Sept. 18, 2026 6 AM PT <\/p>\n
To the editor: The LA28 Games are poised to bring another kind of windfall, a preventable one with consequences lasting long after the Games end: plastic waste (\u201cA Summer Olympics economic windfall is headed for SoCal, a new analysis says,\u201d<\/a> Sept. 15).<\/p>\n Mega sporting events generate staggering amounts of waste, much of it single-use plastic. A 2024 study<\/a> found that a single Super Bowl can produce roughly 40 tons of waste, with disposable plastic cups and food containers making up a large share. The United Nations has estimated<\/a> that one major sporting event can generate up to 750,000 plastic water bottles.<\/p>\n Once discarded, plastic waste can not only pollute our parks and beaches, but also enter our waterways and food systems.<\/p>\n There is still time for LA28 to choose a different legacy. LA28 organizers and major sponsors like Coca-Cola have an opportunity to showcase beverage systems built around reusable packaging rather than more single-use plastic. Doing so would be a win for athletes, fans, communities and the planet.<\/p>\n Chloe Paravicini, Venice
This writer is a Los Angeles field representative for ocean conservation group Oceana.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sept. 18, 2026 6 AM PT To the editor: The LA28 Games are poised to bring another kind…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[6948,184328,5301,179,2072,1043,11154,27729,37459,1838,131,133,132,184329,66,1459,63488,50078],"class_list":["post-468075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-athlete","tag-chloe-paravicini","tag-coca-cola","tag-community","tag-editor","tag-event","tag-fan","tag-la28","tag-legacy","tag-letter","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-major-sponsor","tag-mountain","tag-part","tag-plastic-waste","tag-single-use-plastic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468075","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=468075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}