THIS year’s trash collection of 6,079 pounds during the CNMI International Coastal Cleanup on Sept. 28 is about one-third less than last year’s haul of 9,097 pounds.
There were 1,574 volunteers who collected trash from 82 locations throughout the CNMI during this year’s annual cleanup.
During the cleanup last year, over 900 members of the CNMI community collected trash from 76 locations on Rota, Saipan, and Tinian.
The increase in volunteers and the decrease in trash show that environmental stewardship is present in the CNMI community, and the amount of illegal litter and/or marine debris in the environment has lessened over the past year, according to Colleen Flores of the Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality-Division of Coastal Resources Management on Tuesday. Flores is also this year’s CNMI ICC coordinator.
The ICC is the world’s largest single-day cleanup event whose participants are volunteers from states and territories throughout the U.S. and over 100 countries worldwide.
Data collected during the ICC are entered into the Global Trash Database to help solve the world’s ocean pollution problem.
Flores said she is still receiving data collection sheets from the volunteers and is unable to share this year’s top 10 most collected items.
However, she said, the trend from past years seems to continue with cigarette butts, plastic bottle caps, and other plastic pieces at the top of the list of most collected items.
Participants in the ICC event in the CNMI each adopted a location and were asked to tally data while collecting trash.
Cleanup supplies were made available upon request, and trash hauling and disposal were conducted by the Bureau of Environmental Coastal Quality and the Micronesia Islands Nature Alliance.
This year on Saipan, 893 volunteers collected 4,360 pounds of trash from 42 locations.
Tinian saw 149 volunteers collect 687 pounds of trash from 10 locations.
Rota had 532 volunteers who collected 1,032 pounds of trash from 30 locations.
For more information, visit https://www.dcrm.gov.mp
Community members collected various trash items at Laulau Beach during this year’s International Coastal Cleanup.
