International Coastal Cleanup at Kahekili!

On Saturday, September 15th, coastal cleanups were held all over the world. Maui was no exception! Many thanks to all the volunteers island-wide who donned the gloves and took part in one place or another. 

Of course, as an effort coordinated by Ka'anapali Makai Watch and CORAL, we targeted Kahekili Beach Park and the surrounding area. We also put together an event, the Hawaii Hotel Coastal Cleanup Challenge, encouraging hotels statewide to get involved. (For a summary of other efforts by hotels, check out this blog post.)

For our cleanup at Kahekili, we were joined by an amazing team of community members, Ka'anapali Makai Watch volunteers, students from four different schools (Maui Waena Intermediate, Lahaina Intermediate, Lahainaluna High, and Maui Preparatory Academy), and the Sustainability Team from the Westin Ka'anapali Ocean Resort Villas, which co-hosted the event and graciously provided refreshments for volunteers. A team from the Honua Kai Resort & Spa was also hard at work cleaning up along a two-mile stretch of highway in the region, while volunteers at the beach split up into smaller teams and covered about 2 miles of shoreline as well.

Check out the facebook album for even more photos!

Mahalo to everyone who put in the time to not only collect the debris, but to tally it using the standardized datasheet. 

The data gets sent to The Ocean Conservancy, which then makes cool infographics like these (incorporating data from the 2011 cleanup):
 
So, what were our results from Kahekili?

The Honua Kai team collected 6 pounds of plastic, 1 pound of aluminum, 5 pounds of glass, and 2 pounds of cardboard along the highway. At the shoreline, volunteers picked up a total of 904 pieces of debris, which were tallied and fell into the following categories:

Of the "smoking-related" activities, the majority of the debris was cigarette butts; not surprising if you've ever been to a beach pretty much anywhere. TOC's data from worldwide cleanups consistently show cigarettes as the top item found.

But what about the debris in the "Shoreline/Recreational Activities" category? It made up over half of the debris found by volunteers. Let's take a closer look at the breakdown of this category:

So, in conclusion, most of the debris found on this particular 2-mile stretch of beach north of Pu'u Keka'a (Black Rock) is from people eating, drinking, and smoking, and not taking their trash out with them. 
Many thanks to all the dedicated volunteers who gave up their Saturday morning to pick up after the people who were unwilling to take responsibility and do it themselves - you made a difference!