The Alliance for the Great Lakes manages the largest coastal Great Lakes litter database of its kind. But we are simply the stewards. The database exists because of the decades of contributions by thousands of community scientists across the region who volunteer each year with the Adopt-a-Beach program.

2022 saw a surge of new and returning volunteers. It was exciting to welcome back many experienced Team Leaders and volunteers, as well as connect with so many new ones. Each individual volunteer who showed up, each individual piece of litter dutifully tallied on a data sheet, each individual gathering of Great Lakes stewards is captured in these numbers.

2022 Adopt-a-Beach results

These numbers are also part of an important milestone that volunteers helped Adopt-a-Beach reach this year. Volunteers have collected more than half a million pounds of litter since the Alliance began tracking data in 2003! That’s half a million pounds of litter removed from our beach, our parks, and the source of our drinking water.

Data tells a story about plastic pollution

The data tells a story about volunteer participation and outreach efforts, and also about long-term trends in Great Lakes plastic pollution. Year after year, more than 80% of litter collected is plastic. 2022 was no exception.

The high plastic percentage is a signal that more systemic changes are needed – in addition to and beyond individual behavior change. We look forward to continuing to use the Adopt-a-Beach data to advocate for systemic solutions to plastic pollution.

Love, concern, & initiative

As Adopt-a-Beach staff visited volunteers across the region this season, a unifying theme that revealed itself was the deep pride and care Great Lakes residents have for our lakes. We saw and heard love, concern, and initiative everywhere we went.

Whether you participated in the Adopt-a-Beach program, are reading and learning more about Great Lakes issues, or have contacted elected officials about an issue that is important to you, thank you for taking action!

Check out past years’ data summaries here.

The post Adopt-a-Beach 2022: Year-End Results appeared first on Alliance for the Great Lakes.

Last year marked the 30th anniversary of the Alliance for the Great Lakes’ Adopt-a-Beach program. As we dug into the data we’d collected, we realized the program was approaching a milestone. Beach by beach, team by team, Adopt-a-Beach volunteers had removed more than 465,000 pounds of litter from Great Lakes beaches and shorelines since 2003, when we started tracking litter in our online database.

So we set a big goal for 2022: reach half a million pounds of litter.

Today, we’re proud to announce that Adopt-a-Beach has reached that milestone. As of September 29, 2022, Adopt-a-Beach volunteers have removed 501,336 pounds of litter from Great Lakes beaches and shorelines. That’s 8,859,735 individual pieces!

This amazing achievement represents the work of more than 200,000 volunteers over the past twenty years. Community and faith groups. Families and businesses. Grade schools and high schools. Alumni organizations. Surfers, scuba divers, and professional mermaids. On all 5 Great Lakes. In all 8 Great Lakes states.

Their accomplishment shows the magnitude of what can be accomplished when Great Lakes communities work together – and also shines a powerful spotlight on plastic pollution in the Great Lakes. Year after year, more than 85% of the litter collected is made of plastic, a number we know due to volunteers’ dedication to collecting data in addition to keeping beaches clean.

Their stewardship is an expression of love for the lakes — done with a sense of pride and thanksgiving for this unique region we call home.

Thank you to all the Adopt-a-Beach Team Leaders, volunteers, and supporters who made this achievement possible. This couldn’t have happened without you!

Special thanks to this year’s top Adopt-a-Beach sponsors: Brunswick Foundation, Meijer, and Unilever.

Meet some of the volunteers who helped put Adopt-a-Beach over the top.

The post Adopt-a-Beach Reaches a Milestone appeared first on Alliance for the Great Lakes.

Juliann Krupa is the Volunteer Engagement Manager at the Alliance for the Great Lakes. In this role, Juliann utilizes her passion for aquatic science and conservation to oversee over 15,000 Adopt-a-Beach program participants throughout the Great Lakes region and to inspire appreciation, conservation, and restoration of the world’s largest freshwater resource.

Resources

Adopt-a-Beach – Alliance for the Great Lakes

Adopt-a-Beach Spring Kickoff 2022 – Alliance for the Great Lakes

Plastic Free Great Lakes Pledge

The post Juliann Krupa: September Adopt a Beach Cleanup & Half a Million Pounds Goal appeared first on Alliance for the Great Lakes.

Alliance: What was the catalyst for taking a cleanup road trip this summer?  

