Photos and Video Available Here

SEATTLE – Today, volunteers collected 142 pounds of trash from Alki Beach during Ocean Conservancy’s first ever Seattle-based flagship International Coastal Cleanup^© (ICC) event, held in partnership with Puget Soundkeeper. Globally, since the first ICC in 1986, over 18 million volunteers have joined local cleanup efforts big and small to remove over 385 million pounds of trash from beaches and waterways, making it the largest beach and waterway cleanup in the world. At last year’s ICC, over 486,000 volunteers collected nearly 8 million pounds of trash globally, including nearly 2 million cigarette butts, over 1.3 million beverage bottles, and over 850,000 bottle caps.

“Yes, we need system-level change. We need things like plastic bag policies, we need policies that hold companies accountable for making less plastics, and to make those plastics that we do need more recyclable,” said Ocean Conservancy’s Vice President of Conservation for Ocean Plastics Nicholas Mallos in opening remarks at the event. “With that said, when you crunch the numbers, the science still tells us that even if we get everything right… we still will need to clean up, which is where all of you come in… So, thank you for being here. You are part of the solution.”

“Seeing friends, families, and neighbors join us to celebrate and sustain the Puget Sound is always a magical moment,” said Puget Soundkeeper’s Stewardship and Education Manager Tanya Balaji. “Today’s event shows just what’s possible when a community comes together for a common cause, and we’re excited to keep building on this momentum – for Alki, for Seattle, and for the Sound.”

Peter Murphy, Regional Director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Program, also participated in the event alongside nearly 200 other volunteers in attendance.  

Partners in Washington state have been participating in Ocean Conservancy’s ICC for 36 years. Since 2019, in the Puget Sound area alone, nearly 9,000 volunteers have removed close to 200,000 individual pieces of trash, weighing a whopping 75,000 pounds. Meanwhile, Washington state has been at the forefront of plastics policy. The state has banned plastic foam foodware, including clamshell containers, plates and cups, as well as single-use foam coolers and packing peanuts; and last year, Governor Jay Inslee signed into law legislation designed to reduce single-use water bottles, other plastic packaging, and plastic foam docks.

Every year, more than 11 million metric tons of plastic waste are estimated to enter the ocean, impacting more than 1,300 species of marine life, including seabirds, sea turtles and marine mammals. Plastics never fully breakdown in the environment and instead, break into smaller and smaller pieces called microplastics. Microplastics are being found everywhere scientists look, from the depths of the Mariana trench to mountain tops, and even our dinner tables, showing up in proteins, salt, and even drinking water.

In addition to the direct benefit of removing trash from the environment, the data collected by ICC volunteers using the Clean Swell app or data sheets contribute to Ocean Conservancy’s marine litter database. This database is the world’s largest repository of marine debris data and is used to inform scientists, conservation groups, governments, and industry leaders about ocean trash and support plastic pollution prevention and advocacy efforts. ICC data have been instrumental in spurring policy change, being used to promote California’s SB 54, Florida’s ban on balloon releases, and the national Farewell to Foam Act, and to advocate for source reduction in the upcoming plastics treaty.

The International Coastal Cleanup media kit with photos, b-roll and data can be found HERE.

You can find a two pager with topline data from the 2023 ICC HERE.

You can find the full 2023 ICC report HERE.

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