This Earth Day, Hold Onto Your Butts

Earth Day day is when we celebrate the planet we love and recognize the beauty and the fragility of Nature. In the past decades we have made great strides protecting the Earth but increasingly, the oceans need our help too. Each year 8 million tons of plastic enter the world oceans from watersheds and direct dumping. This waste enters the food chain poisoning marine life including the fish we eat. The most common waste picked up in local beach clean ups is cigarette butts. The San Francisco Department of the Environment estimates that 3 billion cigarette butts hit Bay area streets each year. Many of these butts discarded onto the streets and curbs do not enter wastewater treatment and enter the San Francisco Bay and Pacific Ocean. These filters are toxic, made of plastic and do not biodegrade. Our beach clean ups routinely abate thousands of cigarette butts that would enter the ocean threaten wildlife.

This Earth day we are calling on our community to Hold Onto Your Butts. With our shark and ocean conservation volunteers, Bay Area non-profit Shark Stewards is joining schools, community and government groups building a coalition to stop cigarette butts from entering the Bay and ocean. We are celebrating the Earth and the Oceans through beach clean ups, education and an ocean Ecofest at Linda Mar Beach Saturday April 23rd with the Pacifica Beach Coalition. Our community is helping the planet by reducing plastic and butt debris from entering the ocean and saving sharks by taking a bite out of litter. Join us this Earth Day cleaning our beaches, celebrating the earth and the other 71% of the planet: the oceans.

Join us stopping this harmful waste from entering the ocean and hold onto your butts!