Who we are

September 24th, 2023

The short answer: We are TybeeCleanBeach.org

The long answer starts with a little history. When we first moved to Tybee Island in 2018, we learned about TybeeCleanBeach and their once-per-week beach cleans, and my wife and I volunteered. We went out of beach sweeps, removed loads of trash from a sensitive marine environment, and met some like-minded folks who are still among our very best friends.

Among these was Tim, who started TybeeCleanBeach a few years before we moved to the island. He was frustrated by a well-intentioned, but poorly executed, beach cleanup where they passed out huge plastic garbage bags and disposable gloves. When the volunteers returned, he saw giant garbage bags with a few bits of trash… they had generated far more trash than they had cleaned up, and Tim realized this was a job better suited to the non-profit sector.

So he went out and bought some recycled plastic 5-gallon buckets and grabbers, and started holding regular beach sweeps. He registered TybeeCleanBeach as a 501C3 nonprofit.

Fast forward several years, and TCB has grown to sponsor a number of activities that include a hard-to-recycle center, where we collect, clean and sort items that we can then ship to Terracycle. But the activity that interested me the most, and the subject of this website, is our plastic recycling workshop. Using equipment sourced from Precious Plastic designs, we take plastic that isn’t normally recycled (primarily #5), we clean and sort, shred, and then remelt and remold it using an injection machine, converting items that are designed to be thrown into a landfill into something that (hopefully) will last a lot longer.
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This website is going to be about the specifics of that process… the equipment we use, the procedures that work (or in some cases, don’t work), the things we make and sell, etc. The ideas that we try are small and hyperlocal.
Hopefully these ideas will inspire others to try their own small recycling efforts, or at least change the way people think about plastics and recycling. Yes, it’s a bit of a pain in the butt, but it’s also kinda fun. I hope you enjoy these posts!

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SHOP GALLERY
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Our recycling workspace. It's approximately the size of a one-car garage. Space is very much at a premium on Tybee Island.

Location & Hours

Our shop is located on Tybee Island, Georgia. We can't accommodate drop-in visitors, so we don't publish our location. If you'd like to visit the shop and see our operation, contact us for an appoitment.

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​HOURS
Sporadic- whenever we can


TybeeCleanBeach.org

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