Host a clean up

Beach clean up

Invite your community to join you in helping clean up your local environment, rivers (which lead to the ocean!) or coastlines.

Approx 5,000 items of marine plastic pollution have been found per mile of beach in the UK.

Source

Benefits

  • You can instantly see the positive impact on the environment
  • Clean ups can be used as educational tools to identify the litter collecting in our local communities and coastlines
  • Sharing the debris you find can help inform global scientific datasets on the type and amount of plastic in different areas (see Marine Debris Tracker)
  • You can bring a community together around a shared cause

Challenges

  • It only tackles the symptom of plastic pollution
  • You need to be aware of health and safety, complete risk assessments and ensure relevant insurance is in place (if you are organising as part of a larger group they will have advice on this)
  • Collected litter needs to be sorted and disposed of appropriately

Making a difference

In 2019, Surfrider Foundation helped facilitate 922 cleanups around the US and Europe alone.

There are hundreds of other ways to solve plastic pollution

Explore