2014 “Get the Drift and Bag It” Beach Cleanup Begins

Netting found washed up onshore at Waiehu Beach. 2012 file photo by Wendy Osher.

By Wendy Osher

The nonprofit Community Work Day Program, now doing business as Mālama Maui Nui, hosts its annual “Get the Drift and Bag It” marine debris and shoreline cleanup campaign with a launch event this weekend.

The event is scheduled to run from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. this Saturday, Sept. 20, at two locations: Kaʻa Point by Kanahā Beach Park in Kahului; and the 10th Annual Lahaina Town Cleanup at Kamehameha Iki Park with cleanup extending along the coast from Puamana to Kāʻanapali. 

Participants are encouraged to bring reusable water bottles and work gloves. 

This is the 29th year that that volunteers have collected debris and data as part of the International Coastal Cleanup, which is called “Get the Drift & Bag It” in Hawaiʻi.  The campaign in Hawaiʻi focuses on the protection of the ocean, waterways and marine life from trash and debris.  

During the event volunteers clean up debris and document the types of trash and quantities removed. According to the organization’s data compiled for 2013, the top 10 items collected included: (1) cigarette butts; (2) food wrappers; (3) plastic beverage bottles; (4) bottle caps; (5) straws and stirrers; (6) plastic grocery bags; (7) glass beverage bottles; (8) other plastic bags; (9) paper bags; and (10) beverage cans.

The organization reports that more than 648,000 people volunteered for the coastal cleanup effort worldwide in 2013, and that more than 12 million pounds of trash was removed from 12,914 miles of coastline internationally.