International Coastal Cleanup Day 2017

This year, NewGen Surgical is partnering with other local groups for the International Coastal Cleanup Day through the coordination of the California Coastal Cleanup Day effort on September 16, 2017. NewGen Surgical staff, family and friends will be collecting non-marine items from Rodeo Beach in the Marin Headlands coordinated by the Marine Mammal Center. Rodeo beach is close to NewGen Surgical headquarters in Marin county and an employee and family favorite.

The California Coastal Cleanup Day was first organized by the Coastal Commission. Close to 2,500 Californians joined in the initial cleanup, and the program has been growing ever since. In 1986, The Ocean Conservancy (then known as the Center for Marine Conservation) ran its first Coastal Cleanup in Texas, and in later years became the coordinating agency for the International Coastal Cleanup, helping to spread the concept to nations around the world.

Ocean Conservancy’s Ocean Trash Index is the world’s largest item-by-item, location-by-location database of trash found in near-shore environments. Over 30 years, more than 225 million items of trash have been logged and removed from our beaches and waterways. Plastic debris remains a growing concern in the marine environment, and the top five most commonly collected items are cigarette butts, plastic beverage bottles, food wrappers, plastic bottle caps and plastic straws.

When combined with the International Coastal Cleanup, organized by The Ocean Conservancy and taking place on the same day, California Coastal Cleanup Day becomes part of one of the largest volunteer events of the year. In 1993, California Coastal Cleanup Day was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the “largest garbage collection” ever organized with 50,405 volunteers. Since then, the reach of Coastal Cleanup Day has steadily spread inland.

California Coastal Cleanup Day is more than picking up trash. It’s a chance for Californians to join people around the world in expressing their respect for oceans and waterways. It’s an opportunity for the community to demonstrate its desire for clean water and healthy marine life. And it’s a moment to share and come together to accomplish something vital and worthy on behalf of our environment.

NewGen Surgical is proud to be among the many that take care of our oceans.

UPDATE: NewGen Surgical joined in the Ocean Conservancy’s 32nd International Coastal Cleanup Day coordinated by the California Coastal Commission. Hundreds of thousands of people worldwide participated in the International Coastal Cleanup, the world’s largest single-day volunteer effort to remove trash from local beaches and waterways. In California, 54,532 volunteers helped with the cleanup with nearly 1,000 volunteer sites in 55 counties, the largest number of sites in the cleanup’s history. Early results tallied more than 510,000 pounds of trash and an additional 31,912 pounds of recyclables. NewGen Surgical staff, family and friends collected about five pounds of food wrappers, cigarette butts, foam and plastic pieces, and a few random items from Rodeo Beach in the Marin Headlands, close to the NewGen Surgical headquarters.