Juliann: After two years of the pandemic, Olivia and I wanted to make an intentional effort to get out and connect face-to-face with people and groups around the region. The Alliance for the Great Lakes works to represent the entire Great Lakes region. So that means all the way from New York to Minnesota. We felt it was essential to get on the ground in many places, reconnect with partners old and new, and hear directly what issues people are talking about in various regions.  

Olivia: It was helpful for us to see many of the locations where cleanups happen. A lot of times, volunteers will reach out wanting some recommendations in a particular area. So, it’s helpful for us to see some of these locations and help potential volunteers. 

Alliance: Were you able to ask the volunteers questions about why they got involved? 

Olivia  Yes, we did. It’s super helpful to speak to volunteers on the ground in their areas. We learned a lot about what volunteers care about in each area. So, it’s beneficial to see the locations ourselves and hear from local communities and volunteers about what’s most pressing for them in those areas.  

Alliance: Were there any interesting volunteer stories or volunteer adventures this summer?  

Juliann: We had one experience in Rochester, NY, where we met a volunteer at a cleanup. Afterward, they offered and were willing to show us around some sites where they had seen a lot of plastic pollution build-up.  

Olivia: For our first Spring KickOff cleanup this year, we had one of our corporate cleanups with Merz Pharma at Racine Zoo Beach. It was pouring rain, and it was not the warmest either, but they were real troopers. Moments like those emphasize how awesome our volunteers are and how they’re willing to help rain or shine.  

Alliance: Let’s talk about September Adopt–a–Beach a little bit. The date is approaching. Are there any specific goals you hope to achieve this year? 

Juliann: September Adopt-a-Beach is the most important day of action for the Great Lakes. Thousands of Adopt-a-Beach volunteers will clean and celebrate Great Lakes shorelines as part of the International Coastal Cleanup, which is held on the third Saturday of September each year.  

The Alliance is the Great Lakes coordinator for this effort. We hope to have around 5,000 volunteers across the Great Lakes on September 17th working to keep their coastlines clean and collecting data on what they find that goes back into our regional coastal litter dataset.  

This year we’re working to reach our goal of collecting half a million pounds of litter from Great Lakes shorelines. So, we’re close, and hoping September Adopt–a–Beach will bring us over that number.  

Olivia: We’re hoping to reach this goal, and it will shine a powerful spotlight on the magnitude of plastic pollution and continue to educate and inspire people to take action on this issue.”   

Alliance: For people who are thinking about volunteering for cleanups like September Adopt-a-Beach to do their part to keep our beaches and shorelines clean, how can they get involved? 

Olivia: It’s super easy to get started with us. There are a couple of different options to get involved with September Adopt–a–Beach; you can find a cleanup to attend in your area. So, you can go to adopt.greatlakes.org and find a cleanup near you to attend and register. 

Juliann: You can also become a Team Leader by hosting a cleanup with us. So, you can choose a date and beach location where you would like to lead a cleanup and invite your community members to attend. We have a lot of resources available to support you. 

Olivia: We also have a virtual Team Leader training coming up that you can attend and get some tips on the process of being a team leader and leading a cleanup. 

Alliance: What is the biggest takeaway from your summer road trip experience? 

Juliann: It was a great learning experience for both of us. We learned a lot more about the lakes, and it was great to make new connections and rekindle old relationships. We’re inspired by how much advocacy and action there is for the Lakes and how many people care about this resource and human health. 

Juliann and Olivia are not done touring the Great Lakes region. They have additional stops planned for the rest of August and September and look forward to keeping the conversations going over the winter. 

The post To the Beach: Adopt-a-Beach Cleanup Road Trip Recap  appeared first on Alliance for the Great Lakes.

See the progress towards our 2022 goal of half a million pounds.

“It’s been rainy and cold, sunny and beautiful. From lakes Ontario to Superior, volunteers showed up in all types of weather,” says Juliann Krupa, Volunteer Engagement Manager, Alliance for the Great Lakes. “So many committed individuals across the Great Lakes have joined together to keep our beaches clean and spread the word about plastic pollution. It’s truly inspiring. Thank you to all our spring volunteers and an advance thank you to everyone who comes out this summer!” 

