Get all the details of the September 10 beach cleanup on Sustainable Bainbridge's event webpage. If you want to go directly to the sign-up, click here and scroll down to see all locations.

Cleanup is during the low-tide hours of 10am-1pm. This year, BI Parks and Rec is supplying trash bags right on site at four of the major shoreline parks: Fay Bainbridge, Blakely Harbor, Pritchard and Fort Ward. When you're done grabbing the garbage, you can leave the bags right by the supply bins.

If you would like to borrow buckets or grabbers (and trash bags), stop by the Miller Road gravel lot just south of Kol Shalom starting at 9:30am. Be sure to return supplies and trash no later than 1:30pm.

Last year almost 300 individuals helped keep trash from entering the ocean (and the marine food chain)! We like seeing the quirky items you find, so send in a photo and in a random drawing, one lucky winner and guests will receive a personal tour of a local park by renowned IslandWood naturalist Christina Woolf.

Keep hard-to-recycle plastics from going to the landfill by dropping off the following items in the Terracycle bin, now located on the porch at Helpline House.

You may also leave corrugated plastic yard signs and their metal sign holders by the bin. The signs will be repurposed or recycled; the metal posts will be stored for reuse and may be borrowed at any time by emailing Herb Hethcote.

Every other year Kitsap Public Works holds a household chemical collection event on Bainbridge Island. This year it takes place at the city's public works operations facility at 7305 Hidden Cove Road from 10am-3pm on Saturday, September 17.

Of course, you can drop off household hazardous waste Thursday-Saturday throughout the year at Kitsap's HHW facility in Bremerton.

2019 state legislation folded Washington into the national PaintCare program, which is active in nine states plus the District of Columbia. Since its launch more than ten years ago, PaintCare has collected almost 60 million gallons of latex and oil-based paint, stain and varnish, making sure it gets reused or recycled.

The Bainbridge takeback location is Peninsula Paint Company on Hildebrand Lane. For a list of what PaintCare does and does not accept, go here.

Remember, reuse is better than recycling, so follow PaintCare's handy tips on how to store paint better. And reduction tops reuse, so use their guidelines to estimate how much paint your project will require in the first place.

If you want to delve deeper into the state of plastic production today and learn how to take action against single-use plastics, take the seven-week online Beyond Plastic Pollution class, taught by Judith Enck, a former Obama administration EPA official.

This in-depth masterclass on plastic pollution will be held Wednesdays from 4:00-6:00pm starting on September 7 and ending on October 19. Everyone from high school age on up is welcome. Graduates may continue to learn via listservs and activism subgroups.

Speaking of action, on July 23, the organization Plastic Free July held a national plastic packaging takeback day. Nine islanders saved their packaging from grocery store purchases and filled seven Safeway carts with plastic film and containers. Accompanying signs called attention to their mission, with the ultimate goal of national grocery chains working with manufacturers to switch from single-use plastic packaging to less harmful and wasteful delivery methods.

Some local restaurateurs will soon be displaying the above PVC-free decal in their windows if they have started taking steps to eliminate single-use plastics ahead of the mandatory January 2023 implementation of the city's plastic waste reduction ordinance.

To qualify, they will have pledged to do at least one of the following:

YOU can participate by taking a customer pledge to Erase the Waste. COBI has a list of ways to decrease single-use plastic that simultaneously supports local businesses. Check off as many actions as you currently do or plan to implement and submit.

This program is one of many initiatives that are part of the city's Climate Action Plan being spearheaded by COBI's climate mitigation and adaption officer, Autumn Salamack, and her assistant, Hannah Ljunggren.

Want the latest recycling poster? (p.12)

Waste reduction tips? (p. 5)

Plastics explained? (p.13)

Then be sure to take a look at Everyday Kitsap, the award-winning publication from Kitsap Public Works that arrived last month in your mailbox. Extra copies are available on the counter at the Marge Williams Center.

The first gathering attracted a companionable group of ten. The next session is scheduled for Sunday, September 11, 1-3pm. (October 2, November 6 and December 4 are the remaining dates.)

Kitsap County Solid Waste will be hosting a Styrofoam collection event sometime this fall, so keep saving that block foam and those coolers (plus make sure the stickers and tape are completely removed ahead of time).

This page will have the details when the event date and details are finalized.