1% for the Planet Partners: Surfrider & Plastic Bank

1% for the Planet Partners: Surfrider & Plastic Bank

With miles of pristine coastline and plenty of sunshine, San Diego is an amazing playground that all of us at Pure greatly enjoy. We love surfing, sailing, hiking, camping, and more. But we recognize that San Diego’s beautiful beaches are not only ours to enjoy, they are also ours to protect.

With our roots in Costa Rica, we felt similarly about the coastline there and initiated an annual beach cleanup that we called “Pounds for Pints.” Learn more about how that initial program sparked global impact and over 70,000 pounds of plastic trash collected (thus far).

Today, we are proud to support initiatives locally and globally—both working to protect the world’s ocean and beaches. We are excited to share the work of two more of our non-profit partners: Surfrider San Diego and Plastic Bank.

 

SURFRIDER SAN DIEGO

What started 36 years ago as a group of surfers that came together to protect Malibu from overdevelopment and pollution has grown into one of the most powerful coastal protection groups in the world—the Surfrider Foundation.

Surfrider San Diego is a local chapter of the Surfrider Foundation’s national network of grassroots activists; they serve as the first response to local threats to our 70+ miles of coastline. The network is a community of everyday people who passionately protect our playground—the ocean, waves, and beaches—that provide us so much enjoyment.

Specifically, Surfrider fights for: 

• Plastic Pollution: Reducing the impact of plastics in the marine environments that surround us
• Ocean Protection: Defending our oceans from challenges threatening the vitality of the ecosystem
• Beach Access: Working with decision-makers to ensure full and fair beach access for all to enjoy
• Coastal Preservation: Taking on issues that threaten our beaches and natural shorelines
• Clean Water: Protecting the health and sustainability of our planet’s most precious resource

Surfrider affects change on multiple levels:

• Local: Through their network of chapters, Surfrider affects change at a local level by community involvement and cooperation with local cities and governments.
• Regional: Their experts in every coastal region of the United States bring their chapters together when issues grow larger than a single chapter.
• National: Their dedicated team of legal, policy and environmental experts work with federal agencies to affect change at a national level. 

Surfrider is powered by 80 chapters, including 96 student clubs, and more than one million supporters, volunteers and activists. Collectively, they have achieved over 600 victories for our oceans and beaches since 2006 (47 of which were local here in San Diego!).

Help protect our coastline:

Learn More Volunteer Donate

 

PLASTIC BANK

Every minute of every day the equivalent of one garbage truck of plastic gets dumped in the ocean. With plastic choking the oceans, killing marine life, and altering ecosystems, it’s imperative to focus on ways to reduce the plastic burden.

Plastic Bank is a global social enterprise working to stop ocean plastic while improving the lives of those who help collect it.

The organization recently celebrated a collection milestone of over one billion bottles of ocean plastic—that’s over 20 million kilograms of plastic waste prevented from entering our oceans!

Simultaneously, Plastic Bank helps support over 17,000 collectors from vulnerable coastal communities in Haiti, the Philippines, Indonesia, Brazil, and Egypt. Collectors exchange their plastic for bonuses that provide basic family necessities. So by monetizing waste, Plastic Bank not only addresses plastic pollution, but also the core issue of poverty.

How Plastic Bank Works:

• Revolutionizes Recycling Ecosystems: Plastic Bank builds ethical recycling ecosystems in coastal communities, and reprocesses the materials for reintroduction into the global manufacturing supply chain.
• Improves Lives: Collectors receive a premium for the materials they collect to better help them provide basic family necessities such as groceries, school tuition, and health insurance.
• Supplies Social Plastic: Collected material is reborn as Social Plastic® which is reintegrated into products and packaging. This creates a closed-loop supply chain while helping those who collect it.
• Ensures Transparency Through Blockchain: Plastic Bank’s proprietary blockchain platform secures the entire transaction and provides real-time data visualization: allowing for transparency, traceability, and rapid scalability.

Help save the oceans and alleviate poverty:

Learn More Act Now Go Plastic Neutral

 

THANK YOU

We wouldn’t be able to support the important work of our 1% for the Planet partners without you. Thank you for your continued support for Pure Project and the planet!