Start A Cleanup

More than 16 million volunteers have collected over 340 million pounds of trash

Every year during Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup™, hundreds of thousands of volunteers comb lakes, rivers and beaches around the world for trash. For over three decades, more than 12 million volunteers have collected more than 220 million pounds of trash.

Join the wave. Next time you’re headed out to the beach or a nearby park, download Ocean Conservancy’s app, Clean Swell® and take along a trash bag to collect and document the debris you find.

Feeling more ambitious? Recruit friends and family to join you in a larger cleanup. Explain to them that no matter where you live—whether on the coast or hundreds of miles inland—all waterways lead to the ocean. But if we take action and work together, we can improve the ocean’s health and make trash free seas a reality.

Here’s everything you’ll need to plan your own cleanup:

• Before the Cleanup
• During the Cleanup
• After the Cleanup