The Surfrider Foundation is a grassroots nonprofit built around local chapters, working to protect the ocean, waves and beaches for everyone. Its restaurant program recognises places that have stopped handing out the packaging that most often ends up on the sand, and it is the source of every certified listing on PLEET. When a restaurant here carries the certified badge, that is what it means: a Surfrider chapter has confirmed the practices below.
What a restaurant commits to
Membership is free and renewed every year. Every restaurant meets seven required criteria:
- Reusable plates, cups and cutlery for anyone eating in.
- No expanded polystyrene, the foam used for clamshells and cups.
- No plastic bags for takeout.
- Paper straws, and only when someone asks.
- No drinks sold in plastic bottles.
- Proper recycling, with the right bins and the right sorting.
- Utensils and condiments for takeout only on request.
On top of those, a restaurant chooses at least three of eight optional practices, such as composting food scraps, offering vegetarian and vegan dishes, sourcing seafood sustainably, saving energy and water, or giving a discount to customers who bring their own container. A restaurant that meets every criterion is recognised at Platinum level. As of October 2026 the program lists 611 restaurants across 32 states.
The fourteen practices PLEET scores are drawn from these criteria. That is why a certified restaurant arrives on PLEET with its practices already filled in, and why diners are asked to confirm or contradict them rather than start from nothing.
The foodware guide
The hardest part of going plastic-free is not deciding to do it. It is standing in front of a supplier's catalogue trying to work out whether a "plant-based" cup is any better than the plastic one. Surfrider's foodware guide exists for that moment. The third edition, published in August 2026, adds a decision matrix for spotting greenwashing, sorts common products into "best choice", "good alternative" and "avoid", and includes case studies from restaurants that have made the switch, along with discounts from vendors the program works with. Reusables come first throughout. Compostables are treated as the fallback for takeout, not the goal.
How to join
Start on the program page linked below. Applications go through the chapter nearest you, which is also who will visit, confirm your practices and renew you each year. There is no fee. PLEET's certified listings are imported from the program's own data, so a newly certified restaurant appears here with its badge once that data is refreshed. In the meantime you can claim your listing and declare the practices you already follow.