Coastal Cleanup Awareness Month

Do your part to keep plastic out of our waterways and out of Oatland!  

This month at Oatland (and every month if we are being honest), we are asking for your help to keep Oatland Island clean and pristine! Keeping the wildlife safe and the ecosystem healthy can be as simple as making sure you keep Oatland Island free of trash! So as you walk our boardwalk and visit the wonderful wildlife, keep an eye out for any garbage and take yours with you when you leave! 

Fast facts about trash: on average, we all produce about 4-5 pounds of trash per day. Nearly half of the trash we produce is buried in landfills, with another 10%+ going into incinerators. This means that only about a third of what we produce is recycled!

We can take steps to help with this, like:

• Producing less trash - Just being aware that you produce four to five pounds of trash and sharing that information with others can help you think about the ways you can produce less! One great way to produce less trash is to purchase items that last longer and can be used more than once! 

• Reusing “trash”! Friends of Oatland Island is committed to our green practices and that is why you get tasty water sold in recyclable and reusable aluminum bottles in our gift shop!
  

  

• Recycling our trash: Not everything can be recycled, but a lot of things can be that we just throw away! Looking up the rules for recycling and putting ONLY recyclable items in your recycling bins takes a little extra work, but goes a long way to helping solve our trash problem! You can also recycle items at home by giving them a second life! With a little creativity, many items can be used multiple times before throwing it away, which reduces the waste we produce over time.

Plastic pollution is finding its way into the deepest ocean trenches and the highest mountain tops, but you can do your part simply by keeping an eye on kiddos who may be prone to tossing things and picking up any trash you see. We know that our followers love Oatland so we want to thank you for going the extra mile to keep Oatland Clean!