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10.04.24

Plastic Pollution Initiative Update: An Epic September!

Holding Exxon accountable!

In huge news, Surfrider Foundation, along with Heal the Bay, Sierra Club, and San Francisco Baykeeper, filed a lawsuit against ExxonMobil in San Francisco Superior Court. 

It’s no coincidence that Exxon, a multinational oil and gas company, is also the world’s largest producer of single-use plastic polymers – plastic is made from the very fossil fuels driving climate change. And then all this plastic ends up in landfills, incinerated, or directly into the environment. 

The filing of this landmark lawsuit marks an important turning point in the environmental movement’s ongoing fight against plastic pollution. Surfrider has battled plastic pollution for years, and the burden has been on all of us as individuals to do the impossible task of cleaning it up. Now we’re taking a more aggressive approach and demanding the truth in an effort to stop the harm at the source. 

(No more) dust in the wind

Victory! Surfrider’s South Jersey Chapter is determined to curb plastic pollution from a source that has gotten little attention to date, despite the growing public concern over the human and environmental health impacts from plastic. Last month, the chapter successfully advocated for the passing of Ordinance 2024-22 in Ventnor City, NJ. The ordinance will require construction sites to contain and remove plastic particles and dust that is made when cutting or drilling boards made of chemically treated lumber and composite plastic. There are now requirements to contain these pollutants, which quickly blow or drain into the local environment. More in local news coverage here.

Thicker bags banned

Across the country in California, Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 1053 into law, improving California’s initial bag ban to ensure consumers use either reusable or paper bags, and eliminating the thicker plastic bags that manufacturers pushed on the public from grocery stores. The legislation requires stores to provide paper bags with a minimum of 50% post-consumer recycled material and continues to encourage consumers to use reusable bags. 

Traveling? Check out our new Ocean Friendly Hotel program!

The Surfrider Foundation is very excited to announce the launch of our new Ocean Friendly Hotels Program! This program celebrates hotels that have eliminated unnecessary single-use plastic and offers a simple, straightforward framework to help them implement practices that are better for the health of our ocean. This program will function similarly to our nationally recognized and successful Ocean Friendly Restaurants Program. To join, hotels must follow a set of mandatory and optional criteria that focuses on single-use plastic reduction and more.

Read more about some of our first hotels to join this new program:

Is your favorite restaurant Ocean Friendly yet? 

This month, Surfrider’s volunteer activists are coming together to celebrate our Ocean Friendly Restaurants and Great Lakes Friendly Restaurants and their commitment to reducing single-use plastic. For the entire month of October, Chapters and Clubs across the Surfrider Network will be hosting OFR-inspired events with a goal to add/renew 100 restaurants during this month alone. You can join the effort, sign up, and find out more here.

Cleaning our Coasts

September 21 was International Coastal Cleanup Day (ICCD), one of the world’s largest annual preservation and protection events and volunteer efforts for our ocean, waves and beaches. Surfrider chapters joined in and hosted cleanups events across the country, removing thousands of pounds of trash from our beaches. Most items collected were made from plastic, with some of the most common items being cigarette butts and single-use plastic wrappers and foodware.

But Surfrider doesn’t just clean our beaches on ICCD – we’re doing that all month (and year!) long. With 75 cleanups happening in September alone, Surfrider activists are making sure our beaches are plastic-free. To get involved and find a beach cleanup near you, visit volunteer.surfrider.org and leave your beach better than you found it.