Plastic pollution is suffocating our ocean and the many animals that call it home. Researchers estimate there are now over 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic in the ocean with the number continuing to grow every day. This pollution is impacting our marine ecosystems, wildlife such as seabirds, dolphins, fish, and turtles, and plastic fragments are even displacing plankton at the base of the food chain. So what’s the best way to combat this global epidemic facing our ocean? It’s simple: we need to stop the problem at its source! The Surfrider Foundation’s Ocean Friendly Restaurants program does just that. One restaurant, one customer at a time, increases awareness, drives change in behavior and ultimately creates scalable impact to reduce our plastic (and water!) footprint.
- An estimated 100 billion plastic bags are used ANNUALLY in the United States.
- An estimated 500 million straws are used DAILY in the United States.
- 49.4 billion plastic water bottles were sold in one year’s time with only 31.1% recycled, leaving roughly 34 billion plastic bottles that were littered or went into a landfill in 2015.
- Restaurants use an average of 5,800 gallons of water per day
- Plastic does not biodegrade so virtually every piece of plastic ever created still exists in some form today!
The Ocean Friendly Restaurants program offers restaurants an easy way to show their commitment to making sustainable choices for our ocean. Interested in becoming a Surfrider Ocean Friendly Restaurant Member?
Check out the website –
http://www.surfrider.org/programs/ocean-friendly-restaurants
Or you can also contact our local Capitol-Olympia Chapter Program Coordinator for assistance; Christine Rayburn at christine.e.rayburn@gmail.com
We love our local Ocean Friendly Restaurants!
http://www.threemagnetsbrewing.com/home.html
https://www.batdorfcoffee.com/our-cafes.html#olympia
https://www.chelseafarms.net/oyster-bar/
La Gitana Pizzeria, Olympia Wa
Interested in alternatives to the single-use plastic straw!? We are currently partnering with SeaStraws.co who provide a discount to registered Ocean Friendly Restaurants
https://www.aardvarkstraws.com
https://www.drinkingstraws.glass