Erica Gies: Artists Have Environmental Message -Do Not Pollute Beach

Milk containers, toothbrushes, flip-flops, plastic cutlery, bottlecaps, shotgun wadding, prescription bottles: These are the flotsam and jetsam of people's lives, dancing their way along a 70-foot-long cord strung down a bright, windowed corridor.

It's shocking to see so much trash lined up at waist level as part of an art exhibit. But that's the point: to get the viewer to think about what happens to their garbage after they have thrown it away.

"Lunch" was created by husband-and-wife artists Judith Selby-Lang and Richard Lang from trash they picked up while strolling the beach at Crissy Field for just 90 minutes last February. The installation was part of this summer's Eco Visions Exhibit at The Gallery at Thoreau in the Presidio.

Both Langs have art-related day-jobs to support their habits - Judith teaches art and Richard owns Trillium Press in Brisbane - and they create their own environmental-themed art. The Langs' art projects draw attention to an environmental problem: Plastic never breaks down in the environment.

According to Capt. Charles Moore, founder of Algalita Marine Research Foundation (AMRF), as much as one-fourth of all plastic manufactured ends up in the world's oceans.

"We think we can dump it in the ocean and it disappears," said Richard. "But there's so much of it now that it's not disappearing. Nor did it ever."

While there's plastic throughout the world's oceans, gyres - where high pressure zones swirl currents together "like a toilet that never flushes," according to Moore - are particularly dense collection points. Scientists now give gyres nicknames, like "Eastern Garbage Patch."

Moore has led several research trips to the Great North Pacific Central Gyre, an Africa-size gyre that spans 10 million square miles. Because these areas were traditionally rich in zooplankton and other food, numerous wildlife visits the area to feed. This allure now makes it dangerous for the wildlife.

Curtis Ebbesmeyer is an oceanographer who spent 40 years studying plastic in the ocean and publishes the newsletter "Beachcombers Alert." He explained what is found on beaches.

"Plastic does not biodegrade," Ebbesmeyer said. "After a while, it becomes pieces that can't be caught in Charlie Moore's nets. It gets into the food chain."

Hannah Nevins, beachcomber coordinator with Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, has found many dead seabirds' stomachs stuffed with plastic. Scientists don't know whether the plastic is poisoning the birds or if they're simply starving to death because the material is blocking their access to prey. Moore said laysan albatross chicks are also frequent victims of plastic-bounty starvation.

"They die from false feelings of satiation, which result from being fed bottle caps, cigarette lighters and toys, which they cannot regurgitate so they stop begging their parents for food," he said.

"There's a whole bunch of chemicals in plastics that mimic estrogen," Ebbesmeyer said. "If a male mammal ingests them, you're altering the balance between testosterone and estrogen; you wind up with populations worldwide where the males are becoming less male."

Marine debris has adversely affected at least 267 species worldwide, including 86 percent of sea turtle species, 44 percent of sea bird species and 43 percent of marine mammal species, primarily through ingestion, starvation, suffocation, and entanglement, according to D.W. Laist in the book "Marine Debris-Sources, Impacts, and Solutions."

The National Academy of Sciences estimates that 6.4 million tons of litter enter the world's oceans each year. Globally, plastic accounts for 60 to 95 percent of that waste, according to a 2002 report in the "Marine Pollution Bulletin," by J.G.B. Derraik. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 5.5 percent of the plastic consumed in the United States in 2001 was recycled.

Increasingly, products are made of composite materials and plastics, making them even harder to recycle. Once in the ocean, cleaning up the plastic pollution is literally impossible.

"It's like trying to put dust back into a bottle. Once it's out, it's out," said Ebbesmeyer. "The only way we have is to control the source."

A three-year test study in Southern California conducted by the AMRF and funded by the California State Water Resources Control Board is examining ways to drastically reduce the amount of municipal waste flowing down rivers and out into the ocean. But the ultimate solution may be to change the way plastic is formulated.

Steve Mojo, executive director of Biodegradable Products Institute, said in three to five years, "there will be plastics that will serve as a food source for animals and microorganisms in the marine environment that will biodegrade safely, much like natural materials."

However, these products are planned to break down in cold, wet environments. They will differ in composition from the compostable plastics already on the market, which decompose in warm, damp environments. Compostable plastics intended for municipal compost bins don't break down in the way they're designed to when they end up in the cold ocean.

Regardless, Mojo said the world will eventually move away from petroleum-based plastics as oil prices continue to rise. But for now, Moore said, "A 'plastic curtain' of ignorance exists about plastics' chemical constituents and environmental impacts."

It's that curtain the Langs hope to lift with their art.

"Beauty and making interesting things to look at is an effective way to create an environmental message," said Judith.