A total of 200 cleanup sites have been registered by 193 groups for International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) Day Jamaica 2022.

This is a first for the annual event hosted by the national coordinator, Jamaica Environment Trust (JET), with support from the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) and the Ocean Conservancy.

This year ICC Day, will be held on September 17, 2022, and there will be cleanups in every parish across the island. 

Lauren Creary, JET’s programme director, explained, “For the past two years, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the scale of the project has been significantly reduced, and so we are pleased to see this level of interest this year. Most of the garbage which accumulates on our coastlines is due to poor garbage disposal practices. The possibility of having so many of our beaches cleaned up by Jamaican volunteers for ICC 2022 is a huge milestone”. 

JET’s flagship cleanup is also back this year after a two-year hiatus. Over 1,000 volunteers have registered for its cleanup, which will take place at the Palisadoes Go Kart Track in Kingston on ICC Day.

Dr Theresa Rodriguez-Moodie, chief executive officer of JET, said, “It is important for people to get involved in cleaning up our beaches because marine debris is a people problem. Cleanups are not a permanent solution. They, however, help to reduce the flow of garbage into our marine environment until we have improvements in our solid waste management infrastructure and in people’s behaviour towards solid waste. Cleanups also help to raise awareness and is an important educational activity”.

At ICC cleanups, volunteers are not only responsible for picking up trash, but also collecting data on the type of garbage they collect.

“We are very interested to see if there will be any additional changes in the composition of the waste since the third phase of the single-use plastic was implemented in 2021,” added Creary.

The data collected by volunteers on ICC Day is compiled and sent by JET to the Ocean Conservancy, which has been coordinating the event globally since 1985.

A full list of 2022 ICC events taking place across the island on September 17, 2022, is available on social media pages. JET encourages all Jamaicans to join a cleanup in their parish.