3.76 Tons of Trash Deleted During Waterway Cleanup Week

The Marine Industries Association of the Treasure Coast (MIATC) has announced the results of its 14th annual Treasure Coast Waterway Cleanup. The week-long event, which took place Sat., July 17- 25, 2021, included 24 cleanup locations, engaged 1022 registered volunteers who contributed 1,339 volunteer hours, and removed 3.76 tons of trash from waterways and beaches along 125 miles throughout the Treasure Coast.

Since 2008, MIATC has brought together more than 12,260 volunteers, who have removed more than 95.26 tons of trash from the waterways of Martin, St. Lucie, and Indian River counties. Participants have range from 18 months to 90-plus years of age.

ā€œWe were pleased to re-open our traditional sites this year,ā€ said April Price, the eventā€™s coordinator. ā€œThis effort continues to be a rewarding experience for our volunteers, and we are extremely fortunate for the community support we garner. We returned to our anticipated volunteer force exceeding 1,000-plus, however the trash haul was significantly lower than anticipated. Prior to the pandemic, we had a 4-year trend averaging 5.5 tons per cleanup,ā€ explains Price. ā€œIn 2020, when forced to be a ā€˜self-reportingā€™ only event and participation was 597, which easily explains 3.43 tons. I expected we would be back to the 5 tons range, and Iā€™m pleased and surprised by a total of 3.76 tons. Itā€™s premature to know if this trend will continue into the future, but we are hopeful.ā€

The Marine Industries Association (MIATC) will host the 15th annual Treasure Coast Waterway Cleanup week Sat., July 16-24, 2022, with the main live event on Sat., July 23, 2022.

Complete results, and photos, as well a list of sponsors and supporters of this yearā€™s event, may be viewed at TCWaterwayCleanup.com.

Breakdown per County:

  • MARTIN COUNTY. 419 volunteers contributed 813 volunteer hours to remove .96 tons of trash. This included The City of Stuartā€”72 people removed .18 tons. And the Peck Lake Reef Diveā€”109 people removed .30 tons from reefs and spoil islands.
  • ST. LUCIE COUNTY. 443 volunteers removed 2.22 tons of trash. This included The City of Fort Pierceā€”180 people removed .37 tons. And The City of Port St. Lucieā€”46 volunteers removed .37 tons.
  • INDIAN RIVER COUNTY. 160 volunteers contributed to the removal of .58 tons of trash. This included The City of Vero Beach, 42 people removed .16 tons and The City of Sebastian, 75 volunteers combined to remove .23 tons.