Abolish plastic water bottles, Newport man’s company urges

In Will Anderson’s perfect world, single-use plastic water bottles would be banished, only to be seen again in the pages of a history book.

Through his childhood summers spent as a junior lifeguard, Anderson said he learned the importance of respecting and protecting Newport Beach’s most popular playground — the Pacific Ocean.

However, it wasn’t until after he graduated from college and embarked on an adventure in Australia that he realized how he could do his part to improve the environment.

While traveling abroad, the now 30-year-old Newport Beach resident purchased a reusable water bottle that he carried with him as he traveled. It became a habit that he continued when he returned home months later.

“I realized I needed to figure out a way to eliminate plastic water bottles,” he said.

In 2014, Anderson and his brother formed No Beach Plastics, a company whose mission is to empower consumers to trade in their single-use plastic water bottles for reusable containers, keeping plastics off the beach and out of the ocean.

“We realized we would need to educate people to create awareness of the problems plastics create in the environment, we would need a place for people to fill the bottles and we would need people to carry around reusable containers,” he said.

The nationwide movement to reduce the use of plastic goods, including single-use water bottles, has gained momentum in the last decade.

In 2006, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration started its Marine Debris Program to determine the source of ocean debris and reduce the amount of plastic in the water.

Asma Mahdi, an outreach and communications specialist for the Marine Debris Program, said while there are important technological uses for plastic, it’s the day-to-day use of the product — like plastic lunch bags — that often end up miles offshore.

Research published by the University of Georgia indicates that an average of 8 million metric tons enters the ocean each year.

“Once the plastics enter the environment they never really leave,” Mahdi said. “They break down and become micro plastics, which is something fish can consume.”

The agency is still researching the impact of humans eating fish that have consumed plastic particles.

“Plastics can act as magnets for other toxins and metals,” she said. “We’re trying to figure out the ramifications. We know that it’s probably not good.”

An increasing spotlight on environmental issues related to plastic has even led some municipalities to ban the use of plastic bags in local stores. Out of 34 Orange County cities, Laguna Beach and Dana Point both have bans on plastic bags. Huntington Beach recently repealed its own bag ban, which was in effect for two years.

On Thursday morning Anderson handed out light blue stainless steel water bottles with the red Newport Beach Junior Lifeguard logo — a red letter X — emblazoned on the side to hundreds of junior guards.

He hopes the kids will get in the habit of bringing their stainless steel bottles with them to the beach every morning instead of a plastic one that could end up littering the sand by the end of the day.

No Beach Plastics will customize stainless steel bottles for companies and other organizations that are looking to be more environmentally friendly, Anderson said.

In March, No Beach Plastics partnered with the Newport Beach chapter of the Surfrider Foundation to replace the old drinking fountain on 15th Street with a water bottle filling station.

“It was basically being used by pigeons to bathe in,” Anderson said of the old water fountain.

Now, the station, which sits on the boardwalk, allows users to place their bottle vertically underneath a nozzle and fill it up with water for free.

The company plans to place another station at the Junior Lifeguard Headquarters near the Balboa Pier. By the end of the year, Anderson hopes to have five more filling stations up and running in Newport Beach, including two at Newport Harbor High School.

“If we can reduce the demand for single-use bottles, then we can more aggressively solve the problem,” Anderson said.