Read more about Adopt-a-Beach volunteers and the beaches they care for: 

• Adopt-A-Beach Clean-ups held along Lake Erie in Cleveland this weekend, News 19 (Cleveland CBS-TV), Jeff Slawson, 4/19
• Beach cleanups: Help keep plastic out of the Great Lakes, WOOD-TV (Grand Rapids NBC-TV), Madalyn Buursma, 4/21
• Earth Day 2022: Young Chicagoans reflect on efforts to help the planet. Eyewitness News (Chicago ABC-TV), Stacey Baca, 4/22
• Learning Outside the Classroom: Volunteer Spotlight. Alliance for the Great Lakes, 4/22
• Volunteers celebrate Earth Day weekend with beach clean-up at Wendy Park (photos), Cleveland.com, John Kuntz, 4/24
• Cleanup combers: Beach work collects 100 pounds of trash. ObserverToday.com (Dunkirk, NY), Anthony Dolce, 4/27

The post Adopt-a-Beach 2022: Off to a Strong Start appeared first on Alliance for the Great Lakes.

Growing up in Central Lake, I have always loved the beautiful lakes around us and have a passion for protecting them. I returned to the area and quickly realized that recycling and community trash pick-ups were not established. This was shocking because recycling was everywhere I traveled/lived while in the army. So rather than accept it, I started to look for ways that I could make a change that involved the community. Lucky for me, I stumbled across the Alliance for the Great Lakes Adopt-a-Beach program while browsing the internet. This was just what I was looking for. I could not wait to get started, and who better to start with than the young people of our community (my daughter’s sixth-grade class).

“I’ve always been compelled by nature, and the beach cleanup provides a great opportunity to help the planet and socialize with my friends!” -Aubrey

I shared my idea with Central Lake Public School, and they jumped on board as it was a terrific opportunity to teach about protecting our Great Lakes and our environment. I was invited into the classroom to present to the kids, and to my surprise, they were all extremely excited to participate in Adopt-a-Beach!

“I enjoy our annual trash cleanup; not only is it fun, but it also shows us how to respect nature.” – Quintin

The spring of 2007 was our first beach cleanup event. The kids successfully removed over 100 lbs. of trash from the Antrim Creek Natural Area in Ellsworth, on Lake Michigan. The area had always seemed clean to the kids, so they were amazed at how fast a wrapper here, a plastic cup there, could add up to so much trash.

“The beach cleanup has been such an amazing opportunity for us to get out and explore. Also, learning about cleaning the environment and clean water is extremely important for younger generations, and I’m glad we had the experience of being involved in it for six years!” -Journey

They loved it so much that we have kept it up every year since 2007. This year will be the group’s last cleanup – they are graduating high school – but I know what they have learned will go with them wherever they go.

Central Lake Class of 2023

The post Learning Outside the Classroom: Volunteer Spotlight appeared first on Alliance for the Great Lakes.

Juliann Krupa is the Volunteer Engagement Manager at the Alliance for the Great Lakes. In this role, Juliann utilizes her passion for aquatic science and conservation to oversee over 15,000 Adopt-a-Beach program participants throughout the Great Lakes region and to inspire appreciation, conservation, and restoration of the world’s largest freshwater resource. 

Resources

Adopt-a-Beach – Alliance for the Great Lakes	
Adopt-a-Beach Spring Kickoff 2022 – Alliance for the Great Lakes

The post Juliann Krupa Spring Kick Off appeared first on Alliance for the Great Lakes.

2021 marked the 30th anniversary of the Alliance for the Great Lakes’ Adopt-a-Beach program. This year alone, volunteers hosted beach cleanups on all 5 Great Lakes and in all 8 states, with 7,883 volunteers gathering 25,280 pounds of litter at 719 beach cleanups.

This year’s volunteers formed the latest wave in a movement that started in 1991. For 30 years, thousands of volunteers from all over the Great Lakes and from all walks of life have signed up and shown up for beach cleanups. They’re part of an impactful movement to ensure that one of the world’s largest surface freshwater systems is cleaner, safer, and protected.

Volunteers Make All the Difference

Adopt-a-Beach volunteers don’t merely pick up thousands of pounds of litter from Great Lakes beaches and go home; they also collect important data. At each cleanup event, volunteers painstakingly tally each item they clean up, and the information is then entered into our online database that was developed in 2003. This huge data set – the largest of its kind in the Great Lakes region – provides us with invaluable information about the litter on our beaches and in the Great Lakes. 

The biggest finding is that roughly 85% of the litter picked up during Adopt-a-Beach cleanups is made up fully or partially of plastic.

Putting the Focus on Plastic

Adopt-a-Beach volunteers are on the front lines of keeping plastic out of our lakes. Their data collection efforts have raised the alarm about Great Lakes plastic pollution. 

