{"id":335917,"date":"2026-05-28T13:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T13:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/335917\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T13:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T13:32:11","slug":"plan-to-reduce-trash-flowing-into-ocean-ahead-of-olympics-is-misguided","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/335917\/","title":{"rendered":"Plan to reduce trash flowing into ocean ahead of Olympics is misguided"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>To the editor: Lila Seidman\u2019s piece underscores a very salient problem: Plastic pollution is choking our rivers and oceans (<a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/environment\/story\/2026-05-15\/l-a-san-gabriel-rivers-to-get-trash-interceptors-to-protect-ocean\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cL.A.\u2019s ultra-urban rivers wash tons of trash out to sea. There\u2019s a plan to change that before the Olympics,\u201d<\/a> May 15). However, the proposed solution is misguided at best and a greenwashing stunt at worst.<\/p>\n<p>The Ocean Cleanup\u2019s technologies are expensive, ineffective and distract from real solutions to the plastic pollution crisis. These cleanups can harm the very ecosystems they are designed to protect by failing to distinguish between aquatic life, plastic and organic debris. The presence of green sea turtles in the San Gabriel River should signal the need for extra caution.<\/p>\n<p>Angelenos deserve better than an Olympics that leaves behind a pile of plastic for cleanup. The Games are a monumental moment to showcase real solutions \u2014 including reuse and refill systems at scale \u2014 to prevent single-use plastic pollution in the first place.<\/p>\n<p>Kristen McDonald, Nevada City, Calif.<br \/>This writer is senior director of the plastics program at environmental nonprofit Pacific Environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To the editor: Lila Seidman\u2019s piece underscores a very salient problem: Plastic pollution is choking our rivers and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[2969,2072,138759,138760,48,52,51,47,50,49,8725,132490,10012,13449,9779,138758,45601,16425,29239,4796,18672],"class_list":["post-335917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-calif","tag-editor","tag-extra-caution","tag-kristen-mcdonald","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-nevada-city","tag-ocean-cleanup","tag-olympics","tag-plastic","tag-plastic-pollution","tag-refill-system","tag-reuse","tag-river","tag-solution","tag-trash","tag-writer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}