FAQs

I’ve heard about the success of your Straws Suck Campaign and would like to launch this campaign where I live/I’d like the business I work for to eliminate single-use plastic straws!

This campaign is a lot of fun and anyone can run it! Please refer to our Straws Suck Campaign Pack for all of the information you will need.

I’ve seen that all Surfrider Pacific Rim events strive to be waste free. How can I do this, and take other measures to ensure an event I am organizing is sustainable?

An excellent resource to follow is the Sustainable Event Toolkit, developed by Purposeful Projects for the District of Tofino. We refer to this guideline, and support local cafes and restaurants who ensure food is packaged in reusable containers. You can find all of the toolkit resources here.

What do I do with items that cannot be taken by my local recycling contractor?

Terracycle can recycle all of your hard to recycle items! You can check out their Zero Waste Boxes here and find out which box you need! You can also browse their Free Recycling Programs. Talk to your workplace about sharing a zero waste box and lowering the amount of waste you produce!

I want to help instate a Single-Use Plastic Regulation where I live, and I’ve seen many Surfrider chapters have had success with this, what advice can you suggest?

You can use the District of Tofino and District of Ucluelet’s Single-Use Plastic Regulations as a model to refer to and use in your city or town! Contact lwoodbury@canada.surfrider.org for more support and insights on how to successfully do this.

I’d love to organize a beach clean up, but I don’t know where to start!

Surfrider Pacific Rim holds monthly community beach clean ups through our Love Your Beach Clean Program. Every month, a different Executive Committee Member leads the clean up, and they follow the LYBC Lead Guidelines. This will give you a step by step on how to organize and executive the clean up and ensure it is a success! For recycling of debris, you can sign up to Terracycle.ca to send them the plastic you find on the beach for free. If you are in British Columbia, you can also get in touch with Ocean Legacy Foundation, and find out if you can drop your marine debris off at their Marine Debris Intake Centre. This is who Surfrider Pacific Rim works with to recycle the marine debris we collect!

I want to bring cigarette recycling to my area! What do I need to do?

Terracycle is a progressive recycling company that has a free cigarette recycling program. All you need to do is create an account at terracycle.ca, then go to “Recycle Your Waste”, followed by “Free Recycling Programs”. From there, you can Ship the box to TerraCycle by calling UPS at 1-800-PICK-UPS, informing UPS that you have a “Pre-paid Return Ship” label on a parcel that needs to be scheduled for a next business day pick up.

To get a program in place, you can talk to your local organizations and municipality about getting drop zones set up for the cigarettes butts, or find out if there are existing drop zones that can be picked up from and sent to Terracycle, rather than going to landfill. If there are no drop zones, or you need more, you can order cigarette waste recycling receptacles from Terracycle. If you like to pick up butts from streets and beaches, you can store them in a sealed container and then send to Terracycle whenever you feel you have collected enough (there is no minimum, but Terracycle is in Toronto so you may want to wait until you have collected a significant amount.)