Earn Tasty Treats, Coffee as You Clean Up North Oregon Coast Sands

Published 02/23/22 at 6:42 PM PST
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff

(Seaside, Oregon) – Yucky beaches are no fun, and certainly more so unacceptable along the pristine Oregon coast. Yet humankind's way of throwing trash into the ocean tends to backfire and loads of crap keeps washing back up onto the sands. (Photo courtesy Seaside Aquarium)

In Seaside, one of the busiest towns on the entire Oregon coast, beaches can get especially thrashed, and that's why there are monthly cleanups held there by the Seaside Aquarium.

Now, the Seaside Visitors Bureau is getting into the act by “crowdsourcing” its beach stewardship. Help clean up the beach there and you can get tokens towards coffee and other treats at local coffee shops.

Joshua Heineman, director of tourism marketing in Seaside, is jazzed up about its new Coffee for Clean Beaches program. You get $5 in redeemable coins for each pound of garbage you take off the sands of the north Oregon coast town.

Water bottles, bits of plastic, food wrappers, styrofoam containers and then the random, oddball surprise like a chunk of a car or part of a mattress – it's all unsightly, but it all comes ashore with regularity. Heineman isn't happy about it and neither should you be.

So, the bureau is trying something different. How does this new Coffee for Clean Beaches work?

First, stop by the Seaside Aquarium to pick up cleanup bags along with gloves. Yup, they're free. Then hit the sands, grab the garbage, and stuff it in the sack.

Then, take a selfie with your handiwork. At this point you leave it next to one kind of garbage container on the Prom or another.

“When you leave the beach, drop your full bags next to any garbage along the Prom so our hard-working Public Works department can dispose of them properly,” Heineman said.

Next, visit the Visitors Center up on Highway 101 and show them your selfies. This is where you grab your beach cleanup coins – and maybe a high five.

Each coin is worth $1 worth of anything at the participating coffee shops, from grub to liquid energy. But they'll really make this worth your while in Seaside.

“We’ll reward you with $5 in cleanup coins per person who removed at least one bag of debris from the beach… yes, kids included,” Heineman said.

Heineman said as an example, a family of five can easily fill three bags together. Three bags equals 15 bucks worth of coffee shop coins.

There are Treasure the Beach Cleanups scheduled every first Saturday of the month in Seaside, spearheaded by the Seaside Aquarium. They run from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Staff will be at 60th N. Prom (the aquarium) to hand out bags and gloves, according to the aquarium's Tiffany Boothe. Yet these cleanups for coffee deals can happen anytime.

“Can't make it to the cleanup but still want to help?,” Boothe said. “Beach cleanup bags are available at the Seaside Aquarium. Just come into the gift shop during normal business hours and ask for a bag.”

"These efforts are having a big impact. Monthly cleanups removed 1,865lbs of debris from the beach in 2019 and 2,180lbs in 2020 despite the pandemic," Heineman said.

See the Seaside Visitors website or call 503.738.3097.

Participating coffee shops:

Beach Day Coffee
7 Broadway
503.338.9619

Burly and the Bean
1545 N. Roosevelt Drive (drive-thru)
1803 S. Roosevelt Drive (sit-down)
619.548.5889

Caffe Latte
300 Broadway, Suite 19
(in the Carousel Mall)
503.738.8631

Controversial Coffee
111 Broadway, Suite 7
(in Inverted Experience)
503.739.0158

Rise & Grind PNW
1575 S. Roosevelt Drive (drive-thru)
503.739.7019

Seaside Coffee Roasters
5 N. Holladay Drive
503.717.0111

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Photos above courtesy Seaside Aquarium

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