Clean it. Count it. Change it.
For the eighth year, the ERT Foundation teamed up with Keep Norfolk Beautiful for one of our biggest clean ups of the year, and the community of volunteers that turns up never disappoints! The International Coastal Cleanup is more than just a regular litter pickup. Year after year we return to the Harbor Park/Water Street area to not just pick up litter, but to track exactly what we are picking up. This data goes all the way up to a national and international research level to determine not just the concentration of littered items, but the what items or the most littered. This is how we know that there has been a decline in plastic bags and water bottles, but an increase in things like vape accessories.
- 24 adults
- 3 children
- 20 trash bags of litter collected
- Total length of the trail we took care of : 0.6 miles (of the 10.5-mile long ERT!)
- Area cleaned: ~0.02 cubic miles
- TOTAL WEIGHT: 116.75 lbs (about 117 lbs) of trash and litter!!
- While this may not seem like a lot, it’s good to see LESS litter than MORE!
- UNUSUAL ITEMS!
- Carhartt hoodie
- diaper
- lipstick
- car undercarriage
- the head of a hammer
- an Arby’s visor
- an abnormally large pool noodle
A big shout out to meteorologist Tony with WTKR Channel 3 News for covering our event this year! If you didn’t catch the segment, you can find it here.
Our next BIG clean-up will be our MLK Day of Service on 1/18/27. Thank you for making a difference!