Courtesy envearth.files.wordpress.com.

Thursday, Jan. 17 marks the first day that the "plastic bag reduction ordinance" goes into effect on Hawaii island.

Single-use plastic bags will be allowed for the first year of this new law if a fee is charged for each bag, according to a statement issued by the County of Hawaii Department of Environmental Management. Businesses will set the fee and keep the revenue. Paper bags are permitted.

But many stores have already opted to stop using plastic checkout bags, encouraging customers instead to bring their own reusable bags.

The new law does not include plastic bags without handles used for meat, produce, bulk items, garments and prescription drugs. Non-profit groups are also exempt.

Businesses caught violating the ordinance will be issued a warning letter first, followed by a civil fine of $250 per day for a second violation and $500 per day for the third violation.

Visit HawaiiZeroWaste.com for a copy of the ordinance, rules and more information. Contact the department's Solid Waste and Recycling offices at 808-961-8270 if you have questions.

Claire Flynt, last year's best overall winner of "One Foot at a Time" - Photo from raptober.org/images.

It's Raptoberfest time.

That's the Rise Above Plastics version of Oktoberfest. The Surfrider Foundation kicked off the second annual "Raptober" celebration earlier last week - it's a month-long effort to educate and inspire the public to eliminate plastic waste from our oceans.

"Each year millions of seabirds, fish and marine mammals die due to ingestion of, or entanglement in plastic," said Bill Hickman, Surfrider Foundation's Rise Above Plastic Program Coordinator. "By dedicating the entire month of October toward educating the public on the effects of marine plastics, we hope to jump start their desire to reduce their own personal plastic footprints and the amount of litter reaching our seas."

Some simple things you can do (as illustrated by Raptoberfest cartoons) include:

>> If you see a friend drinking out of a plastic water bottle, encourage them to switch to a reusable water bottle.

>> If you see a a friend using a single-use plastic bag, offer them a reusable bag.

>> During the week of Oct. 15, join or renew your membership to the Surfrider Foundation for a discount of $30 and get a wallet or pocketbook handmade from upcycled plastic bags collected from Bali beaches.

Read more at "10 Ways" to reduce your plastic footprint.

Participate in the "One Foot at a Time" plastic cleanup challenge again. Here's how it works: Participants collect one square foot of trash from their beach or community, then use the material to create a unique mosaic sculpture using one of five downloadable templates on the Foundation's Raptober event website.

The Foundation will judge photo submissions of the sculptures. Winners get cool surfgear, including a surfboard, from Rusty.

Visit www.raptober.org for more about the contest.

Captain Charles Moore, author of "Plastic Ocean," will return to Oahu on Sunday, Oct. 14 for  more of "The Plastic Pollution Conversation — Pacific Rim Tour 2012." He'll be at the University Laboratory School Cafeteria from 3 to 6 p.m. on Sunday.

If you haven't joined the conversation yet, now's a good time to begin.

Moore, also founder of the Algalita Marine Research Institute, is eager to tell you the story of how he first stumbled upon plastic debris, now known as the Pacific Garbage Patch sailing from Hawaii back to California after a yacht race — how the "plastic soup" pollution continues, and how it is harmful to the ocean as well as human health.

He'll talk about the most recently completed Algalita expedition to the Pacific Garbage Patch as well as the 2011 tsunami debris making its way across the North Pacific Gyre.

"Plastic is now a pollutant - it was unintended, but it happens to be an unintended consequence of doing everything more easily with plastic," says Moore. "The throwaway lifestyle, discard of single-use plastics has created, along with other disposed plastics, a plastic soup in our generalized ocean with garbage patches in the five major gyres. Millions of square miles of the ocean are highly polluted with the broken down products of our plastic age...to me this requires a plastic pollution conversation."

Moore wants to bring the volume of the conversation up. Besides Hawaii, he travels to Japan, Hong Kong,  Australia, New Zealand and Chile.

"We've got to rethink our relationship with plastic," he says.

The talk is presented by Moore's Algalita Marine Research Institute, the Kokua Hawaii Foundation, University Laboratory School and Surfrider Foundation. University Laboratory School is at 1776 University Ave. Parking is available on the lower athletic field.

