Tourism is an important and growing component of U.S. Coastal economies, yet IT puts a strain on coastal municipal infrastructure including water, wastewater, and waste systems

The increased volume of people in coastal communities during holiday and vacation seasons, a five- to tenfold increase in some areas, adds significant volume to the amount of water used, laundry washed, and waste produced, increasing macro- and micro-debris generation, including the ubiquitous and multifaceted input of microplastics and other anthropogenic particles. To address major sources of microplastics from coastal tourism, we propose a research-to-action project to: 1) assess the effectiveness of installing three interventions in partnering hotels: washing machine, dishwasher, and clothes dryer filters; evaluating how each filter type individually and in combination reduces microplastic loads to coastal wastewater treatment plants or to aerial deposition; 2) identify challenges faced by hotel staff in implementing and managing filter interventions; 3) determine the extent to which reduced MP loads benefit organisms key to pacific coastal food webs- chinook salmon and mysid shrimp; 4) embed educational and outreach components including a) training coastal teachers to facilitate awareness-raising and engagement in critical thinking on microplastic pollution with minoritized middle and high school students who will participate in designing an infrastructure intervention and assess results via citizen science; and B) public and tourist education through presentations, social media campaigns, signs at participating hotels, and an exhibit at the public visitor center at oregon state universitys hatfield marine science center; 5) engage interested parties including water managers, the tourism industry, and municipal and states representatives (oregon and washington) in project design, results assessment, and action plan(S) for scaling regionally and nationally through engagement of a project advisory panel and later a broader group of professionals to advise the project and develop a draft plan to scale up interventions based on project results. Project innovations will include developing an in-line dishwasher filter by modifying existing filter technologies and modifying an existing prototype to create cost-effective air filtration devices to test dryer emissions. Project outcomes and intended beneficiaries include: testing and quantifying efficacy of and hotel industry user challenges for the three microplastics removal intervention strategies, and sharing results with city staff and citizens from at least 10 coastal communities in the pacific northwest; identifying any reductions in food web microplastics contamination and improved organismal endpoints from reducing microplastics with each filter strategy; determining the extent of interventions needed to achieve hazard reductions for key marine species; teaching local educators and youth about significant local sources of microplastics to coastal waterways and the processes contributing to marine debris; engaging students in science and engineering practices to develop solutions (modified dishwasher filter) to reduce microplastics entering marine environments and a sampling tool (air sampler); developing and installing an exhibit on microplastics and removal interventions including the voices/perspectives of high school students at the hatfield visitor center to share with tourists and the local public about microplastics sources, impacts, and potential solutions; strengthen existing and new relationships with engaged partners to address microplastics issues in pacific northwest coastal communities. Ultimately these actions will allow for impactful decisions about mitigating microplastics and microparticles at individual state (oregon, washington) and regional levels, by informing timely science-to-policy action to protect critical coastal food webs.