The data has also been critical to raising awareness about microplastics in the Great Lakes as the plastic on our beaches. Plastic,  if not cleaned up, breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces that pollute our drinking water and harm wildlife.

Data from Adopt-a-Beach events has helped to narrow our attention on where we can best work together to reduce the use of plastic before it even reaches our beaches. For instance, food-related waste – from takeout containers to bottle caps – is among the top items found on Great Lakes beaches. 

Researchers, elected officials, government agencies, and nonprofit partners have used Adopt-a-Beach data to make the case for private and public efforts, such as programs aimed at reducing single-use plastic items, to keep plastic pollution out of the lakes.

Thank You, Adopt-a-Beach Volunteers!

It is heartwarming and hope-inducing to join volunteers year after year, standing shoulder to shoulder with friends, neighbors, and people they may have just met, putting their own hands to work cleaning hundreds of miles of shoreline of the plastic and other debris that pollutes our water. And most importantly, we all learn from each other why clean water and time outdoors are so important to our families, friends, and communities.

 ~ Joel Brammeier, President & CEO, Alliance for the Great Lakes

Thank you to all of our team leaders, volunteers, and partners who have given their time and resources over the past 30 years. We couldn’t accomplish all that we’ve done without your efforts!

Adopt-a-Beach Highlights Over the Years

• 1991: First Adopt-a-Beach events held in September as part of the International Coastal Cleanup. For the first decade-plus, Adopt-a-Beach cleanup events were held in September only.
• 2003: Adopt-a-Beach becomes the most extensive volunteer program ever to collect data on Great Lakes beach litter with the launch of year-round cleanups and an online database to ease data collection.
• 2007: Adopt-a-Beach volunteers push for and win beach smoking bans along 30 miles of shoreline in Michigan and Chicago.
• 2012: Adopt-a-Beach volunteers are among the first responders helping with cleanup after Hurricane Sandy blows in as a destructive superstorm, wreaking havoc on Lake Erie and the Cleveland lakefront
• 2012: Scientists begin publishing research on plastic pollution in the Great Lakes using Adopt-a-Beach data and other data sources. One of the early findings: widespread presence of plastic microbeads in the waters of all five Great Lakes, leading to an awareness about microplastics in the Great Lakes.
• 2018: A new toolkit – Plastic-Free Great Lakes: An Advocacy Toolkit to Make a Difference in Your Community – released to help volunteers take action on plastic pollution.
• 2018: A federal ban on plastic microbeads in personal care products takes effect across the U.S.
• 2020: An all-new Adopt-a-Beach website launched, making it easier than ever for people to volunteer and track data on their cleanups. And, despite a pandemic, volunteers kept connecting and cleaning up.

The post Over 200,000 Volunteers and 8,282,807 Pieces of Litter appeared first on Alliance for the Great Lakes.

Each year, roughly 85% of the litter collected at beach cleanups is made up of plastic. Adopt-a-Beach volunteers are on the front lines of keeping plastic out of our lakes. Tackling litter and plastic pollution in the Great Lakes is no small task, but together we are able to make a difference. 

Our September Adopt-a-Beach event is part of the International Coastal Cleanup. We are still compiling beach cleanup data, but in the meantime, take a look at a few memorable moments shared by volunteers, highlighting cleanup events around the region. 

The post 30th Anniversary of September Adopt-a-Beach a Success!  appeared first on Alliance for the Great Lakes.

The pandemic slowed but couldn’t stop Great Lakers from volunteering this year.

While taking precautions, volunteers throughout the Great Lakes region cleaned beaches and neighborhoods and helped spread the word about threats facing the lakes. One even circled Lake Michigan by bike.

“We moved online and opened new ways for folks to get involved,” Senior Volunteer Engagement Manager Tyrone Dobson said. “In a time that feels isolating, we found a way to connect people with our topics and issues and with each other.”

Clean where you are

The extraordinary circumstances of COVID-19 put a damper on this year’s Adopt-a-Beach cleanups. The total – 417 cleanups across all 5 lakes – was somewhat lower than in other years. But the volunteers who turned out came to clean! They cleared 10,000 pounds worth of trash.

For the first time, we held inland neighborhood cleanups, stopping trash that might have flown via sewer drains or other paths to the lakes.

Liuan Huska, mom to two young children and a baby, organized one of the first of these neighborhood cleanups.

She lives 40 miles west of Chicago’s North Avenue Beach. Focusing on a cleanup close to home made a big difference for her and her neighbors, Huska says.

