Galveston, Texas

What’s next for reuse in Galveston

Over the course of the past two years, the Perpetual team, TIRN, and other local partners and supporters have been making significant strides in designing a first-of-its-kind open-loop reusable foodware system in Galveston. The project team has worked collaboratively with the community to achieve major project milestones including:

Securing partners and supporters across Galveston city government, not-for-profit groups, local businesses and organizations
Conducting an extensive community-driven design process involving qualitative and quantitative research and data collection, focusing the system design around ease-of-use and adoption for the municipality, the businesses and the community
Completing behavioral research review and analysis, understanding how to drive adoption for reusable foodware
Ecosystem mapping and volume modeling for Galveston alongside data science partners, which is used for reuse asset placement and collection routes
Connecting with foodservice establishments and showing them the potential for introducing reusable foodware to their operations
Securing a local washing facility with ample capacity to launch the Galveston system
Selecting the reuse service providers who will provide the software capabilities for checkout and inventory management, and the hardware for tech-enabled return bins

Many of the core pieces are in place to successfully launch a reusable foodware program in Galveston, which could have a tremendous impact both locally and globally. However, additional funding needs to be secured to continue building operational capacity to launch the Galveston system, so the project team is now working exclusively on raising the necessary funds to be able to proceed.

If you have been waiting for the moment to help support this effort, now is the time! If your organization is interested in funding, partnering, or sponsoring this effort, please reach out to Ellie Moss at ellie@perpetualuse.org.

Galveston at a Glance

Historic Galveston Island is known for its many ‘firsts,’ such as Texas’s first bank and first post office. This pioneering spirit and reputation for outsized leadership have seen Galveston through both prosperous times and rebuilding times. Galveston is known for its historic homes, attractions such as Moody Gardens and the Pleasure Pier, beaches, deep water port and cruise terminal, and signature annual events such as the Lone Star Motorcycle Rally, Mardi Gras, and Dickens on the Strand. As an island community in the Gulf of Mexico, Galveston is on the frontier of plastic pollution, cleaning over 2 million pounds of debris off of beaches each year, and climate adaptation, as it faces potentially catastrophic consequences from sea level rise.

Population: 53,000

Food Service Establishments: 200+

Educational Institutions: University of Texas Medical Branch, Texas A&M University at Galveston, Galveston College, and the Galveston Independent School District

Local Water Bodies: Gulf of Mexico and the base for the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary

Other Commitments: 2020 Galveston Bay Watershed Aquatic Action Plan, which includes reducing single use plastic.

Local Partner

Joanie Steinhaus

OCEAN PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Turtle Island Restoration Network
Rena Guillory

MEMBERSHIP SPECIALIST
Turtle Island Restoration Network
Trish Himebaugh

COMMUNICATION AND MARKETING SPECIALIST
Turtle Island Restoration Network
Maggie Sager

GULF PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Turtle Island Restoration Network

Turtle Island Restoration Network

For over 30 years, Turtle Island Restoration Network has been a leading advocate for the world’s oceans and marine wildlife. TIRN focuses on grassroots empowerment, consumer action, hands-on restoration, and environmental education while also promoting sustainable marine policies and inspiring consumer change. A crucial cornerstone of TIRN’s work is the Gulf of Mexico program headquartered in Galveston, Texas. Together with volunteers and passionate community members, the TIRN Gulf of Mexico staff fights to eliminate marine debris and provide meaningful environmental education opportunities that inspire consumer change.

The Gulf of Mexico program office currently hosts a variety of educational and informative community events that strive to increase awareness and inspire a change in public behavior to offset the impacts of marine debris. These include; beach clean-ups, microplastic citizen science sampling and processing, nurdle patrol, density separator demonstrations for microplastics, reduction and elimination of single-use plastics, balloon busting crew, cigarette butlers and monofilament collection.

Community-Led Design Workshops

Thank you to everyone that attended the workshops March 6-8, 2023 hosted by Perpetual and Turtle Island Restoration Network on exploring community interest in bringing reusable foodware to Galveston! The events were a huge success and with over 100 people participating over three days. Three workshops at Moody Gardens were open to the general public. Additionally, targeted workshops for local restaurant and foodservice businesses, community organizations, and government representatives were held at Rosenberg Library. At all workshops, attendees were able to experience borrowing a reusable cup and participate in a series of interactive questions about their reusable foodware system design preferences.

A few examples of what we heard

People are excited to use reusables in Galveston! Over the course of the three days of workshops, 96% of respondents said they were likely or very likely to use reusable cup and container systems if the system was available in Galveston. The top three most important reasons why participants would use reusable foodware: