Monday, October 18, 2010

Mushrooms As a New Plastic Alternative?


Follow this link to learn about how mushrooms are being designed and repurposed as a packaging alternative to styrofoam. http://tinyurl.com/2fvbzpj
Eben Bayer, designer, reveals his product for a new, fungus-based packaging material that protects fragile items and the environment.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

RAPS Meeting TONIGHT!

Hi All,
Just a quick reminder of our meeting TONIGHT:
Tuesday, Oct 12
7 - 8:30 pm
Encinitas Senior & Community Center
1140 Oakcrest Park Dr.
Encinitas, CA 92024

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Plastics Are Forever Youth Summit

Hey Rappers,
There is a great opportunity right now for high school students to get involved in creative solutions to our growing plastic problem in our very own backyard. The Pacific Garbage Patch lies thousands of miles off the western coast of the United states in the Pacific Ocean(although it is only one of 5 that exists on our planet), where plastics ranging in size from large floating food containers to small particles that wildlife such as fish and birds mistake for food. With the birth and boom of the chemical industry in the 1950s, the way we have produced plastic for the last 60 years is finally ending up in disaster. The planet is big, but soon enough all of our wastefulness and single-use items will show up in our backyards- our oceans, our rivers- to a point where we cannot deny that it isn't a problem anymore.
 Algalita Marine Research Foundation has organized an event for youth to become involved in this issue by getting together in groups to generate ideas on how to solve this problem. Their four main goals for this gathering are: 1. To learn about plastic pollution, 2. to come up with a solution, 3. to submit a project, 4. to attend the summit. If the solution is one of the chosen, that entire group is then able to travel and participate in the summit, all expenses paid.
Not only is this a highly inventive approach to solve this global issue, but is a really unique experience for young people to get to participate in solving such an issue amongst scientists and their peers.

Click here  for more information from the website!
Tell your kids or sign up today!

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Elena Buenrostro

Elena, our very own local activist, visual artist, and volunteer with Surfrider Foundation's Rise Above Plastics campaign...

In Surfrider's most recent attempts to help push California on becoming the first state in the U.S. to ban plastic bags, we ventured out to the communities of San Diego- getting signatures and speaking with California residents about AB 1998. Although the Senate ultimately failed to pass this law on vote Aug 31(14-21), our efforts were not in vain. They were just the start of a continuing battle from Rise Above Plastics.

Elena volunteered much of her free time raising awareness and getting companies and citizens alike to show congressmen that Californians wanted the ban passed. She got well over 300 postcards signed and around 20 businesses to write letters for Senator Ducheny's district here in San Diego. Elena was a great part of the success Surfrider had in showing our government that we the people have a strong will to move our economy one step further into the sustainable future! Thanks Elena!

Aside from volunteering with Surfrider's Rise Above Plastics efforts, Elena is currently in her last year as an undergraduate student at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). There she is majoring in Media Studies and minoring in Theatre and Film Studies. She explained how plastics caught her eye and became the focus of her artistic passions in order to represent the need for a life without these synthetic materials.

While attending the UCSD, Elena began to learn more about the plastic debris accumulating in the North Pacific Gyre, also known as the North Pacific Garbage Patch. This is where her quest began in creating visual awareness about plastic pollution and more specifically about plastic bag pollution as a contributor to a larger environmental issue; The Garbage Patch. Elena continues to spread the word about the ever growing plastic that accumulates in the Pacific Ocean as well as creates art pieces out of her own households plastic intake. 

Here are a few of her most recent projects:
The Global Tumbleweed 
A 20 minute documentary focusing on plastic bag pollution in the city of San Diego, as well as creating awareness about AB 1998, the California plastic bag ban.
Click Here to Watch

The Plastic Bag Dress
A dress created from 400 plastic bags, about the amount one person uses per year, (400-700 to be exact). The dress was worn by Elena to create visual awareness about plastic bag pollution in her city.

A Trip to the Grocery Store
Created with recycled plastic from a trip to the grocery store. Plastics included packaging from food items bought at the grocery store anywhere from cheese wrappers, bread bags, vegetable packaging, chip bags etc. Each recycled plastic was cut up, divided by color, and tied into a bow. The plastic bows were then installed onto a wall in a gallery. This is an ongoing project as Elena continues to collect all of her households plastic intake and transforming them into small creations.