For more information, contact plasticfree@kokuahawaiifoundation.org.

Check it out!

Method is introducing what it calls "the world's first bottle made with ocean plastic" for its new 2-in-1 dish and hand soap.

It's made partially from plastic debris that Method employees hand-collected from Hawaii beaches over the last year and a half, in partnership with non-profit groups including the Kokua Hawaii Foundation and Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii.

Just two weeks ago, Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii organized a beach cleanup at Kailua and Lanikai, where more than 700 volunteers collected 11,306 pieces of microplastic.

The San Francisco-based company worked with Envision Plastics to recycle the plastic debris into bottles, which are a combination of ocean plastic and post-consumer recycled plastic. The result is a gray resin.

Method, which makes green cleaning products, introduced the bottle to help raise awareness about the several million tons of plastic that pollute the ocean and harm the marine populations every year.

According to Method:

>> Plastics are estimated to represent almost 80 percent of the total marine debris floating in the world's oceans.

>> On average, there are 46,000 pieces of plastic swirling in each square mile of our oceans.

>> Every year, at least 1 million sea birds and 100,000 sharks, turtles, dolphins and whales die from eating plastic. (You've seen the laysan albatross with stomachs full of plastic).

>> Fish in the middle depths of the Northern Pacific Ocean are ingesting up to 24,000 tons of plastic per year.

>> A total of 267 species around the world are harmed by plastic: 86 percent sea turtles, 44 percent seabirds and 43 percent of ocean mammals ingest or become tangled in plastic (Remember the beached whale on Kauai that biologists later found had swallowed plastic?)

"Through this new and innovative use of recovered ocean plastic, we hope to show how design can be used to tackle environmental problems," said Method in its card description. "We're not saying that the solution to the ocean plastic problem is making bottle out of trash, but by doing so we can prove that there are alternatives to using virgin materials — like PCR plastic, which we use in all of our bottles. By recycling + reusing existing plastic, we can turn off the tap."

Method's ocean plastic bottles of dish + hand soap hits the shelves at Whole Foods Market nationwide this week for $4.99. The biodegradable formula is available in two fragrances: sea minerals or sweet water. Also available at methodhome.com.

Dozens of plastic bottle caps collected over the months to be recycled. Photo by Nina Wu.

It's amazing how many plastic caps you can collect in a month — they're on half-gallon milk cartons, Trop50 juices, water bottles, pretty much any beverage that comes in a plastic bottle, shampoo and conditioner bottles, vitamins, peanut butter jars and Happy Baby food pouches. The list goes on.

Beach Environmental Awareness Campaign Hawaii (B.E.A.C.H.) is making an effort to recycle the plastic caps and lids. Mark your calendars if you, too, have been collecting plastic lids and caps. The non-profit and student volunteers will be collecting plastic caps and lids for recycling on Saturday, May 5 and Saturday, May 12.

>> 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 5. Ahuimanu Elementary School, 47-470 Hui Aeko Pl. in Kaneohe.

>> 9 a.m. to 11;30 a.m. on Saturday, May 12. Kaimuki Middle School, 631 18th Ave.

For updates on plastic caps and lids recycling collection dates and times, visit www.b-e-a-c-h.org.

This effort to reduce plastic caps in the environment and help save sea birds is an initiative of the Beach Environmental Awareness Campaign Hawaii and supported by the following partners: Matson, 5 Star Transportation, Young Brothers and ETA Logistics.

Free Educational Presentation

Also, from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on May 29 and June 28, listen to an educational and inspirational presentation by B.E.A.C.H. co-founder Suzanne Frazer on the issue of plastic in our environment and how it is both harmful to our health as well as marine life.

Learn about chemicals in plastic, the impacts of marine debris on marine life and what simple steps you can take to protect your health as well as that of the environment.

The presentations will take place at the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation Community Meeting Room, 131 Hekili St. Suite 111 in Kailua. Light refreshments provided by Whole Foods Market Kailua. Please RSVP by phone to 393-2168.

Plastic carryout bags are expected to be banned in Honolulu starting in 2015, if the mayor signs it into law. Star-Advertiser photo.

