Announcements: Van Jones, No Plastic Left Behind, & Message In A Bottle

I have a trio of exciting announcements, so please be sure and read the whole post.

1) Britt Bravo of Have Fun * Do Good emailed me a few days ago to help spread the word about Van Jones's new book, Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems, which is being released on October 7. If you don't know who Van Jones is, you should! Ten years ago, he founded the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights here in Oakland to promote positive alternatives to violence and incarceration through efforts which include the Green Collar Jobs Campaign to create opportunities in the green economy for poor people and people of color. And he was recently named a Time Magazine Hero of the Environment.

I heard Van Jones interviewed several months ago on Britt's Big Vision podcast and was blown away by this man who is able to bridge many different communities and make the links between environmental and social justice. This book is just what our country needs right now. And the campaign is urging folks to pre-order the book NOW before it releases Oct 7 so that it has a chance on the Best Seller list. All pre-orders are counted on the day the book releases, apparently. (If the previous link doesn't work, try this one.)

2) Saturday, October 11, is Earth Resource Foundation's 1st Annual "No Plastic Left Behind," A Campaign Against the Plastic Plague Conference at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, CA. I'll be participating in the 1pm panel: “Acting Out” – How activism can make a difference and also leading a break-out session on alternatives to plastic.

Do you live near Costa Mesa? Please come and join us for an entire day devoted to plastic and what we can do about it!

3) The following Monday, October 13, Anna Cummins and Dr. Marcus Eriksen will speak on marine plastics at the Marin Humane Society in Novato from 7:30 - 8:50pm. Anna and Marcus are about to begin the third leg of their "Message In A Bottle" tour which began last winter aboard the Alguita research vessel, on which they sailed out to study the plastic in the North Pacific Gyre; continued with Marcus's journey aboard the Junk, a raft made of plastic bottles; and will finish up with an amphibious bicycle trip from Vancouver to Mexico during which they'll give presentations about plastic marine debris and deliver samples of the plastic soup directly to educators, organizations, and policymakers.

I'm excited to finally meet Anna and Marcus in person after emails and phone conversations with Anna. The Algalita Marine Research Foundation's efforts to bring the "Pacific Garbage Patch" to the world's attention was the original impetus for Fake Plastic Fish! So of course I jumped at the opportunity to make a few introductory remarks before the presentation, which is being sponsored in part by Green Sangha. Green Sangha will also have its plastics display on view. If you're in Marin and you're free that night, please come and hear about what plastic is doing to our marine environments from a couple of people who have seen it with their own eyes.

That's all for now. I leave for a weekend meditation retreat tomorrow afternoon and will be gone until Sunday night. Perhaps another zero plastic week?
 

 

Searching for plastic-free water at Outside Lands wears me out.

I love music more than ice cream. Even more than fudge sauce. And to me, the band Radiohead is like magic. I don't understand how they make the exquisite and sometimes excruciating sounds that they do. I just know that as long as there are humans on this planet whose organized noise can move me to tears every single time I hear it, there must be hope for us.

So for a few months, I've been really looking forward to seeing my first Radiohead show live at the SF Outside Lands music festival in Golden Gate Park. And I was also pleased that this festival was being billed as a green event and planned to visit a section they called Ecolands, where there would be all kinds of "green" organizations and vendors measuring carbon footprints, collecting recycling (including old cell phones), and serving up organic food.


So I wasn't really worried when I got to the festival entrance on Friday and was asked (after my bag was searched) to empty the water out of my Klean Kanteen. This is standard practice for concerts, right? Organizers don't want certain illicit substances being brought in in the guise of water. And the staffer assured me I'd be able to fill it up again once inside the festival grounds.

So after staking out a spot near the mainstage where Radiohead would be playing later that evening, I left my friend Laura and set out to find the watering spot to refill our bottles. This is the sign that was projected on the side of the stage:


And this is one of the many waste stations throughout the grounds for recycling, compost, and trash.


