Dec. 3rd Beach Clean-Up and No Waste Challenge

Join us Saturday, December 3rd

10am-12pm

Kailua Beach Park

Meet near the Canoe House, Main Parking Lot, East of Buzz’s Restaurant. Join us for the clean up at 10am and stay for the trash weigh-in and a low-waste potluck lunch at 12pm. RSVP on Facebook.

We'll have a raffle with prizes from local sponsors such as Kailua Sailboards and Kayaks, Muumuu Heaven, Global Village, TikiMaster.com, and more...We'll be working with a new partner too: Ocean Devotion Hawaii.  Download the flier here. 

What to bring: sunscreen, hat, work gloves, old colanders, water bottles, friends, and a great attitude! Bring any plastic grocery bags you have to give them a second life as trash bags. If your interested, also bring a low-impact lunch box or food to share. That means reusable plates and utensils too. We'll have coolers and other supplies.

We'll also be collecting plastic for Method Soap's new post-consumer recycled bottles made from gyre plastic pollution!


Ocean Plastic 2011 from People Against Dirty on Vimeo.

This effort is part of the 2011 No Waste Challenge.

November 27-December 26 is Kanu Hawaii's No Waste Challenge: a time to learn about the waste stream in Hawaii and renew personal, household, and business commitments to reducing our waste footprint through out the year. We'll be sharing educational items, events, and projects to take part in. The last week is the One Week -One Bag challenge. Learn more at the link, commit to change, and share a journal.

Another Plastic Free Hawaii clean up will be taking place that day in Kahuku! We'll be cleaning Punamano Unit James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge, Marconi Road -Kam Hwy. Meet at Kahuku High School at 9am for instructions.

Nov. - Dec. Calendar of Events 2011

Plastic Free Hawaii is involved in a number of upcoming events for 2011. We hope you and yours can join us!

See the details are below and stay tuned for updates as we get closer to the Kanu Hawaii Waste Challenge and the December 3rd Beach Clean up.

November 17, 6:00PM-8:00PM - "Bag It" film screening at Sunset Beach Elementary School, email plasticfree@kokuahawaiifoundation.org for more information.

November 19, 8:00AM-12:15PM - 7th Annual North Shore Beach Clean Up

Hundreds of folks are expected for this yearly gathering and clean-up with Da Hui and Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii. More info on Facebook. We'll be collecting plastic for Method Soap's new post-consumer recycled bottles made from gyre plastic pollution!

November 27-December 26, Kanu Hawaii Waste Challenge

It's that time again and we are very excited to be helping out with this year's challenge. It's a time to learn about the waste stream in Hawaii and renew personal, household, and business commitments to reducing our waste footprint through out the year. We'll be sharing educational items, events, and projects to take part in. The last week is the One Week -One Bag challenge, so get ready.

November 29, 6-8PM, Waste Forum at Farrington High School.
In conjunction with Plastic Free Hawaii and Kanu Hawaii, there will be a screening of "Bag It" and a discussion forum following the film with special guests. Email plasticfree@kokuahawaiifoundation.org for more information.

December 3,  Plastic Free Hawaii Beach Clean ups

As a part of the Waste Challenge, our parent organization Plastic Free Hawaii (Kokua Hawaii Foundation) will be hosting 2 community clean-ups on this day in Haleiwa and Kailua. We'll be weighing the trash and communing with a low-waste potluck at Kailua Beach Park 10am-12pm as usual! More details to come. We'll also be collecting plastic for Method Soap's new post-consumer recycled bottles made from gyre plastic pollution!

TBA December-Finally another HI-5 bins making workshop with Eating in Public! This time at Malama Learning Center at Kapolei High School.

Looking forward...The 2012 legislative session is right around the corner. We'll be working with partners such as Surfrider and the Sierra Club to promote a Bag Bill. We'll have all the updates here on the blog.

Other Notable Events in our Plastic Free Community:

• October 27, 3:35PM-8:00PM - "Can You Be Plastic Free?" Teacher Institute at Punahou School
• October 27, "Plastic Ocean" book release by Charles Moore, an Algalita Marine Research Foundation member recounts his study of the Pacific gyre
• October 31, Plastic Pollution Coalition Plastic Creeps Costume Contest and check out their Plastic Free Halloween Guide
• November 5, Surfrider Foundation Haleiwa Beach Cleanup from 10-12, near the field by Puena Point
• December 3, 6:00PM - 10:00PM Surfrider Foundation's Oahu Chapter John Kelly Awards, Waimea Valley
• December 10, Surfrider Foundation Sunset Beach clean up from 10-12

Let us know about any other #plasticfree events in your community!

