Beyond our duties here at Wend, Ian (publisher) and myself are executive officers in our local Surfrider Chapter. Both of us are surfers, and as surfers, we feel a duty to help protect the ocean from the horrors of pollution, realizing that there is a one-to-one relationship between conservation and outdoor activities. After all, the ocean is our amusement park, so if we wish to keep experiencing the zen harvest of that perfect ride, we need to keep working to lessen the human impact on this vast ecosystem or someday, it will be unsurfable.

One of the biggest polluters in the ocean is plastic. So, we’ve teamed up with a local organization of activists and artists called Leave No Plastic Behind to start a campaign to get our city off the plastic addiction that permeates every part of modern life. In reality, less than 3% of plastic gets recycled and it never goes away. So, on August 6th, I’m going to be a part of LNPB’s next “episode”. An “episode” is a period of three months where one takes a pledge to consume NO single use plastic such as coffee lids, cellophane wrapped anything, packaging, salsa containers, yogurt, straws, dish soap containers, toothpaste, etc. Any plastic that is unavoidable has to be kept by the person, FOREVER (or for the 250,000 years it takes to biodegrade which ever comes first). LNPG pledges make some sort of art for a formal show that will close the episode— and members of LNPG are a LOT more talented on the art portion of the pledge than I will be. But I’ll try to make something. Though it ain’t gonna be pretty. I’ll be blogging about the experience as I go along. Check out the group, and start thinking plastic thoughts.