International Coastal Cleanup Day 2016 Jamaica

International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) Day takes place on the third Saturday in September every year.It is the largest one-day volunteer event in the world. This year it was on Saturday, September 17th and I joined forces with the Jamaica JET Alumni Association to do our part in cleaning up Jamaica coastline.

“End of Stones” cleanup site

We joined other volunteers at the “End of Stones” cleanup site on the Palisadoes in Kingston. We removed 120+ plastics bottles and dozens of pieces of plastic, metal, foam, sponge, syringes, cloth, wood and rubber later we retreated from the blazing sun feeling good about our contribution.

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Jamaica JET Alumni Association

I must commend the Jamaica JET Alumni Association especially Marsha, Karen and Maria for inviting me and my ruthless “taichou” Nadya who lead my group. Let’s do this again in the coming years!

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International Coastal Cleanup Day

When Jamaica first joined the ICC movement in the mid-1990s, cleanups were generally small, and took place in only a few locations across the island. In 2008, the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) became national coordinators of ICC activities in Jamaica, and gained the support of the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) as the project’s primary donor. That year, with TEF’s support and JET’s outreach, 27 groups coordinated 1,800 volunteers to clean up 34 beaches across the island. Since 2008, the event has grown by leaps and bounds, attracting almost 8,000 volunteers annually to cleanup over 120 beaches islandwide. – Jamaica Environment Trust

4 thoughts on “International Coastal Cleanup Day 2016 Jamaica

  1. Hi Kirk: It was such a lovely surprise to see you yesterday. I have been volunteering on ICC Day for about 10 years now (I think I’ve lost track of the years actually!) It was so good to see many young people there – and the Japanese/Jamaican community worked really hard. If you look at my blog post from yesterday you will see one Japanese volunteer (and his small Jamaican sidekick) from “Garbie Walkie” in the featured photo. I will also post them on my Facebook page today. [love] See you all again next year I hope!!

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