We had a great and productive day last Saturday for the 2022 International Coastal Cleanup Miami-Dade (Spearheaded globally by the Ocean Conservancy, and organized locally by VolunteerCleanup.org). 3,000 volunteers came out and collected a record shattering 22,125 pounds from 56 unique locations. Even Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava came out.!. See the recap below including:
- A quick educational debrief
- TV News Segment – Channel 10 did an AMAZING segment on the day – link below
- Final Results, Tally (WOW!!!!!!!!) and our thoughts
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Watch the Educational Debrief
We know that cleanups are not the long-term answer, but they can be very powerful eye-opening experiences that often serve as the catalyst for behavior change around single-use plastic consumption. Individuals, businesses, and government all have a role to play – and awareness is the first step towards action. If you didn’t attend a cleanup or weren’t around for your site captain’s educational debrief, Dara recorded a 2-minute debrief video on the marine debris lifecycle for you. Show her some love and give a thumbs up on the video.
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Video Montage of the day – News Story
Emmy award-winning journalist, Louis Aguirre from Local 10 News (on Channel 10) did an amazing segment recapping ICC on his weekly ‘Don’t Trash Our Treasure‘ segment. All of our site captains submitted footage of the different cleanups, so there is a good chance you or your friends were on TV.!. Watch the news segment here and share share share.
Set your DVR’s for every Wednesday to record the Local 10 News @ 5pm on Channel 10 for the weekly “Don’t Trash Our Treasure” segment that highlights local environmental issues.
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International Coastal Cleanup Day 2022 Results !!!
Holy Hermit Crab!!! 22,125 pounds from 55 locations and 2,976 volunteers.!. This is our 8th year organizing Miami-Dade County’s involvement in this annual global event, and it was bigger and better than ever before! We had more cleanup locations (55 vs 53) and a bigger haul than ever before (22,125 vs 17,771)! Thanks to our citizen science data collection, we’ve identified that BOTTLE CAPS are the top item collected in mangroves and rock shorelines, and CIGARETTE BUTTS are the top item collected on beaches (we still have more data to enter manually).
While this was a great event, this is sounding huge alarm bells for us. There are 6-10 cleanups happening all over Miami-Dade every weekend, and these locations are regularly cleaned by volunteers, yet we still collected more trash then ever before? Whats up with that Miami’ans? And municipalities?
We’ve identified a couple of significant sources that should be addressed immediately:
1) Poor waste management on the spoil islands: Boaters are bringing too much material out with them and then leaving the trash on the islands in overflowing garbage cans only to be washed away when the tides come in. Goverment needs to rethink the trash bins on the islands and put dumpsters at the boat ramps. And boaters need to ‘pack-it-out’.
2) Increasing (illegal) use of the Julia Tuttle Causeways: We are seeing a huge increase in people renting jetskis, fishing, partying, and religious ceremonies in an area not set up for visitors – and leaving all their trash behind. We need to address the root causes and clear people off the Causeway!
3) Insufficient Maintenance of Stormwater Systems and Canals: This is starting to be addressed, but it isn’t near frequent enough. Adding pollution controls and maintenance is government’s responsibility.
4) Lack of pride in the 305. Miami is an amazing place. Sure it has problems, but we are lucky that this is our home. Every resident must take pride in our neighborhoods and our community every single day – not just when the Heat win the playoffs. This is our home.
We want to give a big thank you to all the volunteers who showed up strong for our ocean last Saturday – this is truly a community effort.
We also want to acknowledge all organizations who serve as “Site Captains” leading each of the individual cleanups. These include many local environmental non-profits, local universities, city, county, state, and national parks, individual community leaders, and local businesses. Additionally, we are grateful for the logistical support we receive from the Miami-Dade County Parks and Recreation, City of Miami Parks and Recreation, and the City of Miami Beach.
Finally, we’d also like to recognize the sponsors who not only lend financial support to the production of this county-wide event but also rally their employees to participate the day of. The 2022 Miami-Dade ICC is made possible by the generous support of our Presenting Sponsors Covanta and the Rickenbacker Marina, our Strategic Sponsors Blackstone Charitable Foundation, Verizon, and the Benjamin & Gloria Joannou, Jr. Family Conservation Fund, our Core Sponsors Miami-Dade County RER-DERM and Pubbelly Sushi, and our Supporting Sponsor Greenberg Traurig and the Consulate General of Canada.
