Surfrider Foundation Urging Reduced Use of Plastic

The Surfrider Foundation is encouraging community members to change their daily habits in order to help keep plastic out of the Pacific Ocean.

Through its Rise Above Plastics Campaign, Surfrider Foundation of Newport Beach is discouraging the use of single-use plastics and instead encouraging everyone to reduce, reuse and recycle. According to the Surfrider Foundation, an estimated 100 million tons of plastic debris -- which doesn't biodegrade -- have accumulated in two areas of the Pacific Ocean.

Plastic photo-degrades and breaks into smaller pieces and many fish and birds think its food. The mistake has grown deadly, killing more than one million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals each year due to ingestion of or entanglement in plastics.

How you can help:

 -Use reusable bottles for water and other drinks

-Use cloth bags for groceries and other purchases

-Recycle the plastic bags and bottles you already have

Reusing and recycling has proved to help the environment. Surfrider reports for each reusable bag used, another 400 plastic bags will be kept from being used and for every reusable water bottle, another 167 plastic bottles will be kept from entering the environment.

To learn more about the Surfrider Foundation, visit http://newportbeach.surfrider.org/.