Around the world, people are being mobilised for International Coastal Cleanup Day on September 18 – one of the world’s largest annual volunteer preservation and protection events for our oceans and beaches.

Published 3 years ago, updated 7 months ago

Source:  Ocean Cruising Club

Last year, the five most commonly collected items on International Coastal Cleanup Day (ICCD) were cigarette butts, plastic beverage bottles, food wrappers, plastic bottle caps and plastic straws.

In Britain, 425 litter items were found per 100m of beach surveyed at last year’s Beach Clean, with 30% of beach cleans finding face masks and PPE. The good news is that there has been a 55% drop in plastic bags found on UK beaches since the charge of 5p per bag was introduced.

You can find out about events taking place near you at:
• USA – oceanconservancy.org
• UK – mcsuk.org
• Ireland – irishoceanliteracy.ie 
• Australia – nationalcleanupday.org 
• EU and around the world from Portugal to Mauritius, and New Zealand to Japan – ec.europa.eu 

Many of these contribute to citizen science surveys, reporting on what is found.

In addition, there are many localised initiatives that cruisers can join, but you don’t need an event to get stuck in at your local beach and join this global drive to clean up the oceans and beaches.

Find out more about fighting for trash-free seas at the Ocean Conservancy website.