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Written by Natalya Stanko   
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Thursday, 23 June 2011

Beach Trip

In the heat of summer, the beach is a shimmering paradise that few of us can resist. Once we finally get there—kicking off our flip-flops, running for the cool waves ahead—what we tend to forget is that this paradise is in no way eternal. Beaches are prone to pollution, erosion, and habitat loss. How we treat them matters. Before you hit the sand and surf this season, find out how you can keep your beach a paradise for many more summers.

BENEFITS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT: Reduce pollution and erosion at your beach, use less natural resources, protect beach animals, and minimize your trip's carbon footprint .

Cost: Moderate

Time and effort: Moderate

1. Plan Ahead
  • Before you go, make sure your beach is open and safe to swim in. In 2009, about 43% of beaches in the United States had at least one advisory or closure because bacteria levels exceeded water standards.1 Visit the EPA's BEACON site to check water quality, advisories, and closings at your beach.

  • Plan to bus or carpool to the beach. If you live within a reasonable distance, you can even cycle. If you're flying to the beach, consider buying carbon offsets which typically financially support renewable energy, energy efficiency, or reforestation projects.
2. Pack with care
  • Purchase products only if you don't already have them. Use a picnic basket or a backpack instead of buying a beach bag. Don't replace your frayed or torn beach chair. Instead, reweave your beach chair for a fraction of the cost and natural resources.

  • If you're in need of a new swimsuit, buy a quality item in a classic cut that won't go out of style before next season. Choose a swimsuit that's made of organic cotton , soy, or bamboo . Avoid nylon and spandex, which aren't biodegradable.

  • Buy sunglasses made of recycled metal and plastic.

  • Protect your face and neck from the sun with one of those promotional give-away hats that's gathering dust in the depths of your closet. Or purchase a hat that's made of sustainable materials, like organic cotton or bamboo . Do the same with your towels!

  • Pack zinc oxide sunscreen, which provides UVA and UVB protection without all the harsh chemical preservatives and petroleum-based ingredients found in many conventional sunscreens. Check out this review of seven eco-friendly sunscreens. To further protect yourself from dangerous rays, stay under an umbrella when the sun is at its peak, and always wear a hat and protective clothing.

  • Do prepare yourself for bugs, but do not grab the toxic DEET. Purchase citronella candles and an herbal repellent, which blends bug-fighting oils such as lemongrass and citronella. You can also create a repellent right in your blender or juicer. Throw in either celery or chili and some jalapeno peppers, then apply the juice with a small cloth or spray bottle. Since you are using peppers, make sure to avoid eyes when you spray!

  • Shun all disposables. That includes those flimsy cups, paper plates, plastic forks, plastic bottles, and styrofoam coolers. Not only are they wasteful, but they're also prone to flying away in the wind. Bring a reusable cooler, a thermos filled with filtered tap water, and dishware from home. Don't pack glass, because bare feet and broken glass don't mix.

  • Buy juicy summer fruits and veggies at your farmer's market before hitting the beach.
3. Play, Relax, Enjoy!
  • Use boardwalks and trails, and never wander into dunes, which protect the beach from erosion and are often home to threatened or endangered species.

  • Always swim at least 100 yards away from storm drains. They collect stuff that you don't want to dunk your head in—like motor oil, pesticides, and animal waste.

  • Get the little ones a playset2 or Frisbee3 made from recycled milk jugs, or make a kite from recycled materials.

  • Catch a wave on an eco-friendly surfboard. Seventy-five percent of boards are still made of polyurethane foam,4 even though the material uses petroleum and creates dangerous chemicals during manufacturing.5 Choose a board made of bamboo 6 or a composite of sustainably-harvested wood, fast-growing cork, and recyclable foam.7

  • Ride on wind power. Rent a sailboat instead of a gas-guzzling jet ski or motor boat.

  • Take only pictures, leave only footprints! Sparkly rocks, slimy seaweed, and rainbow-lined shells are all part of the local ecosystem, and they should not be removed. Keep in mind that sand dollars and starfish are live animals, not souvenirs.

  • Say no to souvenirs. Avoid the dollar t-shirt or neon-colored stuffed animal. Get high quality items that will last for decades, and refuse to buy anything made with shells or animal parts.
4. Don't be Trashy…
  • The ocean is not one big toilet. Take care of your business in a public restroom.

  • Don't use soap in outdoor showers. The soap suds will probably end up in stormwater drains, which may empty into oceans, streams, or lakes. According to the Maryland Department of the Environment, “Soaps [and] detergents (even biodegradable ones) can be poisonous to crabs, oysters, and rockfish, damaging gills and depleting the water of oxygen.”8

  • Pick up your pet's droppings, which are a source of bacteria that may contribute to beach closures.

  • Use the trash cans, and bring home your recyclables and compostables if there are no proper bins at your beach. Cut plastic 6-pack holders, which can entrap animals like fish, turtles, and seals. Don't litter your cigarette butts, which are the most common item found on beach cleanups—each year, cleaning crews find nearly 2.2 million pieces of cigarette debris on coastal shores at the end of summer.9 Go the extra mile by picking up other people's trash. You can even join or start a beach clean up.10
5. Think beach all year long

Be mindful of the beach even when you're not at the beach. Eat sustainable seafood GreeniacsGuides. Don't throw out, flush, or spray anything that you wouldn't want to end up in the ocean. Maintain your septic system, recycle your motor oil, and fertilize your garden with compost Greeniacs Guidesinstead of harsh chemicals. Remember that protecting the ocean starts at home!

