Nearly 50 volunteers picked up more than 1,000 pieces of trash and debris on Sept. 16 at Po`olenalena Beach Park in South Maui. The volunteers, who were both locals and visitors, helped pick up the trash in just over two hours.
The largest concentration of trash was the nearly 800 cigarette butts cleaned off the beach. In addition, the volunteers picked up more than 200 food wrappers, 240 metal bottle caps and 106 plastic bottle caps. The group also cleaned up the typical beach debris including fishing buoys, fishing net pieces, fishing line and rope. Items left behind by beach-goers included plastic lids, straws, forks, knives and spoons.
The International Coastal Cleanup Day was hosted by Hawaiian Paddle Sports and Hawaii Mermaid Adventures. For the past 30 years, The Ocean Conservancy has hosted the worldwide International Coastal Cleanup event. During that time, nearly 12 million volunteers have removed over 220 million pounds of trash from the waterways and beaches; Maui’s International Coastal Cleanup event is supported by Malama Maui Nui, in conjunction with The Ocean Conservancy’s international cleanup efforts.
The Po‘olenalena Beach Park trash pickup count also included construction materials, fireworks, tires, a car hood, one Boogie Board, metal and plastic fence material, diapers, tampons, condoms, PVC pipe, glow sticks, a van seat, razor blades, camping gear and shoes.
The clean-up count does not include the two groups who used the Clean Swell App to keep track of the debris they removed. After the cleanup, this data was added to the International Coastal Cleanup’s marine debris database. Results from the data help inform policy and debris removal efforts.
Maui’s International Coastal Cleanup was organized by Hawaiian Paddle Sports as part of its Malama Maui community give back program. To learn more, visit HawaiianPaddleSports.com/Malama-Maui.
Photo: Hawaiian Paddle Sports
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