Beach Cleanup Hosted By Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii, The Kokua Foundation, and Plastic Free Hawaii on January 16, 2012 Looking for Volunteers
Honolulu (May 16, 2011)–A beach clean up of the James Campbell Wildlife Refuge is occurring on Martin Luther King Day, also now being promoted as Martin Luther King Day of Service. This is a great opportunity to celebrate the life of Martin Luther King while also providing a much needed service in a fragile eco system. Access to this restricted area is being provided by the Wildlife Refuge so as to assist in creating a usable habitat for the endemic wildlife which includes the monk seal, green sea turtle, migratory birds, and other fauna and flora.
Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii specialize in organizing beach clean ups around the island and hopes to expand to the neighbor islands in the coming year. During 2011, their beach clean ups netted over 15,000 pounds of trash, with 75% of it being inventoried. The majority of trash collected has been in the form of plastic but close behind in second place are cigarette butts. Thanks to the volunteers averaging 200 people per beach clean up these beach clean ups are helping to further the mission of Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii, “Inspiring local communities to care for their coastlines through hands-on beach clean ups of the Hawaiian Islands.”
Event supporters including Patagonia, Hurley, Sea Life Park, Quiksilver, NOAA, Olukai, C4 Waterman, Sweet Home Waimanalo, Becca Beach, City and County of Honolulu, Sun Bum, and local community business near the beaches provide volunteers with raffle prizes and a bottle treasure hunt..
The next beach clean up after the one on January 16, will be February 18th at Bellows beach park where the Surfrider Foundation will be teaming up with Sustainable Coastlines. For more information visit: www.sustainablecoastlineshawaii.org.