Honolulu City Council passed a bill on Wednesday banning nonbiodegradable plastic bags at checkout starting July 1, 2015.

Well, it's about time, given that the neighbor isles (Maui, Kauai and Hawaii island) have already passed plastic bag bans. Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle still has to sign the bill.

So what if there's a plastic bag ban in Honolulu?

The first reaction you get from most folks opposed to the ban is — what am I going to line my wastebaskets with from now on, and from dog owners,  how am I going to pick up my dog's poop? I've had this conversation at the dog park, and there are some owners who are really resolute about their right to a plastic bag just for this very reason.

Finding alternatives to line your wastebasket with is tricky, I'll admit. I do reuse stray plastic bags (that somehow get sneaked into the house) to line the wastebasket.

But for the last two to three years, I've  been bringing my own bags to the grocery store and more and more, to other retail stores as well — or sometimes, simply saying, "No Thanks." I never really understood why you would need a small, plastic bag if you were simply buying a candy bar or bag of potato chips — couldn't you just take the receipt and put it straight into your purse or backpack?

As the owner of a Springer spaniel named Kona — and as the official dog walker in the family — yes, I do have the unglamorous task of picking up her poop. I haven't really found it difficult since switching to reusable bags.

The bag ban would not affect the bags used to package loose fruit, vegetables and nuts, nor does it affect newspaper bags.

We have a newspaper delivered to the door every morning, sometimes in just one bag and sometimes two. These bags actually are the perfect size for picking up dog poop – I find grocery bags to be more unwieldy, with a flyaway effect.

Bread bags also work — every time we go through a loaf of bread, I save the bag and reuse it.  It still probably isn't the greenest choice — maybe someone some day will invent a new way to pick up dog poop.

There's such a plethora of plastic bags in our lives that honestly, it's not a big deal to give up plastic checkout bags. It's nice to get rid of the plastic  bag monster under the sink.

If it came down to it, I suppose using biobags would be a greener option — they do cost money, but they work fine.

Still, the detrimental effects of plastic in the ocean is far greater than the inconvenience. I'm not just talking about choking up turtles — I'm talking about the health of the ocean's ecosystem and in turn, the health of humans who are interconnected with that ecosystem.

Now, we could have considered a fee for plastic and paper checkout bags, which was effective in Washington DC. The bill in the state legislature seeking to place a 10-cent fee on plastic and paper checkout bags stalled this session, though it had the backing of both retailers and environmental groups like the Surfrider Foundation and Sierra Club Hawaii.

But really, we can live without plastic (and paper) checkout bags. Just bring your own bag.

Students in grades K-12, here's your chance to make the world a better place!

Safe Planet, in partnership with the Hawaii Department of Education, Malama Hawaii and other partners, is launching a new art contest focusing on Plastic Pollution Solutions.

Students are to pick one, single-use plastic item in their homes and to re-design it in an eco-friendly, organic and non-polluting material. They must explain what it looks like, how it is made  and how it is used through a photograph, painting, drawing, graphic or sculpture.

The contest is sponsored by the UN Safe Planet campaign. It starts today, with a submissions deadline of May 18.

Prizes will be awarded in three age group categories: Grades K-3, Grades 4-7, and Grades 8-12.

Winning designs will be exhibited at a local gallery in Honolulu as well as the Galerie Califia in Europe during the summer. Winning designs will also be sent to local manufacturers who will create prototypes of the eco-friendly products. The top winning design will be exhibited at the Safe Planet Exhibition in Rio de Janeiro during the Rio + 20 Earth Summit in June.

Download the contest flyer and rules at new.artmill.eu/hawaii-usa#obsah.

Design by surf-inspired painter Ned Evans.

If you're looking for a fashionable way to bring your own bag, check out Envirosax's water-inspired collection for the Surfrider Foundation. They can be found under the graphic series and cost $10.95 each.

These three designs feature artwork from the Foundation's artist friends Ned Evans, Robb Havassy and Melinda Morey (who grew up on Kauai).

With the collection, Envirosax and the Surfrider Foundation hope to raise awareness of the issue of single-use plastics in our marine environments.

Envirosax is donating 50 cents from every  bag sold to the Surfrider Foundation's Rise Above Plastics campaign.

