We also created art projects for youth from used juice jars to sell as re-useable water bottles and souvenirs. Aubrey sterilized the bottles and her friend Jenny Useldinger helped to paint them. The kids joined in to provide the local flare.
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Single use plastic bottles (mainly for water) have become a major source of pollution in the environment. It is estimated that 28,000,000,000 bottles of water were used in 2004, of which 86% ended up as garbage. Furthermore, chemicals (such as BHA) leached from the plastic into the water can cause cancer (source: water-disaster.pps click to download PowerPoint slide show 2.6MB).
The Ocean has become the receiver of all of this mess, as plastic does not decompose. It breaks into smaller and smaller pieces, eventually filling the entire water column. Plastic outnumbers plankton, the basis of the food chain on earth, 6 to 1 in some parts of the Pacific Ocean (source: Algalita Marine Research Foundation).
Oaxaca and Michoacan, Mexico
Surfers Without Borders is a Fiscally Sponsored Project of The Ocean Foundation
copyright 2011 Surfers Without Borders
site design by Loren Luyendyk and Aubrey Falk
SWoBs have been encouraging local businesses to offer refills for reusable water bottles to reduce the use of plastic. Locals and visiting surfers can now refill their own bottle for half the price of buying a new one. Furthermore, local businesses can make 10 times more money selling water from 5 gallon jugs, and there is less plastic that may end up in the ocean. We made signs and provided hand pumps for 5 gallon jugs
You can help reverse ocean pollution!
Water Bottle Refill Program
