VolunteerCleanup.org engages volunteers to clean their neighborhoods, shorelines, and waterways as a way to raise awareness about marine debris and encourage people to reduce their reliance on single-use plastics. As a service provider, our website is our primary program- a free community resource that connects people organizing shoreline cleanups with the volunteers who are looking for one to join. Anyone can post a cleanup to our website and reach our database of several thousand local volunteers in the South Florida area. Similarly, any volunteer looking for a cleanup to attend, can come to our website, find a cleanup, and register online. We also provide personalized consulting and training to students, community leaders, and corporate representatives to lead their own cleanups in order to expand our reach and impact, as well as private Corporate Day of Service and Team Building events. Since inception, we've facilitated over 900 individual cleanup events, totaling 56,864 volunteer hours from 6938 registered volunteers and amounting to an estimated 180,600 pounds of marine debris gathered and removed from our local shorelines. We are also the Miami-Dade County organizers for the global International Coastal Cleanup Day each year in September where we organize 45 shoreline cleanups throughout Miami-Dade with 3,000 volunteers on one day of service.
A video demonstrating the abundance of styrofoam in our local marine environment.
Marine Debris on a shoreline of Biscayne Bay-- this is the problem we are addressing.
We are the Miami Dade county organizers for the Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup Day. We plan and coordinate 45 different shoreline cleanup events throughout the county, and engage 3,000 volunteers to pick up 15,000 pounds of debris during one single-day of service. This program has an important citizen science component as volunteers catalog and tally everything they collect to contribute to the Ocean Conservancy's database, the only annual index of marine debris, where it is used to inform policy change. Our belief, which underlines our overall approach, is that participating in a shoreline cleanup is an eye-opening experience that is a catalyst for behavior change and inspires volunteers to reduce single-use plastics in their personal lives and take further action on a broad range of environmental issues.
Our website VolunteerCleanup.org serves as a community resource and central repository that brings together volunteers looking to join an cleanup with any hosts who want to post their event to our site and reach our database of volunteers through our weekly notification blasts and search by zipcode function. Sign up today to receive your weekly notifications of cleanup events in your area at: http://www.volunteercleanup.org/volunteer. Our belief, which underlines our overall approach, is that participating in a shoreline cleanup is an eye-opening experience that is a catalyst for behavior change and inspires volunteers to reduce single-use plastics in their personal lives and take further action on a broad range of environmental issues.
We distribute free reusable portable pocket ashtrays to cigarette smokers so that they have a good place to dispose of their butts and to raise awareness for the harm of cigarette litter in the marine environment.
Learn more about Miami Dade Coastal Cleanup, Inc.