Reusable David Defeats Plastic Goliath!

ChicoBag, a company very close to Team Marine, was pressed with a grim lawsuit this summer. Andy Keller, the founder of ChicoBag, was being sued by massive plastic bag companies, including Hilex Poly Company, LLC, Superbag Operating, LTD., and Advance Polybag, Inc. The companies said the facts posted on Keller's site about the harmful effects of plastic bags were slander that was hurting their business. ChicoBag fought back, rallying more than 25,000, yes, that's right, 25,000 people, with an online petition against the bag companies. Because of the public input and support from groups like Team Marine, all of the major plastic bag companies dropped their lawsuits! Though courts ruled that all facts posted on the ChicoBag website had to be cited, proving their validity, this was an easy compromise (because they were all true!). The same went for the websites of the plastic bag companies. Fun Fact: One bag company had written on their site that "12% of plastic bags were recycled," when in reality, only 1% are! This is a huge Eco-victory and another step in the decline of the plastic bag industry. Congrats to Andy for making it out on top! Check out his site at:

http://www.chicobag.com


Photo: Andy Keller dressed as the "Plastic Bag Monster"

Plastic Ban Reaches Santa Cruz!

This past Tuesday, the County of Santa Cruz passed what is being called the "stiffest" grocery store bag laws in California. Yay! It seems that other counties are seeing the great work that has been done in Santa Monica, Oakland, San Jose, and other cities in California and have begun to draft their own bag bans! Hopefully it's only a matter of time before a state-wide (or maybe even national!) plastic bag ban! Lots of love to the people in Santa Cruz who petitioned their leaders to make this possible!

For more info read all about it in Jason Hoppin's article.

Good Food Festival!

Like food? Like good food? Well on Sept. 17 & 18, the local Santa Monica Farmer's Market along with other well-known, and delicious, food vendors will celebrate the farmers market's 30th anniversary by launching a Good Foods festival partnered with Family Farmed here at Samohi! The event will start at 10:00 am and end at 7:00 pm both days and an admission ticket costing $10 will admit you to workshops, delicious food sampling, and lots of fun for the whole family.

Team Marine will be at the festival both days to taste delicious, fresh food and help discard and recycle all of the trash. If you would like to learn more about the event please visit the Good Food website or their Twitter account.

2011-2012 Season has Officially Started!

Today, Team Marine met with junior prospects interested in joining Team Marine for a few hours after school. Mr. Kay, our 4-year assistant coach Renee Klein, and the team talked about the requirements to be in Team Marine and the very exciting competitions we will be taking place in this year. So far, two projects have been established for the 2011-2012 QuikSCience Challenge: our grocery store bag research and the VW Beetle EV conversion. We look forward to having a very successful year and lots of thanks to the juniors who showed up today, Renee, Mr. Kay, and Samo chemistry teacher Mr. Harris for volunteering to help coach the EV team!

Plastic Bags Ban goes into Effect

Whats non-recylcable, made from oil, and banned from Santa Monica? Plastic grocery bags!

Thanks to the the voiced complaints of Santa Monica citizens, The Santa Monica City council drafted a ban on single-use bags which went into affect four days ago! Lots of thanks to the Team Marine, SSA, and Heal the Bay club members who took time during finals week last year to protest at city hall on the day this band was proposed.

Chris Paine comes to Samohi!

At the end of this past school year, former Team Marine member Aidan Richker helped to bring the famous documentary film maker Chris Paine to SAMOHI to do a special guest lecture for the marine bio students. Chris Paine is responsible for the shocking and informative documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? While at samo, Chris Paine also brought his all-electric Tesla car... Mr Kay even got to test drive it! Lots of thanks to Mr. Paine for coming down and Aidan for making it happen!

Published in Good Magazine

Earlier this summer Team Marine was talked about in an article in Good Magazine. The article elaborated on the group and the plastic boats we made from single use items that successfully floated earlier this year. Lots of thanks to all the people at Good Magazine!

Heal the Bay Video

Recently, the Heal the Bay foundation created a program known as "trash your friends". When you "trash" a friend, their screen will fill up with single-use plastic bags among other types of trash and spreads awareness of the plastic-filled gyres all over the world. Adam Bagger and Kevin McDevitt from CourierContent created a short film about the "trash your friends" program that has received a lot of attention and was even short listed for Adobe's 2011 Mofilm Cannes Lions contest. The link to the Heal the Bay video is posted below but much love out to CourierContent and the Heal the Bay foundation and good luck in the film contest.

http://youtu.be/Faf1yHVjGMMM