A recent study believes that 46 percent of all the debris in the ocean right now is of a plastic film.
SAN DIEGO — Approximately 310 million pounds of plastic packaging is produced in the world every year. In fact, soft plastic packaging does not belong in your blue recycling bin because it jams up sorting equipment at recycling facilities. It often ends up in a landfill because it cannot be recycled.
In an effort to combat the environmental issues caused by this single-use plastic, a San Diegan created a one of its kind non-profit in Southern California to help reduce this waste here at home.
“It’s the clothing wrap that we see our clothing hanging in the store ready to try on. A lot of us don’t understand that it comes from the store wrapped in those plastic bags. All that plastic, at the moment, goes to landfills and yet we are just hearing conversations about that one grocery bag that we walk out of the store with. For that one grocery bag, there are thousands of bags that we never see,” explained Matthew Clough, the Founder of Plastic Beach.
After watching large amounts of plastic waste washing up at his warehouse job, Matthew combined his passion for helping the environment and love of the band Gorillaz into this local non-profit about five years ago. Named after their 2014 album, Plastic Beach is an avenue for local businesses to get rid of soft plastic packaging.
“We are creeping up on 100,000 pounds collected and recycled and that’s a lot because I just want to explain to you that a bag this big, so basically a 40 gallon big, large trash bag only weighs about 5 pounds,” said Clough.
In the case of soft plastics, large amounts of it will waste away in landfills. Oftentimes, it gets into our waterways and out into the ocean.
“There’s a study that was done with shows about 46 percent of all the debris in the ocean right now is of a plastic film,” stated Mark O’Connor, a Lead on the Rise Above Plastic program for Surfrider San Diego County.
Surfrider San Diego documented a plastic bag that was found lodged in the throat of a sea turtle recently rescued in La Jolla by the team at SeaWorld San Diego. Thankfully, it was rehabilitated and released.
“How many are out there in the ocean that never get seen, that they are in distress and just pass in the wild,” questioned O’Connor.
Plastic can break down but is still present in the form of microplastics, and those make their way into our bodies.
“We carry around a credit card worth of plastic in us every year and that’s where it is coming from. Most of it is coming from the food we are consuming and our environment,” explained Clough.
The work at Plastic Beach serves as a tool to reduce this environmental stress and promote responsible plastic use. They are looking for more businesses and individuals to expand their collection services. They currently work with over 35 businesses.
The Pure Project brewery and taproom in Vista is on board with Matthew’s mission.
“Sustainability is really important to us at Pure Project. Anything that we can do to keep plastic out of our waterways and out of landfills is a win for us,” said Winslow Sawyer, Founder and Brewer for Pure Project Brewing.
Rolling up in an electric vehicle [EV] van, Plastic Beach will come to your small business, or corporation, for the collection of all grades of soft plastics. They will bring them back to their warehouse and compress it down in a baler because plastic expands and holds volume.
Wires help keep it together and the bales are ready to be stored, collected, transported and even downcycled, which means manufactured into a product.
“We are partnering with these American companies, and their making decking, composite lumber, even asphalt. We can make our roads out of plastic, and the benefit is it locks the plastic away for the next 20 to 30 years,” explained Clough.
Plastic Beach received an award from the California Product Stewardship Council for its collection efforts. Matthew stresses that we need to build value in the collection part of soft plastics. Through collaborations with organizations like Surfrider San Diego, they want to appeal to local and state government to reduce the sales of single-use plastic and advocate for more alternatives.
“We can recycle what is being produced. They can reduce the plastic footprint of the packaging out there, and then hopefully at some point in the future, there will be less and less and less, and we’ll have built out a really good model of how to deal with what is coming out,” said Clough.
The ultimate goal? Reducing soft plastic waste enough in our environment that they go out of business.