Design by Melinda Morey, who grew up on Kauai.

"Our oceans, lakes and waterways are beautiful elements of nature we want our children and grandchildren to enjoy," said Envirosax CEO Belinda Coker. "We hope to inspire everyone to reuse. One tiny change is like a drop of water into a pond – it has the power of creating a big ripple effect..."

Two bills pending in the Hawaii State Legislature — House Bill 2260 and Senate Bill 2511 — propose requiring businesses to charge a 10-cent fee for every single-use checkout bag (paper and plastic) provided to a customer.

Design by California surfer artist Robb Havassy.

A percentage of the fees are supposed to go to a "natural area reserve fund" towards the state Department of Land and Natural Resources' watershed initiative. The bill does not include produce bags (which you use to put apples and vegetables in), newspaper bags or dry cleaning bags.

Maui and Kauai counties already passed a ban on plastic checkout bags, in effect for about a year, with Hawaii county planning to follow suit next year. Honolulu county is the only county without a plastic bag policy in place.

The Oahu chapter of Surfrider Foundation supports the bill, along with the Sierra Club and supermarkets such as Safeway and Times.

Last year, Washington D.C. passed a law charging 5-cents for every plastic and paper disposable bag customers use when buying food or alcohol. In December, the Seattle City Council took a different tact, voting unanimously to ban plastic bags and set a 5-cent fee for paper bags. Seattle initially proposed a 20-cent fee on paper and plastic bags three years ago, but voters rejected the initiative.

Whatever happens in Honolulu, if you want to make it a personal habit to bring your own bag, you can do so any time. Supermarkets like Foodland, Down To Earth and Whole Foods currently offer 5-cents credit for customers who bring in their own bags at checkout.

My favorite reusable bags are lightweight, easy to carry in a pocket or handbag (if you roll them up like an umbrella) as well as stylish. You can use them to carry groceries home or as beach bags and lunch totes.

Visit www.envirosax.com to find more designs.

The plastic bag monster, played by James McCay, made an appearance at Thursday's press conference supporting a bill proposing a 10-cent fee for each checkout bag. Photo by Star-Advertiser photographer Cindy Ellen Russell.

Would paying an extra 10-cents for that plastic checkout bag at the supermarket get you to bring your own bags?

Backers of House Bill 2260 and Senate Bill 2511 believe it will.

Unlike laws banning the sale of single-use, plastic checkout bags which went into effect on Maui and Kauai counties about a year ago (with Hawaii county to follow suit next year), this bill takes the strategy of placing a fee on them. A dime per bag, to be precise.

Backers of the bill — including environmental groups like the Sierra Club, Surfrider Foundation, Sen. Mike Gabbard (sponsor of the bill), DLNR first deputy Guy Kaulukukui and students from elementary school to college — held a press conference Thursday afternoon to rally support for the measures.

For once, business groups like the Hawaii Food Industry Association and Retail Merchants of Hawaii actually support this plastic bag bill. Safeway and Times also wrote letters supporting the bill.

I asked Stuart Coleman of the Surfrider Foundation: "Why support a fee instead of a ban like neighbor isle counties?"

He says backers believe the fee is a better strategy than a ban (several bills were introduced in past years, with no luck). But in counties that have implemented bans, says Coleman, the use of paper takeout bags has gone up dramatically.

Paper isn't necessarily any better for the environment than plastic. It takes almost four times as much energy to manufacture a paper bag as a plastic bag (plus the shipping required to get it here). They also cost a lot more.

If you're willing to pay a fee (which will go for both plastic and paper carryout bags, according to the bill's current draft), the bill proposes that a portion of funds raised through the bag bill fees support the state Department of Land and Natural Resources' watershed initiative.

"This is a way to take a problem and turn it into a solution," said Coleman. "This is completely avoidable. All you have to do is use a reusable bag."

Washington D.C. passed a five-cent bag fee (on single-use carryout bags) in 2010, with the goal of generating revenue for cleanup efforts at Anacostia River. The "Skip the Bag, Save the River" initiative hasn't generated as much revenue as estimated for the river, but it's effectively reduced the consumption of single-use, carryout bags by at least 50 percent. It seems to have worked in Ireland, which passed a plastic bag tax in 2002.

It's an interesting idea. Right now, supermarkets like Foodland, Down To Earth and Whole Foods will give you a 5-cent credit for every bag your bring in at checkout. Unfortunately, Safeway doesn't offer it any more.

The 5-cent incentive doesn't seem to have much impact, though, with people jumping on the bandwagon of bringing your own bag to collect that credit.

And let's face it — only a small percentage of the Hawaii population is really going to bring in their own bags out of a concern for the environment. It just isn't happening. But budget-conscious shoppers (we pay enough just to live in Hawaii, don't we?) might just balk at the idea of paying an extra 10-cents per bag at checkout.

Then again, some people won't care about the extra 10-cents per bag.

Maybe this will work. It has the support of more backers than past bills proposing a ban on plastic checkout bags in Honolulu. Maybe in the next generation, more people, like the students who showed up to support the bill, won't think much of bringing their own bags to the store ( or gripe about how they'll pick up dog poop or line their wastebaskets).

We do need to care about the proliferation of single-use, plastics in our everyday lives — from plastic bags to plastic takeout boxes, forks and spoons. It's not just about litter, but about the impact on our environment and our health.

Our lives are just too plastic, and if it doesn't end up cluttering the landfill (where it doesn't break down), it ends up in our waterways and ocean, potentially impacting human health.

If you haven't seen it, watch Bag It The Movie.

If you don't bring your own bags to the store, maybe you can start that habit now (it only takes three weeks to start a new habit). There are some pretty cool reusable bags out there, too. My favorite ones fold into a pouch and are easy to fit into your purse.

Last year, Thinker Toys used recyclable newspapers for its Earth Day window display. This year it will be using plastic bottle caps and lids, which will also be recycled in collaboration with the non-profit group, B.E.A.C.H. Photo courtesy of Thinker Toys.

Got plastic bottle caps?

Thinker Toys and Thinker Tots at Ala Moana Center are now collecting plastic caps and lids for art projects to be displayed in store windows on Earth Day, April 22. The plastic caps will be recycled in a partnership with the Beach Environmental Awareness Campaign Hawaii (BEACH), a non-profit group which educates others about the dangers of plastic marine debris.

Creative director Ka‘ohu Cooper says last year, the store made a display out of recycled newspapers for Earth Day, and was inspired to go with plastic caps this year, especially with the mission of educating the public about them.

He hopped online, googled "bottle cap recycling Hawaii" and found information by BEACH, which resulted in the new project.

"As I researched it, I realized how damaging to the environment they are," he said.

When the caps end up in waterways and oceans, they can be ingested by marine life and more often than not become part of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

One display will represent the ocean, according to Cooper, and the other will be an abstract art piece.

Cooper is looking for about 20,000 plastic caps (No. 2, 4 and 5) for the ocean display, and also about 20,000 for the abstract display. Recyclable caps generally include water bottle caps, drink caps, shampoo bottle caps and vitamin bottle caps. They need to be clean, with no metals inside.

If you're unsure which caps to recycle, visit BEACH's guide at www.b-e-a-c-h.org/recycling.html. Want photos with specific examples? Click here.

BEACH is a non-profit group that brings awareness and solutions to marine debris through environmental education and plastic reduction campaigns. BEACH volunteers also remove all sizes of marine debris from Hawaii shorelines.

Cooper says to put clean caps in a bag and label them with his name.

Thinker Toys and Thinker Tots (on Level 1 near Centerstage at Ala Moana Center) are locally owned retail businesses that sell fun educational toys, including wood puzzles, organic stuffed animals, craft science kits and games. Thinker Tots is geared towards the younger baby and toddlers, while Thinker Toys is geared towards older kids. Only the Ala Moana stores are participating.

The caps will be transported to the mainland afterwards for recycling. Visit www.b-e-a-c-h.org for updates on additional collection sites as well as recycling efforts.

Goodwill Industries of Hawaii previously collected bottle caps at four of its locations for recycling, but stopped on Dec. 1, 2011.

Folks who have been saving their caps for recycling can bring them to Thinker Toys and Thinker Tots at Ala Moana Center.