Ocean Conservancy celebrates 40 years of cleanups

Ocean Conservancy marked the 40th International Coastal Cleanup earlier this summer, highlighting volunteer-driven shoreline cleanups, long-running data collection, and advocacy tied to ICC findings.

• Main announcement/action: Ocean Conservancy celebrated the 40th International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) and emphasized that the ICC has grown to nearly 19 million volunteers year-round and that since 1986 volunteers have removed more than 400 million pounds of plastics and debris; the organization publishes annual ICC data via the Clean Swell app and annual ICC reports used to inform policy.
• Background and details: The ICC’s research report “What The Foam?!” helped drive the introduction of the Farewell to Foam Act (policy action via Ocean Conservancy’s TakeAction platform); the piece cites local examples (e.g., a Sitka cleanup and a case where collected cigarette butts prompted a beach smoking ban), and highlights the Coordinator Network and use of collected data to identify and address ocean pollution challenges.