September 2011 ICC Beach Cleanup Tally

We owe a huge debt of gratitude to all who pitched in to make Saturday's clean up a success. Volunteers smiled through the rain to collect marine debris and celebrate with a low-impact potluck. This effort makes for a total of 700 pounds of beach cleaning power since last September!

Here are the tallied results from volunteer data sheets. We collected and sorted 150 POUNDS in less than 2 hours! All the data from this international event will go first to the City and County of Honolulu's "Get the Drift and Bag It" program and then be posted on the Ocean Conservancy website in the following months. You can also compare this to last year's results.

10 Paper bags                                     108 Cups, plates or cutlery

75 Plastic bags                                    252 Food wrappers

7 Balloons                                           25 Pull tabs

21 Plastic beverage bottles                   6 Batteries

22 Glass bottles                                   370 Straws and stirrers

36 Beverage cans                                18 Toys

411 Caps or lids                                   49 Items of clothing, shoes 

500+ Bits of micro-debris                      2 Motor oil containers

84 Fishing line, net, or rope segments     3 light bulbs                                        

14 Floats, traps, lures                                  

13 Pieces of plastic sheeting                 2426 Cigarette butts                                

6 Cigarette lighters                               3 Diapers

26 Cigar tips                                        13 Tobacco wrappers        

1 bike                                                  2 bike tire tubes

12 pieces of cinder block                       5 car parts

7 misc. building materials                       4 misc. office supplies            

125 misc. paper products                   

115 misc. toiletries including band-aids and baby wipes

We send out thanks to all the individuals, groups, sponsors, and businesses that came together for PFK's project. Mahalo to Hawaii ZTA Alumnae Chapter, St. Anthony School Green Club, and Hawaiian Island Twisters for sending volunteers. Mahalo to Global Village, Kailua Sailboards and Kayaks, Whole Foods, Muumuu Heaven, and Kim Houston of NYR Organics for helping make the raffle extra special. Support our partnering plastic-free businesses and tell them thank you!

There is always more to be cleaned up in these high traffic areas, so we encourage you to pick up a bag of trash every time you visit! Volunteers noted the massive amount of litter within the parks. Remind your friends to dispose of their trash, especially cigarettes, properly. Cigarette filters are actually partially plastic and leach toxic chemicals into the ground and water. Yuck!

Finally, we hope the clean up was also a learning experience for you. This was the 26^th Annual International Coastal Cleanup. Nearly 145 million pounds of trash later, Ocean Conservancy has learned that removal alone is not enough. The real solution is stopping trash from reaching our waterways and the ocean in the first place. Check out our Act and Learn pages for ways you can make your household a little less plastic. 

More photos on our Facebook page!