause cancer, or they look like hormones to our body and can disrupt our sensitive chemical balance.

Research in the U.S. shows that many of these chemicals are leaching out of plastic products and into our bodies. BPA was found in over 90% and phthalates were found in over 75% of the U.S. population. There is no reason to believe that these numbers would be any different overseas.

PPC member, Breast Cancer Fund (www.breastcancerfund.org) has resources to help you make personal and political choices to reduce our exposure to toxic chemicals.

Plastic Pollution Coalition suggests to begin by REFUSing single use and disposable plastics, then reduce your total plastic footprint.

Lets make October Breast Cancer PREVENTION Month: together, lets get toxic chemicals and the products they are used in, out of our day-to-day life. Everyone can make a difference for ourselves and our family!

“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.

Below we have highlighted a few quotes from the article and embeded a slideshow of Machiko’s Flickr photos. You can read the full article here.

“Recyling plastic is a bandaid,” she says. While recyclable plastic bags or bottles may seem like a panacea, it’s not stopping the production of the material.

“A plastic bottle can never be a plastic bottle again.”

Refusing plastics – whether in the form of baby bottles, yogurt containers, baby pacifiers, or plastic food wrap – will eliminate the need to decide whether to recycle it at all.  Cohen herself has refused to drink anything out of plastics for the past year, and she can taste the difference.

Jackson Browne, a supporter of the Plastic Pollution Coalition, says loud and clear what he thinks of bottled water, and suggests a form of protest to be carried out at hotels: to hang around the necks of  the bottles of water for sale in hotel rooms paper tags that say “refused from a member of a worldwide coalition of people to protect the planet”.

An excellent idea based on the first and most important “R” of the 4 R’s of our SUPER pledge to reduce single use plastics: REFUSE. A protest that could be extended to events, conferences and other venues where little bottles of water are offered ‘for our convenience’ -only that, as Jackson Browne says, more and more of us are starting to see bottled water as a real inconvenience.  Go Jackson!

You can read Beth Terry’s original post about this interview here.