Keep Erie County Beautiful encourages volunteers to participate in the Ocean Conservancy’s 36th International Coastal Cleanup (ICC). The event will take place 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, September 18. There are 20 cleanup locations across Erie County waterways for this event.
There will be a coordinator at each site and free gloves and bags for volunteers. Volunteers can register for the site of their choice by visiting eriecountypa.gov. Once you sign up you will receive an email with details for your site.
Participants will “#ConnectAndCollect” as part of the Ocean Conservancy’s ICC, which is the world's largest volunteer effort to remove and record trash from local lakes, waterways, beaches and the ocean.
“The ICC is better when we’re together. After so much time apart, this year’s ICC is a time to safely reconnect with our lake and our loved ones while helping to remove plastics from beaches and waterways,” said Lynn Armel, Keep Erie County Beautiful Coordinator.
Erie County cleanup volunteers will contribute to the world’s largest database on marine debris by logging the trash they collect. Scientists, researchers, industry leaders and policymakers rely on Ocean Conservancy’s Ocean Trash Index to inform policy and determine solutions to the growing marine debris crisis.
Every year, millions of tons of trash — including an estimated 11 million metric tons of plastic waste — flows into the ocean, impacting more than 800 marine species and even entering the food chain. Over the last 35 years of the ICC, more than 16.5 million volunteers have joined cleanup efforts big and small to remove 344 million pounds of trash from beaches and waterways worldwide.
“No matter where you are or the size of your cleanup, every piece of trash collected by ICC volunteers helps to stem the tide of plastic entering our ocean,” said Allison Schutes, director of Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup. “We’re excited to be able to come together for this year’s ICC, both through community cleanups events and small group cleanups; and we are so grateful for the efforts of Keep Erie County Beautiful and all the Erie County volunteers in helping us achieve our shared vision for a cleaner, healthier ocean.”
For more information, please visit www.oceanconservancy.org.