I thought I'd start by asking these guys, as they worked for Clean Vibes, a company "dedicated to the responsible waste management of outdoor festivals and events." But they didn't know where the water was. "Let us know when you find out," they said.

So I walked and walked, and finally spotted this!


But a closer look revealed this is what they were selling:


The only water to be found were plastic bottles of Arrowhead water in the new "Eco-shape" bottle which according to Arrowhead's site, "contains 30% less plastic than the average half liter bottle." Turns out Arrowhead is one of the festival sponsors!

"Look," I said, "I don't want to buy a plastic bottle. I just want to fill my Klean Kanteen. Where can I fill it up?" The staff at the "water" booth didn't know. So I asked at every booth in "EcoLands" where I could find regular tap water, and nearly every person gave the same answer, "Good question. Let us know when you find out!"

Someone suggested filling up from the hand washing station by the porta potties:


Um. I don't think so.


And then I saw it. An actual drinking fountain right near an actual restroom!


Seriously, would it have killed the organizers to set up the fence AROUND the water fountain so festival goers could use it? I even tried sticking my Klean Kanteen through the fence, but alas, it would not fit.

After asking an official looking guy in a blue uniform where I could fill up my water bottle, he told me, "We have no intention of providing free water to everyone at this festival. I don't know why you'd think that." Um... you charge $85 a ticket and can't afford to provide SF tap water? And um... if you weren't going to let us refill our bottles, why'd you make us dump them out and promise we could refill when we got inside?

Someone manning the EcoLands info booth even tried to give me his own bottle of Arrowhead water, thinking maybe I just couldn't afford to buy my own. You can believe I passed out a ton of Fake Plastic Fish cards during that hour-long water search and had quite a few discussions about the craziness of this whole "eco" scheme. And what we all realized was that when the organizers talked about diversion, they meant recycling plastic bottles. Diversion is not the same as zero waste, is it?

There's nothing to divert if you don't create a bunch of waste in the first place!

Okay, so I finally did find free water. Coming out of the bathroom behind the fence was a long hose with a nozzle. It was what the coffee vendors were using to make their beverages. Aha! And this nice guy (whose name I neglected to get) happily filled up both Laura's and my bottles for us.


It took an hour of wandering around in the chilly Golden Gate Park fog (which, to be honest, was actually kind of fun in a challenging, albeit surreal, sort of way. Almost like playing a game and finally winning!) to get our bottles filled up. But that wasn't the end of my quest. Oh no! Laura and I wanted wine, too!


So I checked out the much-touted Winehaven wine tasting tent, only to find that 1) a "glass" of wine started around $10 for the cheap-ass stuff and 2) the "glasses" were, of course, plastic. "Oh, but they are fully recyclable!" I was told. Feh. We know about plastic recycling. Not doing it. And thankfully Laura wasn't into paying that kinda cash for cheap wine.

But on the way back to the main stage, I spotted the tell-tale green label indicating a compostable cup. "Where did you get that?" I asked the woman holding it, probably a bit wild-eyed at this point. I think I freaked her out, but she was nice enough to point me to another tent. Yes! At this point, I didn't care if I was drinking rotgut. It came in a compostable cup and it cost less than what they were selling in the swanky Winehaven tent. I bought Laura and me a cup each and headed back to our blanket.


Yes, the cup is made from corn, and I should have been more prepared and brought my own reusable cup for wine. Didn't think of it. And I'm actually not sure I have something that would have been legal. No glass was allowed in the park. But you know what? I saved those compostable cups, and I'll bring them with me next time!

Just before the show, Laura went off and found us an awesome organic veggie curry dish from Bombay Kitchen (all fully compostable, although as before, I should have brought my own bamboo cutlery) and our tummies were happy.


And then the music started. And for a few hours, I didn't care about anything else.

First, a set by Steel Pulse:





And then Manu Chao:





And when it finally got dark... RADIOHEAD...














A beautiful set list. And yes, the encore was Fake Plastic Fish Trees.


Then, trudging out of the park, the crunch of plastic underfoot...

...it wears me out, it wears me out.
It wears me out, it wears me out.