September 2011 ICC Beach Cleanup Tally

We owe a huge debt of gratitude to all who pitched in to make Saturday's clean up a success. Volunteers smiled through the rain to collect marine debris and celebrate with a low-impact potluck. This effort makes for a total of 700 pounds of beach cleaning power since last September!

Here are the tallied results from volunteer data sheets. We collected and sorted 150 POUNDS in less than 2 hours! All the data from this international event will go first to the City and County of Honolulu's "Get the Drift and Bag It" program and then be posted on the Ocean Conservancy website in the following months. You can also compare this to last year's results.

10 Paper bags                                     108 Cups, plates or cutlery

75 Plastic bags                                    252 Food wrappers

7 Balloons                                           25 Pull tabs

21 Plastic beverage bottles                   6 Batteries

22 Glass bottles                                   370 Straws and stirrers

36 Beverage cans                                18 Toys

411 Caps or lids                                   49 Items of clothing, shoes 

500+ Bits of micro-debris                      2 Motor oil containers

84 Fishing line, net, or rope segments     3 light bulbs                                        

14 Floats, traps, lures                                  

13 Pieces of plastic sheeting                 2426 Cigarette butts                                

6 Cigarette lighters                               3 Diapers

26 Cigar tips                                        13 Tobacco wrappers        

1 bike                                                  2 bike tire tubes

12 pieces of cinder block                       5 car parts

7 misc. building materials                       4 misc. office supplies            

125 misc. paper products                   

115 misc. toiletries including band-aids and baby wipes

We send out thanks to all the individuals, groups, sponsors, and businesses that came together for PFK's project. Mahalo to Hawaii ZTA Alumnae Chapter, St. Anthony School Green Club, and Hawaiian Island Twisters for sending volunteers. Mahalo to Global Village, Kailua Sailboards and Kayaks, Whole Foods, Muumuu Heaven, and Kim Houston of NYR Organics for helping make the raffle extra special. Support our partnering plastic-free businesses and tell them thank you!

There is always more to be cleaned up in these high traffic areas, so we encourage you to pick up a bag of trash every time you visit! Volunteers noted the massive amount of litter within the parks. Remind your friends to dispose of their trash, especially cigarettes, properly. Cigarette filters are actually partially plastic and leach toxic chemicals into the ground and water. Yuck!

Finally, we hope the clean up was also a learning experience for you. This was the 26^th Annual International Coastal Cleanup. Nearly 145 million pounds of trash later, Ocean Conservancy has learned that removal alone is not enough. The real solution is stopping trash from reaching our waterways and the ocean in the first place. Check out our Act and Learn pages for ways you can make your household a little less plastic. 

More photos on our Facebook page!

International Coastal Cleanup Sept. 17th

We will see you Saturday, September 17th, Kailua Beach Park, 10am-12pm

Over the past 25 years, Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup has become the world’s largest volunteer effort for ocean health. Nearly nine million volunteers from 152 countries and locations have cleaned 145 million pounds of trash from the shores of lakes, streams, rivers, and the ocean on just one day each year. We will be sorting and counting our trash. This is the only country by country, state by state, city by city record of marine debris pollution. More on the ICC at Ocean Conservancy. Clean-ups will be going on at sites across Hawaii Sept. 17th as part of "Get The Drift & Bag It," Hawaii's contribution to the ICC.

Won't you join us?

When: Saturday, September 17th, 10:00am: Check-in, 12:00pm: Join us for the trash tally and a low-impact potluck lunch. Stay for raffle prizes from local partners such as Whole Foods, Muumuu Heaven, and Global Village!

Where: Kailua Beach Park, 450 Kawailoa Road, Meet near the Canoe House, Main Parking Lot, East of Buzz’s Restaurant

What to bring: sunscreen, hat, work gloves, old colanders, water bottles, friends, and a great attitude! Bring any plastic grocery bags you have to give them a second life as trash bags. If your interested, also bring a low-impact lunch box or food to share. We'll have coolers and other supplies.

RSVP on Facebook