In partnership with volunteer organizations and individuals around the globe, Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup engages people to remove trash from the world’s beaches and waterways, identify the sources of debris and change the behaviors.

“NAMEPA, working with our partner the New England Science and Sailing Foundation (NESS), performed a beach clean on September 17th, International Coastal Cleanup Day in Westerly, RI.

Walking along the beach it seemed as though we’d been done with our clean up very quickly and with very little to clean up, but with 31 volunteers we collected almost 21 pounds of garbage after just 20 minutes!  Much of the debris was found by the closed for the season concession building but there were still many items  found in the sand and near the water.  We input our data into the Ocean Conservancy’s CleanSwell app that can be downloaded onto smartphones from the iTunes store for free.

Although September 17th is the official “International Coastal Cleanup Day”, NAMEPA is working with other groups to schedule more beach and streamside clean ups through October.  Almost 75% of plastics in the ocean comes from land-based sources – that’s you and me!  Let’s work together to prevent this by reducing our use of plastics, recycling them when we do, and participating in clean ups whenever we can.”

If you are interested in starting your own beach cleanup with NAMEPA’s help please reach out to M.Hogue@namepa.net