Washington—September 19, 2016—Hundreds of thousands of volunteers around the world participated in Ocean Conservancy’s 31^st International Coastal Cleanup on Saturday, September 17, 2016, to stem the tide of trash entering our ocean.

“Marine debris is a serious concern for the health of our ocean,” said Allison Schutes, senior manager for Ocean Conservancy’s Trash Free Seas Program. “Fortunately, this is a problem that we can solve, and through our International Coastal Cleanup we get a glimpse of the impact of this global community that is working for a future of trash free seas.”

The International Coastal Cleanup is the world’s largest single-day volunteer effort to remove trash from local waterways, beaches, lakes and rivers. This year, volunteers used Ocean Conservancy’s Clean Swell app (available for free download from the App Store and Google Play) to document every piece of trash collected for the Ocean Trash Index, the world’s largest database on marine debris. In the past three decades, more than 225 million items of trash have been logged and removed from our beaches and waterways by more than 11.5 million volunteers.

Marine debris is harmful to marine environments and wildlife, especially marine plastic debris which has been documented as harming nearly 700 species of wildlife.  Every year, an estimated 8 million metric tons of plastic waste flows into the ocean, and at least 80% of ocean plastic originates from land-based sources. Without concerted global action, there could be one ton of plastic for every three tons of fin fish by 2025, leading to significant environmental, economic and health issues.

“Keeping our ocean free from trash is one of the easiest ways to improve the health of our ocean. From participating in beach cleanups to creating less trash, we can all play a part in keeping our ocean clean and free of trash,” said Nicholas Mallos, director for Ocean Conservancy’s Trash Free Seas Program.

Partners:

The Coca-Cola Company has supported Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup for the past 20 years. Each year Coca-Cola activates a global employee engagement campaign to encourage participation in the Cleanup. As part of its commitment to address global climate change, Bank of America has supported the Cleanup since 2002, with thousands of employees participating in Cleanup events all around the world. The Brunswick Public Foundation has supported Ocean Conservancy for 20 years, engaging the boating community in cleaning up our waterways and oceans Other national sponsors include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Cox Enterprises, Altria Group, Inc. and The Dow Chemical Company with additional support from the Glad Products Company, ITW and the Martin Foundation, Norton Point, Owens-Illinois, Inc. and the Robert & Toni Bader Charitable Foundation.

Ocean Conservancy would also like to thank its outreach partners including Keep America Beautiful, Project AWARE, the United Nations Environment Programme and the U.S. Department of State.

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Ocean Conservancy is working with you to protect the ocean from today’s greatest global challenges. Together, we create science-based solutions for a healthy ocean and the wildlife and communities that depend on it. For more information, visit www.oceanconservancy.org, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.