124 Nassau County Volunteers clean up 425 pounds of Trash from Amelia Island Beaches as Part of World’s Largest Single-Day Beach Cleanup

In addition to removing 425 pounds of trash from 12.5 miles of Amelia Island beaches, site coordinators and volunteers contributed to the world’s largest database on marine debris by logging each trash item in Ocean Conservancy’s TIDES database. Scientists, researchers, industryleaders and policymakers rely on Ocean Conservancy’s Ocean Trash Index to inform policy and determine solutions to the growing marine debris crisis.

Every year, millions of tons of trash—including an estimated 8 million metric tons of plastic waste—flow into the ocean, entangling wildlife, polluting beaches, and costing coastal municipalities hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. Last year for the first time all ten of the top-ten most-collected Items globally were made of plastic, including cigarette butts (which contain plastic filters), plastic bags, plastic beverage bottles, food wrappers, plastic bottle caps  and plastic straws. Plastics—which never fully biodegrade but rather break up into smaller and smaller pieces called microplastics—are of particular concern. Scientists predict that without concerted global action, there could be one ton of plastic for every three tons of fin fish in the ocean by 2025.