Each year on the third Saturday of September, hundreds of thousands of volunteer clean up trash and debris from beaches, shorelines, coasts, rivers, lakes, waterways, and dive sites all over the world, in observance of International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) Day, as world's largest, one-day volunteer effort to clean up the marine environment and help the global community lessen the impact of climate change. The 30th ICC Day on September 19 is expected to surpass the 561,000 volunteers in 91 countries, including the Philippines, who picked up more than 16 million pounds of ocean-bound garbage consisting of cigarette butts, food and candy wrappers, plastic beverage bottles and caps, straws and stirrers, soda, cans, among others, in 2014. ICC was initiated in 1986 by Washington-based Ocean Conservatory, a non-government group that promotes healthy and diverse ocean ecosystems, by educating and empowering citizens to take action on behalf of the ocean.

Volunteering to clean up coastal environment. (2015, September 19). Manila Bulletin, p. 11.