#MarineWildlife - Clean Coasts 'Big Beach Clean' returns to Ireland in 2018 beginning tomorrow, with the volunteer effort continuing throughout this weekend of 15th-16th September.

So join in and take positive action by raising awareness of the massive damage caused by marine litter pollution on the natural world. This can be done by registering online as a Clean Coast group or why not organise your own event with family and friends.  

Once again Clean Coasts, An Taisce's Environmental Education Unit, is teaming up with the Ocean Conservancy for the International Coastal Cleanup event.

Clean Coasts in 2018 is to continue the growth and success of last year's Big Beach Clean, by increasing the number of beach cleans along the Irish coastline. In addition it is their aim to increase the amount of marine litter data collection.

As with previous years, Clean Coasts beach clean packs will contain marine litter data collection cards. This year they will also be encouraging their groups to use the Clean Swell App by Ocean Conservancy and will add a marine data portal to the Clean Coasts website. This will make it easier for volunteers to submit data collected on the beach cleans.

According to Clean Coasts, last year the international event involved 789,138 volunteers taking part from more than 100 countries. Collectively they accumulated nearly 20.5 million pounds (or 9.3 million kilograms) of marine litter.

As in previous years, among the principle litter culprits, cigarette butts—which contain plastic filters—topped the list at approximately 2.4 million collected. This category was followed by food wrappers (1.7 million), plastic beverage bottles (1.6 million), plastic bottle caps (1.1 million), and plastic grocery bags (757,523) rounding out the top five.

Clean Coast encourages everyone to enjoy being part of the movement for litter free seas in addition to being part of the world’s largest coastal cleanup event. Also for those participating in the marine litter survey.

For further information on Clean Coast, the Big Beach Clean and much more visit their website here.