“I have a book coming out in December, my three kids are partially e-learning and partially home schooling — so I have my hands full,” Huska says.

Her family cleaned alongside railroad tracks near their home. Meanwhile 8 or 9 neighbors did the same, sharing photos and recording their trash haul via a Facebook event page.

It all made for a low-effort, high-impact cleanup, Huska says. “Because we are all social distanced and missing human contact, it was a small way to connect with others in the community.”

Cleanups became places to connect

Adopt-a-Beach cleanups became some of the only times people got to see each other in (socially-distant) person this year.

“This was really our comeback event,” says Matt Belcher, a Chicago chapter leader for the national service group Gay For Good. “We were — I won’t use the word desperate, but I will say anxious to do something when it was OK to do so.”

About 300 Chicagoans on the group’s membership list normally turn out to volunteer events. But they’d been on hiatus since March.

For Adopt-a-Beach, the group of 18 found less trash on the sand at Osterman Beach on the city’s far North Side, and more where the beach meets the grass. They also found a wallet that Belcher was able to return to its grateful owner the day after the cleanup.

Adopt-a-Beach was a chance to connect for students from Arrupe College of Loyola University of Chicago, too.

“Students talk to me about how hard it is to make friends and connect online, so we’re trying to be creative in how can we meet and also give back to the community” says David Keys, assistant dean for student success at the school.

Many who had not gotten to know each other before made connections at the cleanup. “They came in groups of 1 or 2 and left in socially distant but larger groups as they realized they were heading for the same train or bus,” he says.

Keys also notes the Alliance made it easy to organize the event, including a registration form students used to RSVP on the new Adopt-A-Beach website.

He says it was “eye opening” for students at the cleanup to hear from Dobson at their event about the smaller items of trash that make their way into the lakes so often. Students have already requested the chance to do a beach cleanup again, he adds.

In Cleveland, Americorps volunteers Sara Morgan and Grace Vishnick had a similar experience. They organized about 50 people to clean Cleveland’s Euclid and Edgewater beaches for Make A Difference Day October 27.

COVID-19 meant extra planning for the event, the two recent college grads say, but was worth it. It was their first beach cleanup, and the biggest surprise for them and their volunteer group was the amount of plastic – the most common item they cleaned was plastic tampon applicators.

“I knew the conditions of Lake Erie and that it needs a lot of work,” Morgan says. “I know the lakes are a big part of our ecosystem… there’s definitely a lot to do in terms of trash along the lakes.”

Ambassadors spread the message

Cleanups are not the only way volunteers have been connecting despite the pandemic to help protect the Great Lakes.

Alliance Ambassadors – volunteers who speak about the Great Lakes and the issues facing them with various groups – have continued to be active, as well.

The most unusual outreach by an Ambassador during the pandemic is likely Tristyn Von Berg’s bike ride around Lake Michigan. Von Berg nicknamed his Trek commuter bike “Richard Gears” after his father. A South Africa native, he had recently moved to Chicago when he decided to make the 950-mile journey.

Von Berg took along a shoebox to hold a change of clothes and not too much else. He shares the details in an interview with journalist Allison Devereaux on her Great Lakes Unsalted podcast. He also documents his journey in an epic series of Instagram posts.

The interview makes clear the trip was solitary most of the time. Von Berg shares how the beauty of the region and connections with people who helped him along the way inspired him.

“Maybe you take for granted how great your Great Lakes are, but they are an incredible natural landscape,” he says. “The beauty of the landscapes and change as I went north and then back down south was quite breathtaking. I also got to meet strangers along the way who showed such amazing hospitality and kindness.”

Blair Tatrault became an ambassador after retiring a few years ago.

“In a normal year, I do a few events a year,” Tatrault says. He has spoken at elementary schools, environmental science classes at UW-Madison, and a public lecture at Lourdes University in Ohio, to name a few.

Now, he’s working on speaking at virtual gatherings – connecting via Zoom can bring troubles all its own, he laughs. But in person or via the Internet, the connections are essential to bring home the challenges facing the Great Lakes, Tatrault says:

“There’s no replacement for face-to-face discussion. We’re just kind of facilitators – we’re educators in a way, but we have to acknowledge that not everybody views the world through the same lens as we do and we need [all of us] to help solve the problem.”

The post Pandemic Can’t Stop Volunteers from Connecting, Cleaning Up appeared first on Alliance for the Great Lakes.