Marina DeBris's winning photo for this week (yes that's really the last name!)

Ever wanted to just leave it all behind for a few weeks and hop on a sailing boat somewhere in the south pacific for 10 days? Now’s your big chance! The Chaco Waves for Change art contest is now accepting digital submissions of artwork that demonstrates our world’s addiction to single-use plastic. They’ve teamed up with Wend Magazine and 5 Gyres to offer this exciting opportunity. From January 3 through March 13 just submit a digital image of your plastic-inspired artwork here and each week we’ll select a winning plastic-purposed artistic contribution. You can submit a new contribution each week-–as long as the artistic medium differs from that of your previous contribution. The Grand prize: roundtrip airfare and a 10 day sailing expedition leaving from Tahiti to the Cook Islands. Read more

New Years resolution to lose weight? Support your local community? Be green?

You can do all three by dining at BAMBOO SUSHI from Jan 31st to Feb 6th!

Say BAN the BAG when making your order &

10% of all the proceeds will go to the Surfrider PDX Chapter!

Bamboo Sushi is the first 3rd party certified sustainable sushi restaurant in the world! They partner with Marine Stewardship Council, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Blue Ocean Institute, Salmon Nation, KidSafe Seafood, and the Green Restaurant Association to ensure their meets, seafood, and produce are as local as possible and managed and harvested in an environmentally friendly and socially responsible way.

Surfrider PDX Chapter and Bamboo Sushi are now partnering to help BAN the BAG in Oregon. In Portland, we live on one of the 5th largest watersheds in the world, the Columbia Slough, which makes its way to the Pacific Ocean. Plastic bags, when littered or blown away, often make their way into our waterways and eventually the ocean. Once there, they cause many detrimental effects to marine wildlife such as entanglement or starvation upon consuming the plastic mistakenly.

Please support BAN the BAG – Surfrider, your local business, your health and your environment by heading to…

Where: Bamboo Sushi at 310 S.E. 28th Ave Portland, OR

When: Jan 31st to Feb 6th / Dinner 7 nights a week 5 – 10 p.m.
Happy Hour M-F 5- 6:30 p.m.

What: Don’t forget to say “BAN the BAG”

As you may have seen on the front page of the Oregonian, BAN the BAG is gaining momentum, yet again, and going statewide!

On Dec. 15th, several Surfrider Oregon Chapter activists headed to Salem to represent the incredible, grassroots work we have done to gain support and raise awareness on the environmental and economic costs associated with Single-Use Plastic Bags.

Portland Chapter Chair, Nastassja “Staj” Pace, testified on behalf of Surfrider to the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee asking for support on a  comprehensive, statewide policy banning single-use plastic bags and instating a small disincentive on paper bags. “We believe [this policy] will be the most effective way to eliminate unnecessary plastic waste in our oceans and encourage consumers to shift towards reusables,” Pace stated.

Support for such a policy was not only heard from other environmental groups including Audubon Society, Willamette Riverkeepers and Environment Oregon, but also from the Northwest Grocery Association, Fred Meyer Stores, International Paper, and Far West Fibers.

Jeff Murray, Vice President of Far West Fibers – Material Recover Facility, expressed his support for a ban and reported, “plastic bags and film pose the single biggest challenge for properly resorting recyclables,” and added that 25 to 30 percent of total labor costs are spent on shutting machines down and physically cutting jammed plastic film out of the machinery “during every single break.”

Plastic bags are not recyclable curbside in the State of Oregon.

Bill Gardner, General Manager of Kraft Bag/International Paper, said “paper recycling is an environmental and economic success,” adding that 66 percent of all paper packaging is being recycled with plastic being 5 times less.

Paper bags are made in Oregon. The Kraft bag manufacturing plant in Beaverton employs nearly 1,000 Oregonians. No plastic bags are made within the state

As support form these key players grows and consumers’ habits shift towards using re-usable bags, we still need your help to make this ban a success!

Things you can do:

Check out media coverage on the Oregonian & Oregon Capital News.  Make comments and share on Facebook.

Sign the petition.

Write your representative and express why banning plastic bags is important to you. Don’t know who they are. Click here.

Join Surfrider Foundation, find a chapter near you, or get involved with the Portland Chapter! And maybe you could be the next activist testifying to your Senate. If public speaking isn’t your thing, you could educate others by tabling at a music concert at the Crystal Ballroom, during First Thursday Art in Pearl or even at your school. If you are at all interested and want to get involved or just learn more contact the Portland Chair: staj.pace@oregonsurfrider.org.

Get the tools, training and resources you need to be a Ban the Bag ninja! We’ll cover upcoming volunteer opportunities, campaign Q&A, how to talk/write to your representative. Plenty of merchandise and educational materials for gaining coalition sign ons and doing outreach. Come out and learn how you can get involved, there’s a role for everyone!

Portland Chapter Meeting – Action Training Ban the Bag – Tuesday 12/14

7:30 pm Backstage Bar and Grill,

3702 SE Hawthorne, Portland OR

Absolutely love this press conference. They say it all!

On  Sept 25, Portland Chapter partnered with SOLV and Portland Parks & Recreation Department to sponsor a cleanup at Oaks Bottom in SE Portland. Over twenty volunteers helped out with mulching, trash removal, naturescaping, and restoring the amphibious pond.  Afterwords,  Tara and Mason hosted a volunteer appreciation BBQ at their pad.  The Oaks Bottom event was part of SOLV’s Statewide Beach and Riverside Cleanup.  Thanks to Tristan, Lisa, Mason, Tara, Drew, Karen, Pete and everyone else who came out!

We often get asked, “What other options are out there if plastic bags are gone?” First and foremost, always try to reuse old bags such as newspaper bags, tortilla bags, etc. and always use reusable bags when going to the grocery store.

The second option can be compostable and biodegradable bags. But be careful! There are many companies out there, such as Trellis Earth, that aren’t actually compostable. Portland also does not yet offer “at-home” composting like it does for businesses, so you need to make sure you are discarding your compostable bag correctly. When compostable bags go to the landfill they never actually break down! And they release methane, which is a potent green house gas.

Portland businesses can opt to compost with the Portland Composts! program where it gets shipped to Cedar Grove Compost Facility north of Seattle, WA. For a full list of bags accepted at the facility click here.

We’ve done our homework here at the Portland Chapter and have found BioBag offers the largest selection of biodegradable/compostable bags that are accepted at Cedar Grove, are made GMO-free, and are made in the USA. They even break down in your back yard compost! Just make sure not to put in too many, poke and turn it a lot.

Taylor Cass Stevenson, Vision Gallery, 2915 NE MLK Jr. Blvd., Portland, OR 97212. Opening Thursday September 2, 4:30-6pm, exhibit runs through the end of September. Check out scrapaction.org for more information!