About Us

Our board of directors consists of three individuals who have been dedicated to the volunteer efforts that have become Planet Protectors.

The spearhead of the organization is Sasha Ablitt. Owner of family business Ablitt’s Fine Drycleaners, and she has tirelessly worked to advance her own zero-waste lifestyle while advocating for these types of changes at the individual, local and global level for much of her life.

Sasha earned an aerospace engineering degree from UCLA in 1992, followed by an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management, then worked for Honeywell Aerospace.

Board members John Fetter and Kelsey Bardfield also serve on the board and play a key role in its current iteration as a volunteer-driven organization.

An excerpt from an article in the Santa Barbara Independent tells the story of the genesis of Planet Protectors:
“Sasha also started to look for a solution to 1,000 pounds of plastic they (her dry cleaner business) collect per month from the sheets that cover the clothes. It’s now sent to the Trex company to make outdoor decks. She put her money where he plastic went too, explaining, “I had a deck in my house made out of recycled dry cleaner’s plastic.”

One of the biggest environmental issues that Planet Protectors sees in their business and dry cleaning in general is around the recycling of film plastic. A lot of recycling centers are not able to recycle film plastic, but Planet Protectors is determined to keep these plastics out of their local landfills.

As a result, they have taken several key steps in driving awareness and solutions. First, they’ve partnered with a US-based company (Trex) that uses film plastic as a raw material for their product.

Second, they’ve created an educational outreach program to teach the local community how to recycle and reduce film plastic usage. And last, they focus on reducing resource consumption and are actively investigating the use of post-consumer materials in their paper packaging.

Join & Take Action

Each week, Sasha Ablitt and a group of dedicated employees and volunteers set up shop at Ablitt’s to greet dozens of enthusiastic individuals from our local community, who are excited and passionate about making a tangible difference in our environment and our future. But participating in this program is only one of the ways you can help.
There are three primary ways your help can make a huge difference in the success of Planet Protectors’ mission:
Sorting Film Plastics
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