Hit The Beach For International Coastal Cleanup Day

BRANFORD, CT- What do dentures, a vacuum cleaner, toilet plunger, dog sweater, a traffic cone and almost six million cigarette butts have in common?

It's all stuff that's been found washed up on coastlines and collected by volunteers on International Coastal Cleanup day.

On Saturday Sept. 21, across nearly two dozen Connecticut towns, volunteers will get sandy and wet for the global good as part of the international effort of the Ocean Conservancy and locally, Save the Sound, as it fights plastic pollution.

Organized cleanups are slated for Branford and at Hammonasset Beach State Park in Madison.

The International Coastal Cleanup, founded by Ocean Conservancy 34 years ago, brings together over a million volunteers to remove trash from coastlines around the world. Save the Sound has been Connecticut coordinator for the event since 2002. This Saturday, individuals and community groups ranging from a SCUBA club to Cub Scouts will don gloves and clean-up their favorite waterside spots across the state.

Save the Sound says that "thanks in large part to an expanded sponsorship from Subaru of New England, this year’s effort will feature cleanups in areas far from the coast, such as Manchester and Torrington. Volunteers in these areas will keep trash out of rivers and streams that local residents enjoy and that eventually feed into the Sound."

In the past ten years alone, over 17,000 local volunteers have picked up more than 62 tons of litter and debris from Connecticut’s beaches, rivers, coastal marshes, and island shores. Last year saw 1,442 volunteers gather at 50 different sites to rid Connecticut’s shorelines of 7,617 pounds of trash. Each item is tracked and reported for inclusion in Ocean Conservancy’s annual index of global marine debris.

Save the Sound has a special focus on plastics again this year, including cigarette butts, plastic bags, straws, and other trash that harms wildlife that ingest or become tangled in it.“In 2017, Save the Sound cleanup volunteers picked up 3,381 plastic straws and drink stirrers, and 1,288 plastic grocery bags,” Soundkeeper Bill Lucey said.

“In 2018, we saw those numbers drop to 2,005 and 1,099 respectively. With a new fee on plastic bags now in effect here in Connecticut and more residents choosing to forego plastic straws, we hope to see these and other numbers continue to decline this year.”

Save the Sound’s 2019 Coastal Cleanup season kicked off in early August with a pair of cleanups in New Haven, and continues through October with a total of 70 cleanups planned.

Interested volunteers can register for a nearby public cleanup online. Or, meet at the cleanup locations in Branford and Madison, at Hammonasset:

Branford Point, Branford

9:00 AM – 11:00 AM
With Save the Sound’s 2019 ICC sponsor, Subaru of New England

Meig’s Point at Hammonasset Beach State Park, Madison
9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
With Friends of Hammonasset.