135 Pounds of Trash; Over 1300 Individual Items
Thank you to everyone who came out to support yesterday’s beach and street cleanup at Eggie’s in PB!
Together, we removed 135 lbs of trash from the beach and surrounding neighborhood in 3 hours.
The yield included over 1300 individual items of trash, much of it single-use plastic takeout pollution from local restaurants - styrofoam, cups, lids, straws, sauce packets, salsa cups, bottles, caps, and takeout packaging of all shapes and sizes.
Sorting Out the Takeout Pollution Problem
While our grassroots chapter cannot magically eliminate unnecessary pollution from restaurant takeout, we did make an impact in one of PB's busiest restaurant corners by the beach.
Volunteers from our Ocean Friendly Restaurant team dove right in, sorting and separating trash to illustrate how large a percentage of it comes from restaurants.
When it comes to takeout, reusable is the way “to-go.” Working with both restaurants and customers, we continue to advance zero waste takeout solutions via our Ocean Friendly To-Go program. Email OFR@surfridersd.org if you'd like to get involved!
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Remember - cleanups make an impact, but we stand to make a much larger impact by working with restaurants and customers to prevent the use of single-use products in the first place. Same goes for passing local, state, and federal policies that address the plastic pollution crisis head on.
Lastly, a big shoutout Eggie's for allowing us to set up onsite, for fueling our volunteers with free organic coffee (in reusable mugs, of course), and for taking an innovative approach to zero waste takeout through their mason jar breakfast exchange program!
