Ted Danson and his collaboration with Amazon to reduce the use of single-use plastic

Oceana, the largest international ocean rights organization focused on ocean conservation, hosted its annual SeaChange Summer Party on Saturday.

The Laguna Beach party, hosted this year by Ted Danson, raised $1.5 million for campaigns to protect and restore oceans in California and around the world. “We’ve been doing this for 17 years and we’ve raised over $20 million in this area alone,” Danson said. THR.

“There’s such a dedicated, supportive, generous audience there that it’s one of our favorite events,” the actor said, adding that the organization is “usually able to bring Hollywood in” for the fundraiser.

This year’s event, which honored SeaChange co-founder and longtime supporter Valarie Van Cleave, featured remarks from the organization’s new CEO, Jim Simon. Singer Lisa Loeb also performed a private concert for attendees. The party featured a host of celebrity guests alongside Danson, including Diane Lane, Oscar Nuñez, Dennis Haysbert, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Sam Trammell and more.

Throughout the event, Oceana highlighted more than 25 victories over the past year, including convincing Amazon to reduce single-use plastic in North America, new habitat protections in several countries and actions in California to reduce whale and sea turtle entanglements in commercial fishing gear.

Danson, a board member at Oceana, can easily recall the organization’s many victories. “Plastic is a huge problem everywhere you go, including in Southern California,” he said, noting that the organization has worked with Amazon to reduce single-use plastic. “They’re going to stop using plastic pillows by the end of 2024,” he added.

“When it comes to plastics, we’re constantly working with partners to make this happen,” Danson said. “We’re clearly at the forefront of the fight,” he continued, adding that “there are many other organizations working with us on this.”

The actor highlighted how harmful plastic is. “It’s a huge problem,” he said. “It’s estimated that the amount of plastic will triple by the middle of the century.”

He also stressed that it’s not just about improving recycling. “That’s a great marketing slogan for the plastics industry, but it doesn’t work. It never has,” Danson said. “I think about 8% of all the plastic that’s ever been created has been recycled, and most of that is just recycling, so that bag is now a plastic lawn chair because it’s recycled, but then that chair becomes a problem at some point.”

Between his time at Oceana and Danson’s many other professional gigs, he worked on a Cheers podcast with his former co-star Woody Harrelson. “I feel like it’s a privilege to sit down with someone for an hour and a half and have a genuine, relaxed, and as deep a conversation as possible, and learn how that person became that…