COASTSWEEP

From late August into November, thousands of people in Massachusetts volunteer for COASTSWEEP—the statewide beach cleanup sponsored by the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM). COASTSWEEP is part of the International Coastal Cleanup organized by Ocean Conservancy in Washington, DC. Volunteers from all over the world collect marine debris—trash, fishing line, and any other human-made items—and categorize and tally what they find. This information is then used to help discover marine debris sources and find solutions to this problem. Over the last 37 years, over 100 thousand dedicated COASTSWEEP volunteers have removed more than 1 million pounds of marine debris from Massachusetts shores.