COMMUNITY COMMENTARY:

Saturday is Annual Coastal Cleanup Day. Upper Newport Bay hosts one of the largest volunteer cleanup efforts in California. Typically, about 1,200 or more people venture out into sensitive areas of the salt marsh, which are usually off limits, to collect trash. The state event is part of an international event that now involves several hundred thousand participants in more than 70 countries.

Last year, more than 17,000 pounds of trash and more than 6,000 pounds of recyclables were collected at Upper Newport Bay. Many think that the trash results from littering by visitors to the bay. That is not the case. Almost all of the garbage originates in our 154-square-mile watershed. Every hamburger wrapper tossed into the gutter and every car tire abandoned in the creek will most likely get washed down into the bay in a major storm.

While items like sofas and shopping carts cause the most surprise, our biggest concern is the various forms of plastic that accumulate in the bay, or get carried out into the ocean and end up in the North Pacific Gyre. There, water circulates clockwise in a slow spiral that draws in marine debris originating on the coasts of Japan and North America. The center of the gyre, which is about the size of Texas, has been dubbed the trash vortex. Some estimates put the amount of trash floating in the gyre at about 3 million tons, with three pieces of debris in every square yard. In many parts there is more plastic than plankton!

Out of sight is not out of mind. Plastics typically do not decompose. They just break down into smaller and smaller pieces that continue to float on the water, appearing like food to birds and marine animals, but completely indigestible. These unlucky creatures die of starvation with their stomachs full.

Worldwide, more than 100 million tons of plastics are produced each year. Some reckon that about 10% ends up in the ocean, with 80% coming from land. This year, we are doing our best to reduce the amount of plastic generated by asking participants to bring refillable water bottles to the event. A limited number of refillable bottles will be available for those who do not have them.

We encourage you to rethink your use of plastics. Even if you recycle your water bottles, resources are consumed by the car trip to the recycling station and the recycling process that follows. Try to reuse instead of recycle shopping bags and other items. Also, choose degradable options such as packaging pellets made of cornstarch and not polystyrene.

To participate in the Upper Newport Bay Cleanup, go to the Peter and Mary Muth Interpretive Center, 2301 University Drive in Newport Beach, to register. The event runs from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday. For more information, visit newportbay.org.

ROGER MALLETT is a member of Newport Bay Naturalists and Friends.