Looking for a New Year’s resolution that is good for you AND doesn’t require giving up cake?
Join Galveston Bay Foundation in the “No Bay Pollution Resolution” to reduce litter and trash in the Houston-Galveston area! It’s easy, and we’re giving away a Sustainability Starter Pack, full of useful products, to whoever takes the most action to help the Bay now through January 20th.
Tag @Galveston Bay Foundation when posting pics of yourself keeping your No Bay Pollution Resolution!
Whether you are using more sustainable items (like reusable totes, straws, produce bags), picking up trash along your street, buying local pesticide-free produce, recycling, composting, disposing of your fishing line properly, or reporting litter on your GBAN app, let us know by tagging our Facebook page.
Remember, no act for our Bay is too small!
The person with the highest number of photos on Facebook with the tag @Galveston Bay Foundation in the post during the contest period wins! *Photos of the same activity by the same person will only count once.
Pollution comes in many forms and none of them are good for us or Galveston Bay.
Did you know that the watershed that feeds Galveston Bay is huge and starts way up in Dallas? It consists of over 30,000 miles of land, streams, rivers, and bayous!
Anything not properly removed from that 30,000 miles, like litter, pet waste, pesticides, oil, and grease, will make its way to Galveston Bay with help from rain, wind, and flooding. So even if you live in the city or countryside, with no waterway in sight, trash you see can find its way to the Bay, where it can harm wildlife and make it less safe to fish and swim.
It may seem like a big task to keep that much space clean, but if everyone keeps an eye out for litter in their neighborhood, then we’ll have most of it covered, right? We know people in the Houston area are amazing at caring for their community. We’ve been through worse!
What You Can Do Today:
- Help at the source by swapping single-use items for reusable ones and disposing of your trash and recycling properly.
- Get together with friends or neighbors and pick up litter in your area.
- Download the GBAN App on your phone and report any and all trash you see using the app or the website. It’s like a phone game for a good cause!
https://galvbay.org/gbanapp/
Pile of broken furniture in the street? Take a pic and send it in!
Debris along I-45? Next time you park, send a description of where you saw it!
Trash along the water or oil slick on the surface? Let us know!
We’ll get the info to the right people to clean it up and keep it from reaching our Bay. - Use this tool to get plenty of other ideas of how you can help:
https://www.galvbaygrade.org/what-you-can-do/
- Share our resources with a friend, co-worker, or family member!
What Else You Can Do:
- SAVE THE DATE! Sign up to help Galveston Bay Foundation staff at an upcoming event, like Abandoned Crab Trap Removal, Trash Bash, or Marsh Mania!
https://galvbay.org/events/abandoned-crab-trap-removal-2/
https://galvbay.org/events/trashbash/
https://galvbay.org/how-we-protect-the-bay/on-the-ground/marsh-mania/
- Gather a few friends, coworkers, or classmates and join our marine debris survey team or nurdle team! It only requires one clean-up per month and GBF gives you everything you need. There are even marine debris surveys where you just write down what you see and don’t have to clean anything! Contact [email protected] for more info
What We Do!
You might be asking, “What are Galveston Bay Foundation and Houston Advanced Research Center doing to help?”
Staff at GBF and HARC are big fans of choosing more sustainable options, like reusable water bottles, straws, and grocery totes. We recycle oyster shells for reefs AND recycle paper and more at our offices. We also strive to improve sustainability efforts at events.
This year, we are really ramping up efforts to tackle pollution! GBF staff and volunteers conduct Marine Debris Accumulation Surveys in a variety of areas along the shore of Galveston Bay. Each month, at each site, a 100-meter stretch of shoreline is cleaned up. The items found are separated, identified, and documented on a form. This information is submitted to NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association), who will analyze the data to gain knowledge of how much and what kind of litter is presented along the shores of the bay. The Gulf of Mexico Alliance supports these efforts and works with other organizations like GBF along the gulf to create a unified front against pollution in the gulf region. Plus, HARC can utilize these data, along with their own, to develop Galveston Bay Report Card grades.
Another new initiative GBF is committing to this year is collecting data for the Nurdle Patrol. Nurdles are the raw plastic pellets used to make all types of everyday plastics, like water bottles, toys, and pretty much any plastic that comes to mind. They are around the size of a pencil’s eraser, or smaller, so they are difficult to clean up in large quantities. They are being found all over our bay shorelines and gulf beaches. And not just here in Texas either – all over the world! Nick Ellis, GBF’s Water Quality Programs Manager, and volunteers are collecting and counting nurdles in different locations around the bay and submitting data to Nurdle Patrol to get a big picture of this pollution issue. Check out www.nurdlepatrol.org to learn more. Sasha Francis, GBF’s Community Engagement Coordinator, will actually be doing Nurdle Patrol surveys in Panama and the Galapagos next month as part of a round-the-world plastic pollution study. She hopes to compare data with what has been found in our area and inspire members of the community to help keep litter from getting into the Bay.
Please help us keep our No Bay Pollution Resolution by doing a few things to help your Bay this month.
Go over to Facebook and Tag @Galveston Bay Foundation when posting pics of yourself keeping your No Bay Pollution Resolution! Contest runs through midnight on Monday, January 20th. Winner will be announced Friday, January 24th.
Questions? Email [email protected]