It's Time to Stop Trashing Our Beaches

Grocery bags … bottles … cigarette butts … wrappers and straws. They don’t fall from the sky; they fall from human hands. And what’s washed up on the shore is only a fraction of what ends up in the water.
From Baltimore to Bangladesh, Ocean Conservancy leads the world’s most astounding grassroots cleanup effort. Every year in September, more than half-a-million people in 100 countries remove millions of pounds of trash from beaches and waterways all over the world. And it all started with one person. Appalled by all the garbage littering the Texas coast, she took action, organizing a cleanup along miles of shoreline. Over 20 years later, our International Coastal Cleanup is one of the largest and most effective volunteer-based conservation projects in the world.
For many volunteers, the Coastal Cleanup is a stark initiation to the deterioration of our ocean, and often spurs a deeper commitment to marine conservation. By cleaning up the shorelines, concerned citizens are doing their part to help make the ocean more resilient to the harmful effects of climate change, pollution, overfishing, and damaged habitat.
And it's a good thing, because trash in the ocean is one of the most widespread pollution problems we face — yet it's entirely preventable.
The work doesn’t start and end in a day, of course. It goes on all year long. At Ocean Conservancy, we analyze the data collected by our volunteers to produce the only global snapshot and country-by-country, state-by-state breakdown of trash in the world’s ocean. Our reports have played a direct role in shaping national legislation to reduce marine debris and in helping small towns across the country create recycling programs.
Big change has to come from big places. That’s why we’re teaming up with businesses to change practices that lead to garbage on our beaches and waterways and to involve their employees in cleanups. Together, our efforts mean that next year we hope to pick up fewer pounds of garbage. With the hands-on help of people like you, we’re restoring the health and beauty of our beaches and waterways.