City of Manhattan Beach
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Ocean Protection
The City of Manhattan Beach is committed to safeguarding our oceans by undertaking comprehensive and meticulously planned stormwater and urban runoff initiatives to address pollutants of concern such as bacteria and trash and to manager stormwater resources in a more sustainable way. The City's stormwater projects and programs are designed to intercept and manage runoff and debris, to prevent harmful impacts to our precious marine ecosystems and coastline along the Santa Monica Bay. Through diligent and purposeful efforts, Manhattan Beach is taking proactive measures to ensure that our ocean remains pristine and free from the detrimental effects of pollution and waste. These projects not only protect our ocean, they are critical elements of the City’s plan to achieve compliance with State and Federal water quality regulations, protect human health, and ensure the resiliency of coastal infrastructure in the face of climate change.
Ocean Protection Video Series
Journey with the City of Manhattan Beach through this educational video series.
THE CITY'S STORMWATER AND URBAN RUNOFF INITIATIVES
The City of Manhattan Beach has effectively eliminated dry weather urban runoff to the Santa Monica Bay by diverting this flow from the storm drain system to the sanitary sewer system for recycling and eventual reuse. On average, the City prevents over 8M gallons of urban runoff from reaching the ocean each year through completed dry weather diversion projects which has markedly improved beach water quality during dry weather. While this progress is noteworthy, there is still work to be done to protect our coastline during wet weather. Managing runoff during a storm requires robustly engineered systems. The storm drain system that we rely on today was built decades ago and was not designed to prevent stormwater pollution or to capture stormwater for beneficial use. The City is working hard to meet these challenges, and has secured over $30M in external funding to supplement its Storm Drain fee investments to complete important stormwater projects designed to achieve ambitious goals for ocean protection and coastal resiliency:
- Zero trash discharged to the ocean from the City's storm drains;
- 54% reduction in wet weather bacterial pollution loading to Santa Monica Bay;
- 1.7 million gallons of water treated per day to remove copper and zinc in stormwater flowing to Dominguez Channel;
- Completion of nine (9) high-priority Capital Improvement Projects over 20 years to reduce localized flooding, improve water quality and enhance water supply.
- Restoration of over 3 acres of dune habitat to create a living shoreline, extending the City's total restored dune habitat to over half the length of the City’s 2.1-mile shoreline.
Select an 'Ocean Protection' Initiative to Learn More
TAKE ACTION
Voice Your Support
Submit a quick survey response that voices your support of Manhattan Beach's local ocean protection initiatives using the link below!
Continued Learning from the 'Ocean Protection' Video Series
Volunteer
Local organizations to support that are working vigilantly to protect our Santa Monica Bay:
Sign Up for the Sustainability Newsletter
Wipeout on Foam
Waste to Waves Event and Raffle
- Date: 04/26/2014 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM
- Location: Earth Day Event at Polliwog Park
1601 Manhattan Beach Blvd
Manhattan Beach, California 90266
Have you wondered what could be made from recycled packaging foam? Surfboards! Join Waste Management and Sustainable Surf in the Waste to Waves Earth Day Foam Recycle Drive! If you've recently purchased a TV or appliance and aren't sure what to do with the large foam packing sheets, bring it to this event.
Sustainable Surf and Waste Management will collect materials from 11:00 AM until 4:00 PM on April 26th at the City of Manhattan Beach’s annual Earth Day Celebration and Concert in Polliwog Park, located at 1601 Manhattan Beach Boulevard.
Free raffle tickets will be given to people that bring their waste Styrofoam to be recycled. Raffle prizes include a surfboard made from recycled foam, shaped and glassed by Ryan Harris of E-Tech Boards, and Spyder Surf and Sector 9 skateboards.
“A passion for surfing and for the ocean inspires all of Sustainable Surf’s projects and it’s exciting to help create something as useful and beautiful as a surfboard out of trash,” said Kevin Whilden, co-founder of Sustainable Surf. “The Waste to Waves program has successfully collected over 40,000 pounds of waste packaging foam in the past three years and we are very excited to be working with Waste Management to continue increasing that number.”
All clean packaging foam received will be recycled, and made into new products like surfboards. A complete list of acceptable materials can be viewed here. Visit Waste to Waves and Sustainable Surf or email askgreen@wm.com for additional information.
Learn more about what is and is not accepted at the event:
What kind of foam can be recycled in Waste to Waves?
The Waste to Waves program can only accept clean, white, Expanded Polystyrene foam (EPS) used in packaging. EPS is more commonly known in the USA as “styrofoam”, and although they are typically used interchangeably to mean the same thing by the general public - Styrofoam® – is actually a trademarked product of the Dow Chemical Corp. and is chemically a completely different product than Expanded Polystyrene foam.
EPS is used in packaging to protect fragile equipment such as televisions, computers, and furniture. It is also used as insulation, some food containers like cups, and of course, as surfboard blanks. EPS foam is hard, rigid, and very light since it is 95% air. It is always white in color.
What kind of foam cannot be recycled in Waste to Waves?
Unfortunately, we cannot accept the following:
- EPS foam containers from food service. We cannot take the risk of any food contamination at all for recycling purposes.
- No packing “peanuts”. Take these to any UPS or FedEx/Kinko's store, because they will re-use them.
- No foam that is flexible, soft, or rubbery. This isn’t EPS foam, and it will contaminate the EPS load for recycling purposes.
- No old surfboards. Give these to NGO Rerip instead to be re-used, or re-purposed.