Plastic Bags

They're common sights around any town — abandoned in shopping carts, clogging gutters, strewn by the breeze across parks and front lawns. For defenders of the environment, plastic grocery bags have long been a source of agony and irritation. Starting this month, though, the state of California is taking action to reign them in. An assembly bill that took effect on July 1 has mandated that a number of grocery stores adopt in-store recycling programs, with collection bins for used bags and reusable bags for sale to customers.

Campaign asks that people be mindful of where waste ends up.Next time you're in line at the grocery store and the clerk is packing up your items in plastic bags, think how those bags might look floating in the ocean or littered across your favorite beach. That unpleasant picture is exactly what the Earth Resource Foundation aims to drive home with its newest campaign. The foundation is urging people to eliminate single-use plastics by refusing plastic bags and reusing whenever possible.

Using only the air in their lungs, free divers swam to depths of up to 25 feet off Crystal Cove State Beach on Saturday to pick up debris from the ocean floor. Divers from the spear fishing and free diving club OC Spearos organized the cleanup effort, retrieving trash like candy wrappers and plastic bags. “Diving at local beaches, I would see trash like bottles and plastic bags floating in the water,” OC Spearos president Fernando Gutierrez said. “Divers want our areas to be clean and free from trash.

Braving soggy weather and toting metal trash pickers and plastic bags, more than 50 volunteers slogged through the streets of Newport Beach on Saturday to pick up trash out of gutters and on local beaches. The effort was part of the group ZeroTrash Newport’s fourth monthly First Saturday beach and street cleanup. “It’s pretty simple. We’re trying to promote personal responsibility,” said Eric Chevalier, one of the organizers of the Saturday cleanup effort.

Danette Goulet NEWPORT BEACH -- Hunched over two long tables laden with plastic bags Tuesday, David Maddox found jewelry, watches and other items that he didn't even realize had been stolen from his home. "I can't believe it," Maddox exclaimed, holding up a bag. "He took my old, old watch. See how dirty this is?" The Fullerton man was one of more than a dozen burglary victims from Orange and Los Angeles counties who were called down to the city's police station Tuesday to sift through hundreds of stolen items recovered since the arrest of John Robert Hershowitz last week.

Which plastic bin do you use? If you’re a homeowner in coastal Orange County, I’ll bet a nickel that you recycle. You sort out your milk bottles, soda cans, soup cans and so on, to go to a recycling facility, to be remade into new products. Good for you: You’re doing the right thing! Now consider this scenario. You buy colorful plastic bags of fertilizer to apply to your plants to make them grow. As soon as they grow you pay someone to come by and trim them back.

Elise Gee NEWPORT BEACH -- Mike Marvin traded in his computer keyboard Friday in favor of an aerator and lawn reseeder at the Boy Scouts Sea Base. Marvin, a technical services manager at Tustin-based Steelcase, was one of hundreds of volunteers who stormed dozens of Orange County nonprofit organizations as part of the United Way's annual Day of Caring. "Hopefully the next time I drive by this lawn will be green," Marvin said surveying his morning's work.

Andrew Glazer It's spring and Earth Day is coming -- the time of year when so-called "green" businesses spit out, like pollen, evidence of their enviro-friendliness. Even fast-food chains, chemical manufacturers and oil companies -- notoriously some of the worst environmental offenders -- make claims that they're getting cleaner. Meanwhile, each year, environmentalists wag skeptical fingers. "Everyone and his brother can claim they're environmentally safe," said Michael Carey, recycling coordinator at Orange Coast College.

June Casagrande In the hazy and humid late morning, Natalie and Nicole Kaylor toted a twisted hunk of wood and wire almost as big as them. The lesson is likely to be a lasting one: "No littering!" Natalie, 8, said. The El Morro sisters were among about 350 volunteers who pitched in two Crystal Cove cleanup sites as part of the statewide Coastal Cleanup Day, in association with the International Coastal Cleanup, organized by the Ocean Conservancy.

