There’s nothing greener than helping to keep our beaches and coastal waterways clean. Round up your team to host a coastal cleanup or raise funds to support the pro groups that do it every day!

Do a research beforehand: Find a beach area that really needs help. Check with the county or city about the best times for your event and any other pertinent information.

1. Walk the Beach

Aside from making the ocean healthier, a clean beach helps local residents and tourists. Many coastal communities rely on tourism for income, including hotels and restaurants. Tourists are more likely to stay in a community with beautiful beaches, take photos of them and promote it online. If they see littered beaches, they are less likely to visit. Getting rid of excessive trash also reduces disease-causing mosquitoes and other pests that live near dumped garbage.

Walking on the beach is an excellent form of exercise. It’s a full-body workout that challenges the muscles and joints. Plus, the scenery and sound of crashing waves can be calming and soothing. Scientists have found that when people walk by the water and listen to the sound of rushing waves, they produce less of the stress hormone cortisol.

To make your beach walk more productive, plan to go at low tide. This will ensure that you can cover the most area. It’s also best to wear comfortable shoes, work gloves and bring water to drink. It’s also a good idea to wear sunscreen and hats, especially during the summer.

Before you head out, warm up with stretches like standing calf raises and quad rolls. You can even try a squat with weights to add more resistance. Then, find firmer sand closer to the water. This is more difficult to walk on than loose sand, but it’ll help prevent muscle strain. Another way to minimize risk is to walk in a zig-zag pattern. While this may feel weird at first, it’s a great way to distribute pressure evenly over the entire body.

During a beach cleanup, remember to fill out data cards about the items you remove. These are compiled and analyzed by experts to provide valuable information about the source and volume of marine debris. This data is used to create strategies to reduce global ocean waste and improve waste management.

2. Take a Sightseeing Trip

With increased awareness of how much marine debris is being ingested by marine life and washing up on beaches, more and more people are joining in to clean their local coastlines. It is important that we all help to ensure that these beautiful natural environments remain pristine. If you are looking for a way to spend a day doing something fun and good for the environment, then a sightseeing trip is definitely an option.

As with any large-scale event, it is important to plan ahead when you are hosting a beach cleanup. This includes securing the necessary permits, if needed, as well as reaching out to any governing institutions responsible for the area in which you intend to clean. This is especially true if the event will be open to the public. They will likely have invaluable information on the best places to look and what types of things are typically found in that particular coastal area.

When planning your clean up, make sure to pick a date that is convenient for the majority of your volunteers. Also, choose a meeting point that is easy to find. If you have a lot of people participating, it may be helpful to split them into groups and give each group their own trash bags. This will allow them to cover the entire area while still being able to meet up at the end. It is also a good idea to register your event with ocean conservation organizations to increase outreach and participation.

4. Collect Compost

When food scraps and yard waste end up in landfills, they create methane (a greenhouse gas more than 100 times as potent as carbon dioxide). But when they’re composted instead, they return to the soil, where they contribute to healthy, vibrant plants that absorb carbon dioxide. Coastal cleanups can help you collect the organic materials you need for your own composter.

Invite employees to attend a coastal cleanup with you, or host a day where your whole team can take part in the cleanup. This is an opportunity to bond with coworkers while making a meaningful impact on the local environment.

Organize your group to identify beaches or waterways near your office where you can pick up litter. Check with the local parks agency that oversees that area to make sure you have permission to be there. Have each volunteer download the Clean Swell app before the cleanup so they can easily report what they find to Ocean Conservancy. Be sure to sanitize hands and arms before and after handling trash to avoid the spread of germs.

You may also want to have each person sign a health waiver before they can participate in the cleanup. This can be done on the day of the cleanup, or you can send an electronic waiver ahead of time and require them to show it to their cleanup site captain when they arrive.

Once you’ve collected your waste, bring it to a local recycling or composting facility to divert it from the beach. Be sure to mix the pile occasionally – this will aerate it and reduce unwanted odors. And be sure to add in some dry material like leaves or twigs, as this will help with water retention and slow down the decomposition process.

5. Have a Party

With more plastic than fish in the ocean and floating garbage islands threatening coastlines, we need to make sure that our beaches, lakes and other coastal areas are free of waste. One way to do so is by hosting a beach cleanup in your workplace. This is a great team-building activity that can also help your employees understand the importance of protecting and preserving our natural treasures.

To start, decide where on the coast you want to host a cleanup. It is important that the location you choose has plenty of trash to collect and is safe for all participants. If possible, it is also helpful to have a coordinating team in place that can answer questions about the area you’re cleaning and address any potential hazards.

Then gather the supplies your team will need to get started. It’s a good idea to have gloves and reusable bags or buckets to use (so that you can wash them after the beach cleanup), and water for everyone. It’s also wise to have first-aid kits available in case of any incidents. Lastly, make sure that everyone knows when they’re supposed to meet up and where they’ll be meeting at the end of the cleanup.

Once everyone is ready to begin, split them into smaller groups so that you can cover more ground during the cleanup. As the groups move around the beach, make sure that a member of each group is recording the trash they find on a standardized data sheet. It’s also a good idea to have a central trash collection point where the full bags can go.

As you’re working, it can be nice to play some music to keep everyone pumped up and moving! Be sure to have snacks and water available for your cleanup team as well.