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You don’t have to wait for someone to organize a cleanup, or even find people to clean with. Picking up trash is as easy as grabbing a bucket or garbage bag, some gloves and talking a walk in your neighborhood, heading to a park, jumping in a river for a paddle, taking putting your toes in the sand on the beach.
And if you need Community Service Hours, we’ve got you covered.!. Just follow the instructions below to get your certificate.
Trash picking is like a box of chocolates – You never know what you are going to get. Always wear gloves and appropriate clothing / shoes. Look with your eyes first before picking up, and be very careful with sharp objects. You don’t have to touch anything that seems unsafe. The best practice for needles is to find a wide mouth bottle and carefully put it in and close the lid. Don’t place sharp objects loose in a plastic bag where it can poke you!
All you really need are gloves and a garbage bag. We like inexpensive nitrile-coated reusable and washable gloves like these at Lowes, but even dishwashing gloves from under your sink or your local grocery store are fine. If you are going to do this more frequently, we recommend re-purposing a bucket from a local restaurant that is destined for the trash (soy sauce, pickles or condiments often come in 5-gallon buckets), and getting a picker / reaching tool.
We give a maximum of 2-hours per cleanup, but you can do as many cleanups as you’d like!
To be eligible to receive community service hours for your cleanup, you must log your cleanup in the ‘Clean Swell’ app. When you are done collecting and have submitted your data you will receive an email summary. Forward that summary (or a screen shot of the summary) along with a photo of you and your bags from the cleanup to [email protected] We will send you an electronic community service certificate within 1 week. We’d like to see an action shot photo of you doing the cleanup, and a final shot of all the full trash bags or buckets before you throw it away so we can see the total volume. If you want to earn an additional hour (3-hours total) see details below about the optional essay you can submit along with your cleanup photos and Clean Swell report.
Citizen Science Data collection is a crucial component used to quantify the problem and help support good government policy. Download the app before your cleanup and log the types and amounts of trash you collect. (Logging your trash in Clean Swell is required for community service hours). Check out the CleanSwell poster or Watch the short Video for more guidance on using the app.
If you would like to earn an extra bonus hour, (1 per person), you can submit an essay about your cleanup discussing the following points.
1) Tell us a little about your cleanup (where did you do it, why did you pick this location)
2) What did you find on your cleanup?
3) How did this make you feel?
4) Where do you think this trash is coming from? How did it get to the location where you found it?
5) What are the impacts of trash in our oceans and beaches? Why should we be concerned about marine debris?
6) What can individuals do to solve this problem?
7) What should businesses be doing to solve this problem?
8) What should government be doing to solve this problem?
9) Now that you’ve seen this problem, what are 2-3 commitments you will make to be part of the solution?
Spreading knowledge of our marine debris problem is critical to solving the problem. Share pictures and your thoughts or changes you commit to making and tag @VolunteerCleanup so we can like your post.!.
VolunteerCleanup.Org engages volunteers to cleanup their neighborhoods, shorelines, and waterways as a way to raise awareness about marine debris and encourage people to reduce their reliance on single-use plastics.
VolunteerCleanup.Org is a project of Miami Dade Coastal Cleanup, Inc, a 501(c)3 non-profit registered with the IRS (EIN 42-1766017)