Since 2007, when the Department of Conservation & Fisheries took the lead for annual BVI International Coastal Cleanups, numerous organisations and individuals have pitched in to clean up our beaches and waterways. Thanks to the 17 million volunteers around the globe who have supported this effort over the past 35 years, 348 million pounds of trash have been collected.
In this 16th year of BVI participation, GreenVI is joining with Beyond the Reef, Rotary, Rotaract, Lions, Leos and other organisations to clean up BVI beaches and waterways and invites everyone to join in. Volunteers can choose from six designated clean-up sites for Saturday, September 17th, and one site on Sunday, September 18th.
Locations for meeting up on the 17th are at Trellis Bay, Road Town Festival Ground, West End Playground, Virgin Gorda’s Spring Bay, Anegada’s Loblolly Bay, and Jost Van
Dyke’s Great Harbour. On September 18th at 8:30am, participants meet up at Village Cay Marina and travel to Salt Island with Beyond the Reef. Bags are provided and gloves, sun hats, long pants, long-sleeved shirts and closed shoes are recommended.
Sarah Penney, Deputy Director of Green VI noted that, “The Green VI team will be at the cleanup locations to assist in isolating as much recyclable material as possible and also to help people with the data collection component.” Each year, volunteers complete Data Collection on the Clean Swell app and Ocean Conservancy, official sponsor of the global cleanups, analyses and shares the data to help everyone make better problem-solving decisions. For example, in 2015 beverage bottles topped the list of items collected in the Territory, with over 2,404 plastic and 1,015 glass bottles.
Interested persons or organisations can call Sunita at 345-6000 or email sunita@greenvi.org for more information on volunteering or partnering for what Green VI sees as a great opportunity for everyone to show that they can “Care More, Clean Up & Stay Strong.”