Beach Cleanups
Even though the summer season has officially come to an end, Surfrider activists are still hitting our coasts to clean up hundreds of pounds of trash. So far this year, Surfrider chapters and student clubs have hosted 771 cleanups, with 26,627 volunteers removing nearly 190,000 pounds of trash and recycling from our beaches. 40 of those cleanups have happened since the first day of fall, meaning that even though the temperatures are getting cooler and the leaves are dropping, you can still attend a beach cleanup near you. To find one, visit volunteer.surfrider.org and sign up today.
Ocean Friendly Restaurants
Our Ocean Friendly Restaurant count is back in the 500s and growing! We currently have 512 OFRs participating in the program and we estimate that they collectively serve over 89,000 plastic free meals a day. We also welcomed our very first Great Lakes Friendly Restaurants into the program from the Northern OH and North Shore MN chapters. The Great Lakes Friendly Restaurants program is a regional spin off to Surfrider's OFR program. Learn more HERE!
In addition, we introduced a new tech update to make the OFR experience easier for restaurants. Restaurants can now renew their one-year OFR membership simply by clicking “renew now” in their email. Prior to this, restaurants had to fill out a form but can now do so with one click of a button. If your membership is up for renewal, check your inbox and find the expiration-reminder email from Surfrider to access this feature.
Policy
Ahead of UN Plastics Treaty negotiations set to take place in Nairobi, Kenya, next month, the Surfrider Foundation is proud to launch the Global Plastic Laws Database in partnership with Plastic Pollution Coalition and data partners. The Global Plastic Laws Database is an extensive tool to research, track, and visualize plastic legislation that has been passed around the world. Adopting policies to reduce plastic pollution on a global scale is widely recognized as a vital step to address this crisis and its associated detrimental impacts on our communities, health, and environment. Check out the new resource!
Also on the global front, several Surfrider staff, including Plastic Pollution Initiative Senior Manager Jennifer Savage, participated in the 7th biennial Global Wave Conference in Portugal. Hosted by Surfrider Europe, the conference focused on surf, sustainability and innovation, and featured speakers from all around the world. Surfrider CEO Dr. Chad Nelsen shared his top three takeaways in a recent blog post.
Back in the U.S., Savage, along with Sarah Damron, Surfrider's Senior Regional Manager – Southeast, Texas and Great Lakes, joined our partners at Outdoor Alliance in Washington, D.C., where they met with Congressional staff and representatives from the Council on Environmental Quality. The delegation featured paddlers, mountain bikers and surfers, and spoke to the importance of managing and protecting public lands and waters for recreational use. The meetings always provided an opportunity for Surfrider to seek cosponsors for the Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act of 2023.
Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act of 2023
The bill, authored by U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and U.S. Representative Jared Huffman (D-CA-02) is anticipated to be (re)introduced very soon – hopefully this week! In short, BFFPPA provides a pragmatic national strategy that will reduce the amount of wasteful plastic produced and reform our broken waste and recycling systems. The bill will shift the burden of cleanup and waste management to where it belongs: on the corporations that produce plastic waste. We’ll provide updates and opportunities for action once BFFPPA is formally reintroduced – stay tuned!