THIS year’s International Coastal Cleanup is set for Saturday, Sept. 16, and community members who want to join a team are invited to be part of the Bureau of Environmental Coastal Quality official cleanup crew, ICC Coordinator Colleen Flores said.
BECQ will clean Micro Beach, and volunteers will be provided trash bags and gloves, she added.
Elsewhere on the island, more than 40 beachside and roadside locations are targeted for cleanup activities.
The ICC will likewise take place on Rota and Tinian, Flores said.
Aside from being an opportunity to beautify the island, the ICC will also allow the Division of Coastal Resources Management, BECQ, Mariana Islands Nature Alliance, and other organizations to record the kind of trash that is making it to the islands’ coasts.
According to the official ICC website, the data recorded during the cleanup will go to an international solid waste management database.
Flores said there are important implications for the data collected at the ICC.
“Data collection helps scientists, both locally and globally, fight against the plastic pollution problem by informing trends of the types of plastic present in our environment, understanding how/where plastic pollution travels, and also supports legislation movement in regards to single-use plastic ban,” Flores said.
She advises volunteers to split up into smaller groups of three to four people, with one designated trash collector in each small group.
As other group members pick up trash, the data collector can tally each piece one-by-one before they enter the trash bags, she said. This makes data collection more efficient and timelier.
Flores calls Saturday’s event a way to show appreciation for your island, and an opportunity to be a “citizen scientist.”
“It is always important for our community members to come together and give back to our community and islands,” Flores said. The ICC is one of many community events that gives our people a chance to better our environment, not just for ourselves but for our future generations, she added.
