On September 16th, volunteers will scour the shorelines of T&T to collect and properly dispose of garbage for International Coastal Cleanup Day.

It’s an effort to raise awareness about environmental health, as well as to keep beaches and inland waterways clean.

In 2022 more than 30,000 pounds of garbage was collected on 30 miles of waterway by over 3000 volunteers.

The cleanup also is a data collection exercise, which includes documenting the types of and weight of debris found.

Plastic bottles have topped the list of items collected in beach clean-up exercises in T&T over the years, followed by plastic bottle caps and plastic bags.

Other items such as old vehicle tyres, TVs, stoves and clothing have also been found on the coastlines over the years.