Callout for volunteers to clean up Cork's beaches 

Clean Coasts are putting out the call for Cork people to get involved in a national clean up of Irish beaches.

The annual Big Beach Clean initiative is back, and registrations are now open to receive a clean-up kit and join the sea of volunteers who take to Irish coasts every year to remove as much litter as possible over one weekend.

Last year in county Cork, volunteers organised clean-ups in 80 different locations, removing almost 7 tonnes of litter over the weekend. Clean Coasts hosted a Big Beach Clean event at Garryvoe Beach that Saturday on the 18th of September 2021, where 20 volunteers removed an additional 30kg of marine litter.

In 2021, a record number of over 400 clean-ups were organised by volunteers who removed 42 tonnes of litter across the whole country.

This year’s Big Beach Clean will run from 16th to 18th September, as part of the International Coastal Cleanup (ICC), operated internationally by Ocean Conservancy.

This call-to-action invites communities and volunteers around the country to remove litter from around the Irish coast, and also to get involved in a worldwide citizen science project, which entails collecting the amount and types of litter on Irish beaches and filling in Clean Coasts’ Marine Litter Data Cards.

This information is an important indicator of the magnitude of the problem of marine litter, and will help shape future policies and campaigns.

This year, Clean Coasts are calling not only Clean Coasts groups and people who would traditionally be involved in environmental activities to join. Clean Coasts, with the support of Content Creators such as Deric Hartigan, James Kavanagh, Aoife McNamara and Niamh Maher are asking everybody in the community to get involved and find out more about the benefits of taking part in a beach clean and international citizen science project.

Cully and Sully are supporting the Big beach Clean again this year, and Cullen Allen said they are encouraging all their customers to sign up.

“We are big beach & water fans in Cully & Sully and we fully realize the importance of keeping our beaches and waterways clean and useable for everyone to enjoy,” he said.

Sinead McCoy, Coastal Communities Manager, said that the clean up of coastlines around Ireland at this time of year is “unfortunately very much needed”.

“Last year we had a boost in clean ups with loads more areas on the coast, along lakes and riverways and in our town and villages being cleaned up, we are excited to build on this success and get even more volunteers out cleaning during weekend,” she said.

Registration is open to all residents of Ireland, no matter how far from the coast they are based, on https://cleancoasts.org/