Paddle Out Plastic

10/13/2026

High tides and hurricane winds. We knew the high tides would wash down a lot of trash. They did. We knew a hurricane was coming. It did. We were so caught up in cleaning that we got caught by the wind to where we couldn't move forward in our kayaks. We had to turn off and land on a different beach than where we launched, walk to get the car and drive back to pick up our kayaks and trash haul. Lesson learned: leave don't linger when winds are on the way.
52 pounds of plastic trash plucked from Long Beach waters.

10/07/2026

Sometimes we paddle out and find clean waters, as we did Monday in LA Harbor. And yet, there's always something, and something else, and it adds up to a bucket or two full of plastic trash.

10/04/2026

We set up with OT, our ocean trash octopus, at the Bay Foundation's Blue Waters boating festival in Marina del Rey in 100° heat. We're joining with other organizations, including Heal The Bay, CALPIRG, and Surfrider, to call on LA 28 and it's sponsors, partners, and venues to make reuse a foundation of the Olympic and Paralympic games by using reusable cups and foodware, expanding water, refill stations, and encouraging athletes and spectators to bring their own reusable bottles. Add your name, please! You should be able to snap shot the QR code from the DontWasteTheGames flyer then tap that photo to get to the petition site. 

10/01/2026

Many of you have asked what you can do to help us, including if you don't have a kayak or paddle board, because you recognize the enormous scale of the plastic pollution problem. We'll, here’s something you can do! We're joining ranks with other organizations, including CALPIRG, Surfrider, Heal the Bay, Plastic Pollution Coalition, Beyond Plastics, and more, to call on the LA28 Committee and its sponsors, partners, and venues to choose reuse: reusable cups and foodware, water refill stations, and the freedom for fans and athletes to bring their own reusable bottles. Imagine what a difference that will make!
Click on the link, scroll down, and fill out your info on the petition at
www.dontwastethegames.org

Venues could swap single-use plastic cups and utensils for washable, reusable items and let fans bring reusable bottles, an advocate says.

09/30/2026

Does anybody know why the water fountains/refill stations along West Harbour are not functioning?
This was going to be a post encouraging use of refillable water bottles, and use of those stations, but that's a fail.

09/27/2026

Our recent haul from paddling out of Cabrillo launch ramp, across to the fishing pier, up the breakwater to Angels Gate, across to see the seals, along Terminal Island turning toward Fish Harbor, then back to the ramp. Aside from a lot of fishing line along the fishing pier and breakwater, it was pretty clean until we were heading toward Fish Harbor. There were so many little soft fragments in the water, many of them clear, it was challenging to grab them all as the chop picked up.
On our return we heard from Laura and Jeff Raab who had also launched on this morning and paddled to Fish Harbor, returning with a good sized haul. Combined we hauled out 68.5 pounds and 2,030 pieces, including over 500 food wrappers, 340 soft plastic film fragments, and 139 plastic bags. Also, 38 ropes and more than 2 dozen lures and lines.
Breaking it down, 36.5 pounds from the Raabs' 1,110 pieces in photo 1 and 32 pounds from Eva and Ken's 920 pieces in photo 2. The latter is what you see laid out in the next 3 photos of 3 6'x9' frames. So double that in your mind's eye for an idea of what we collectively retrieved from the water. Plus a few photos from the water. Yay team!

09/27/2026

Lost fishing line hangs from beneath the fishing pier and as birds fly by they are entrapped and die hanging there.

09/22/2026

Will trashing our oceans be our legacy? If we adopt reuse models instead of single-use disposables, we can turn this tale around. We found a sign, a trash can lid, and a boat bumper in the water on our last paddle out. But you know what we found a lot more of? What we find every single paddle out? Single-use disposable cups, lids, bottles, clamshells, condiment cups, utensils, straws, wrappers and bags.
We want the future to tell a different story about us--a story that says we cared about our planet; that we centered our everyday lives on that. At Paddle Out Plastic, we're going to keep working on that and we hope you'll join us.
The last two frames are from our recent haul, with all the trash sorted, counted and laid out in 6' x 9' frames. 

09/21/2026

We made a special delivery this morning of nine bags of sorted ocean trash to Ryan Harris at EcoByRy.  Ryan's eco conscious business is housed on the Alta Sea campus in the Port of LA. Ryan shapes surfboards, upcycling foam from old boards and using plant-based resin.  To top it off, he makes his fins out of shredded ocean trash, including the ocean trash we deliver to him after paddling it out of the Port of LA. 

09/20/2026

Beautiful paddle for Coastal Cleanup Day at the Port of Los Angeles: We were a small but mighty flotilla plucking plastic floating in the harbor and down the Main Channel. Port police kicked us out of one trashy area, but we found others.
Collectively, we retrieved 902 pieces of trash (32 pounds), including 264 food wrappers, 110 film fragments, 102 plastic lids, 36 plastic bags (17 of them ziploc type bags), and the other typical trash. We know other paddlers are also committed to this endeavor but had other important commitments, were recovering from illness, etc., but we were happy to welcome back Laura and Jeff after Jeff's illness and since Ken was recovering from illness, he helped out from land taking some of the photographs you'll see, except one taken by Lisa, whom we've also been missing. All around a lovely Coastal Cleanup Day!