Coastal Cleanup
Picking up the pieces on Connecticut's beaches
Environmental & Economic Hazards
Marine life can easily be entangled in fishing line, nets, and six-pack rings. Fish, birds and turtles mistake trash like styrofoam, plastics, and cigarette butts for food, which may eventually lead to starvation.
Marine debris weakens coastal economies by sapping dollars from the tourism and seafood industries. Long Island Sound contributes more than $9 billion to the regional economy each year, and we'd like to keep it that way.
Cleaning Beaches, Saving the Sound
Save the Sound, supported by the Long Island Sound Study and National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, organizes coastal cleanups in the fall to remove debris along our shoreline. In the last six years, our Coastal Cleanup program has brought together more than 12,500 volunteers to remove over 96,500 pounds of trash from nearly 345 miles of Connecticut waterfront.
International Coastal Cleanup
Save the Sound is the Connecticut coordinator for Ocean Conservancy's annual International Coastal Cleanup, the largest volunteer effort of its kind. Every September for more than 30 years, ICC has motivated over 11.5 million people from around the world to pick up over 210 million pounds of trash from nearly 390,000 miles of shoreline.
Our 2015 ICC Results
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58 cleanup events
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1,512 volunteers
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6,517 lbs of trash
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45 miles of waterfront
Get involved!
If you'd like to be a captain for a Connecticut coastal cleanup, email Annalisa Paltauf at apaltauf@savethesound.org to stake your claim. If you know of other sites in need of help, please let us know. Visit our calendar to find a cleanup near you.
Corporate Sponsorships & Cleanups
Save the Sound is seeking corporate partners who will help support our fall coastal cleanup program, either financially or through in-kind gifts of needed supplies. With your support, Save the Sound can coordinate a corporate cleanup for your organization. To learn more, please email Annalisa Paltauf.
For more on the worldwide 2015 ICC,
visit Ocean Conservancy