Browse all Greeniacs Guides Browse all Greeniacs Guides        Browse all Greeniacs Articles
_______________________________________________________________________________

1 http://water.epa.gov/type/oceb/beaches/seasons_2009_national.cfm
2 http://www.enviroproductsworld.com/grtosaplset.html
3 http://www.enviroproductsworld.com/grtoecfldiec.html
4 http://www.surfline.com/surfing-a-to-z/polyurethane-foam-history_885/
5 http://sierraclub.typepad.com/greenlife/2008/06/green-your-be-2.html
6 http://www.bamboosurfboardshawaii.com/
7 http://www.hesssurfboards.com/
8 http://www.mde.maryland.gov/programs/researchcenter/reportsandpublications
/pages/researchcenter/publications/general/emde/vol1no4/car_wash.aspx
9 http://act.oceanconservancy.org/images/
2010ICCReportRelease_pressPhotos/2010_ICC_Report.pdf, p. 11. 
10 http://www.greenhandsusa.com/eventguide/page:260




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Last Updated ( Thursday, 23 June 2011 )

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Green Facts

  • Washing your clothes in cold or warm instead of hot water saves 500 pounds of carbon dioxide a year, and drying your clothes on a clothesline six months out of the year would save another 700 pounds.

  • Glass can be recycled over and over again without ever wearing down.

  • A single quart of motor oil, if disposed of improperly, can contaminate up to 2,000,000 gallons of fresh water.

  • Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year.

  • It takes 6,000,000 trees to make 1 year's worth of tissues for the world.

  • Turning off the tap when brushing your teeth can save as much as 10 gallons a day per person.

  • An aluminum can that is thrown away instead of recycled will still be a can 500 years from now!

  • Recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy used to make the material from scratch.

  • Americans throw away more than 120 million cell phones each year, which contribute 60,000 tons of waste to landfills annually.

  • Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial fleet of airplanes every 3 months

  • You will save 300 pounds of carbon dioxide for every 10,000 miles you drive if you always keep your car’s tires fully inflated.

  • American workers spend an average of 47 hours per year commuting through rush hour traffic. This adds up to 23 billion gallons of gas wasted in traffic each year.

  • Rainforests are being cut down at the rate of 100 acres per minute.

  • Less than 1% of electricity in the United States is generated from solar power.

  • 77% of people who commute to work by car drive alone.

  • Every week about 20 species of plants and animals become extinct.

  • You will save 100 pounds of carbon for each incandescent bulb that you replace with a compact fluorescent bulb (CFL), over the life of the bulb.

  • Nudge your thermostat up two degrees in the summer and down two degrees in the winter to prevent 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.

  • Recycling for one year at Stanford University saved the equivalent of 33,913 trees and the need for 636 tons of iron ore, coal, and limestone.

  • Bamboo absorbs 35% more carbon dioxide than equivalent stands of trees.

  • If every U.S. household turned the thermostat down by 10 degrees for seven hours each night during the cold months, and seven hours each weekday, it would prevent nearly gas emissions.

  • In the United States, automobiles produce over 20 percent of total carbon emissions. Walk or bike and you'll save one pound of carbon for every mile you travel.

  • The World Health Organization estimates that 2 million people die prematurely worldwide every year due to air pollution.

  • Americans use 100 million tin and steel cans every day.

  • In California homes, about 10% of energy usage is related to TVs, DVRs, cable and satellite boxes, and DVD players.

  • You’ll save two pounds of carbon for every 20 glass bottles that you recycle.

  • A laptop consumes five times less electricity than a desktop computer.

  • 82 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. come from burning fossil fuels.

  • For every 38,000 bills consumers pay online instead of by mail, 5,058 pounds of greenhouse gases are avoided and two tons of trees are preserved.

  • Shaving 10 miles off of your weekly driving pattern can eliminate about 500 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year.

  • Current sea ice levels are at least 47% lower than they were in 1979.

  • A steel mill using recycled scrap reduces related water pollution, air pollution, and mining wastes by about 70%.

  • Recycling 100 million cell phones can save enough energy to power 18,500 homes in the U.S. for a year.

  • A tree that provides a home with shade from the sun can reduce the energy required to run the air conditioner and save an additional 200 to 2,000 pounds of carbon over its lifetime.

  • Recycling 1 million laptop computers can save the amount of energy used by 3,657 homes in the U.S. over the course of a year.

  • States with bottle deposit laws have 35-40% less litter by volume.

  • Due to tiger poaching, habitat destruction, and other human-tiger conflicts, tigers now number around 3,200—a decrease in population by about 70% from 100 years ago.

  • Refrigerators built in 1975 used 4 times more energy than current models.

  • One recycled aluminum can will save enough energy to run a 100-watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours, or a TV for 2 hours.