Newport Beach will not consider a ban on single-use plastic bags because it's a low priority to City Council members, the council decided Tuesday. Mayor Pro Tem Nancy Gardner asked if the council would ask the city's Environmental Quality Affairs Committee (EQAC) to study a plastic bag ban. The matter first came up at a September City Council meeting but was postponed so the item could be placed on an agenda. Gardner said that students from Newport Harbor High School at a meeting held earlier this fall asked if the committee would consider studying a ban. Had the council agreed, EQAC members at a future meeting would have discussed the ban as a second agenda item.

While Newport Beach recently banned gas-powered leaf blowers and may ban smoking in public parks, at least one environmental reform didn't go far with the City Council. A proposed prohibition on retail plastic bags, which was passed in Long Beach and some other California cities, was dead on arrival when floated at a recent City Council study session. "This one would be a doozy, and we would potentially expose the city to litigation," said Councilwoman Leslie Daigle. None of the council members spoke in favor of a ban, including Nancy Gardner.

Using only the air in their lungs, free divers swam to depths of up to 25 feet off Crystal Cove State Beach on Saturday to pick up debris from the ocean floor. Divers from the spear fishing and free diving club OC Spearos organized the cleanup effort, retrieving trash like candy wrappers and plastic bags. “Diving at local beaches, I would see trash like bottles and plastic bags floating in the water,” OC Spearos president Fernando Gutierrez said. “Divers want our areas to be clean and free from trash.

Braving soggy weather and toting metal trash pickers and plastic bags, more than 50 volunteers slogged through the streets of Newport Beach on Saturday to pick up trash out of gutters and on local beaches. The effort was part of the group ZeroTrash Newport’s fourth monthly First Saturday beach and street cleanup. “It’s pretty simple. We’re trying to promote personal responsibility,” said Eric Chevalier, one of the organizers of the Saturday cleanup effort.

Which plastic bin do you use? If you’re a homeowner in coastal Orange County, I’ll bet a nickel that you recycle. You sort out your milk bottles, soda cans, soup cans and so on, to go to a recycling facility, to be remade into new products. Good for you: You’re doing the right thing! Now consider this scenario. You buy colorful plastic bags of fertilizer to apply to your plants to make them grow. As soon as they grow you pay someone to come by and trim them back.

They're common sights around any town — abandoned in shopping carts, clogging gutters, strewn by the breeze across parks and front lawns. For defenders of the environment, plastic grocery bags have long been a source of agony and irritation. Starting this month, though, the state of California is taking action to reign them in. An assembly bill that took effect on July 1 has mandated that a number of grocery stores adopt in-store recycling programs, with collection bins for used bags and reusable bags for sale to customers.

NEWPORT BEACH — Years ago, Newport Beach resident Beverly Morgan received a care package from her parents while she was away at camp as a child. The package was filled with simple things, candy and comic books, but Morgan has never forgotten how it felt to pick up the package and enjoy some of the everyday pleasures she had been without. Earlier this year, Morgan read about Operation Interdependence in a monthly e-mail blast from her employer. The delivery system program called for civilians to assemble care packages for the men and women deployed overseas.

Campaign asks that people be mindful of where waste ends up.Next time you're in line at the grocery store and the clerk is packing up your items in plastic bags, think how those bags might look floating in the ocean or littered across your favorite beach. That unpleasant picture is exactly what the Earth Resource Foundation aims to drive home with its newest campaign. The foundation is urging people to eliminate single-use plastics by refusing plastic bags and reusing whenever possible.

Lindsay Sandham For some, the best way to celebrate the longest day of the year, the first official day of summer, is to meet at the beach and pick up litter. International Surfing Day, an event sponsored by the Surfrider Foundation's Newport Beach chapter and Surfing Magazine, attracted about 40 volunteers to the Santa Ana River mouth before sunset on Tuesday. Fourteen other communities around the world held similar events, all promoted and sponsored by Surfing Magazine.