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Hi Clean Coasts group
 
September is now over…what a month it has been! With the end of the bathing season, we invited volunteers from all over the country to join us for the Big Beach Clean, which has been the biggest so far.

Other clean-ups continued throughout September on all the beaches around Ireland and we held lots of yoga sessions on the beach, workshops and sunrise swims. 

Now it’s time to get ready for more initiatives that will run during the winter months, so keep following our page to make sure you don’t miss them and you get a chance to get involved!

 

The Biggest of the Big Beach Cleans

We want to thank all the Clean Coasts groups and other volunteers who joined us this year for the Big Beach Clean. Together, we removed an impressive amount of marine litter from our coast, but not only! This year, with the involvement of our fellow An Taisce programme, National Spring Clean, we asked volunteers based anywhere in the country – no matter how far from the coast –  to organise a clean-up and tackle marine litter at its source. 

Here are this year’s results:

  • Over 300 clean-ups took place (vs over 190 in 2018)
  • Approximately 8,000 volunteers got involved (vs approximately 3,650 in 2018)
  • At least 45 tonnes of litter were removed (vs 32 tonnes in 2018)
Isn’t this great?!
 

Check out the clean-ups map!

 

 

Big Beach Clean Launch event on Garryvoe Beach

 
 

The Big Beach Clean 2019 was launched with a special event on Garryvoe Beach, co. Cork, hosted in collaboration with Cully & Sully. 

Over 200 volunteers joined us for the Biggest of the Big Beach Cleans: at the event, all the participants were also rewarded with lunch hosted by Cully & Sully. Several schools from the region got involved, with students from St. John the Baptist, Midleton, Ballycotton N. S., Shanagarry NS, Scartleigh N. S. and St Colmans Secondary School all joining the effort to clean up Garryvoe and surrounding beaches, along with local residents, local business and visitors to the region. 

Just at the launch event, over 1.5 tonnes of litter were removed from the coastal area!

Register now!

 

 

You still have time to fill in the Marine Litter Data Cards

During the Big Beach Clean, Clean Coasts volunteers are asked to be part of an excellent round the world citizen science data collection project and to carry out marine litter surveys to quantify the amount and types of litter on Irish beaches.

The data you collect in this clean up is invaluable to Clean Coasts in helping to raise awareness about the scale of Ireland’s marine litter problem. We would really appreciate it if your group could use the data card during your upcoming clean up and post it in to us (Clean Coasts, 5a Swifts Alley, Francis Street, Dublin 8) or fill it in online at cleancoasts.org.

Submit your data online
 

Happy stories from September

During the summer of 2019 a family decided to undertake The Connaught Coast Cycle Challenge Fundraiser for Clean Coasts. As they live along the West Coast of Ireland in Sligo, Rosses Point, they are passionate about keeping our oceans clean and making our world a better place. 
Read the whole story
 

Margaret Brown, from the Sandycove Clean Coasts group, at the start line of the Dun Laoghaire Ironman. She collected flip-flops, plastic bottles and other items left behind by participants to make sure they didn’t turn into marine litter.
 

A few weeks ago Thomas (11) from Portrane contacted us to tell us about his project. He sold painted stones of ocean creatures at the art and crafts market in Donabate in September to raise awareness and money for organisations like Clean Coasts. He even created his own small and unofficial organisation called S.O.S.C – Save our Sea Creatures. Isn’t this amazing?!
 

Luke (15) from Kinsale spent his summer holidays cleaning up his local harbour and is planning to travel the Atlantic way in 2020 to identify plastic pollution hot spots and help fighting this issue.
Watch his video
 

Coastal Projects

Clean Coasts works with businesses throughout Ireland on corporate volunteering days. These businesses support our Clean Coasts grant by ways of a donation for the day. We are hoping to work more closely with Clean Coasts groups in 2019 to support any much needed coastal work that could be completed by our corporate volunteers. The groups vary in size from 10 to 30 and would be delighted to help with any projects that there may be at your adopted beach. Please contact us at cleancoasts@eeu.antaisce.org if you have any suitable projects in mind. 

 

Do you have a coastal story?

The Clean Coasts Blog is a collection of stories that touches on the experience of Clean Coasts staff and the coast. There stories vary from finding fossils on Sligo beaches to their experience of cold water swimming. We would love to hear your stories which will be showcased on our social media platforms and website. If you have a story to share or would like to write a piece on becoming a Clean Coasts group or any other experience you would like to share. please let us know. We are looking for short pieces using your own voice. 

Check out our blog stories
 

Clean Coasts Groups

Just a quick reminder on the benefits that you can avail of as a Clean Coasts group:

  1. Support from the Clean Coasts Officer in your region
  2. Clean Coasts Grants 
  3. Beach cleaning kit during initiatives
  4. Roadshows, awards ceremonies and Clean Coasts events
  5. Third Party Public Liability insurance for your group while beach cleaning 
* Please be aware that at the moment we are working on our Clean Coasts Group Map so there are a number of Clean Coasts groups missing from it but we hope to have this updated soon. 

Finally, don’t forget to follow us on our social media to always stay up to date with the latest news, competitions and events: