33 years ago, a movement began. Catalyzed by the desire to see a trash free coastline, the international coastal cleanup was born in Texas geared by two individuals; Linda Maraniss and Kathy O’Hara.

What may have seemed then like just a small project has since sparked into a great movement spanning across the globe with volunteers from over 100 countries joining in, coming a long way from the first cleanup with just a handful of volunteers. What makes the international coastal cleanup outstanding is that volunteers do not just pick up trash but also go a step further to record each item collected on a standardized data card in order to identify ways to eliminate ocean trash in the future.

This year, Kenyan locals along the Indian Ocean coastline came out in numbers to show their resolve of beating plastic pollution in our beaches. Led by the Kenyan team coordinators – Ocean Conservancy has coordinators in all countries involved in the ocean conservancy – the Kenyan cleanup was segmented into various beach cleanup sites with the main event culminating in a ceremony at Mama Ngina Drive. Zuru Kenya helped coordinate and took part in the Kikambala Beach cleanup.

Pictures below highlight the successful event that took place across the entire coastline. We are grateful for all those who came out to help clean our coast and create more awareness to the effect of pollution on our oceans.