Hey Ocean Advocates,

Hope everyone’s had a great start to the summer. It’s a great time of year to focus on ocean health. Our first module is on single-use plastics – where they might be flying under the radar in your program and how to eliminate them for good. We collaborate with Sailors for the Sea, so if you want to learn more about anything below, we encourage you to visit the Clean Regatta Toolkit and the Green Boating Guide.

SINGLE-USE PLASTICS: WHY SHOULD WE CARE & FACTS TO SHARE

Encouraging someone to invest in eliminating single-use plastics is not easy. Your club’s management team might be thinking, “but plastic is cheaper,” or “we’ve been doing it this way for years,” or “how can one yacht club’s plastic usage actually make a difference?”. These perceptions make it challenging to dive into a conversation about single-use plastics. One way to open that type of conversation is to start with a powerful statement. Facts, statistics or anecdotes can help demonstrate the urgency behind your message.

Here are a few data points that might help open a conversation:

• 1 in 3 fish caught for human consumption contains plastic. Seafood lovers eat an estimated 11,000 pieces of microplastic every year. Microplastics can also be found in tap water, beer and salt.

• A plastic bottle can last for 450 years in the marine environment. Plastics currently in landfills date back to the 1920s.

• It’s estimated that only 9% of plastic has ever been successfully recycled (this one really gets people).

• On average, one million plastic bottles are purchased every minute. Plastic beverage bottles are also in the top five most collected items at beach clean-ups.

• 700 species of marine animals are in danger of extinction due to plastic. 7-0-0.

• A plastic bag is used on average for 15 minutes, and there are the equivalent of 150 plastic bags per person in the world.

So, next time you’re talking about single-use plastics to your friends, other sailors, event organizers or your club’s operations manager and don’t know quite how to approach it, try one of these data points on for size. It might resonate.

ELIMINATING SINGLE-USE PLASTICS FROM SAILING PROGRAMS

Let’s say you shared one of the compelling statistics above with your club’s operations manager and were able to get 15 minutes with them to explain that the club needs to eliminate single-use plastics.

Where do you start? Here are a few tips to share:

1. Reusable water bottles should be everyone’s best friend.

• Remind all junior sailors (and your peers) to use their own reusable water bottles – and not to forget them at home or on land.

• At regattas, communicate to all participants that water bottles won’t be provided.

• Invest in refill stations where sailors can refill reusable water bottles. Examples:

  • Dolphin Water Pump 

  • 10-gallon Water Jug

  • Permanent Filtered Refilling Station (for endless reusables!)

  • Personal Hydration Pack (for a personal alternative to bottles)

→ Your club saves money in the long run by not having to buy thousands of racks of water bottles.

2. Ditch plastic straws cold-turkey.

• There are tons of creative alternatives to straws: metal, paper, hay, pasta, bamboo, the list goes on! Spread the word.

• Speak to your club’s management and/or the regatta organizers about completely ditching plastic straws from the behind-the-bar repertoire. Challenge them to get creative with straw materials.

3. Serve plastic-free meals at events – regattas, club parties, lunches, banquets, etc. – using reusables and/or durables. 

• Steering clear from plastics when using items like plates, cups, serving-ware and utensils can take two forms. The first, which is less ideal, would be to opt for single-use compostable items.

  • For example, to find reusable bamboo utensils, visit a site like To Go Ware, where you can find discounts on bulk orders.

  • Items like paper plates (without wax coatings) and wooden utensils can easily be taken to your local compost facility. (Read: this only works if you have access to a commercial composting facility!)

• The second, which is recommended, is to avoid single-use items altogether and invest in real dishwater, or have attendees bring their own.

  • Some clubs have started to collect dishware from yard sales, etc. to be able to use for large events. Others have started encouraging sailors to bring their own “mess kit,” similar to what you would bring camping.

  • In general, single-use anything is not as sustainable as something that will last.

4. Everyone loves a tote bag. 

• Plastic bags show up in countless ways when it comes to sailing: with registration packets, to keep NORs/SIs dry, to carry lunches, and I’m sure we could think of a few more. Let’s put a stop to that here and now.

• Canvas bags are inexpensive and reusable, and provide the opportunity to add your club’s logo or even work with a sponsor.

→ Activity idea: Hold a sail drive to collect old sails from your program, and repurpose them into bags.

 GETTING THE RIGHT PEOPLE ON BOARD

Whatever your role is in your program – instructor/staff, sailor, club member, parent – we know you don’t always hold all the power to make these changes away from single-use plastics. So, we put together a quick draft email for you to share with your event organizers/club management, whoever it may be. Feel free to customize for your situation:

 HIDDEN GEMS OF SUSTAINABILITY & REUSABLES

Just for fun, we’ll leave you with a few companies/organizations out there that are helping us upcycle and use materials that are better for our environment. These aren’t all necessarily sailing-related, but who cares! Check them out.

• Sea Bags – send your old sails here and they’ll make it into the perfect gift that will live on.

• Lava Rubber – this company makes yoga mats, flip flops, coasters and more using pretty much anything they can find: old wetsuits, gaskets, wrappers, miscellaneous gear scraps…

• Marlow Ropes’ Blue Ocean brand focuses on incorporating sustainability into every corner of rope production, from material science to packaging and shipping.

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