ICC Beach Clean Up Week in Israel - Sep 2010

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CleanUp Israel have joined forces with Hof-Naki (Israel

Ministry of Environmental Protection) & Ruach-Tova, to

execute Ocean Conservancy’s ICC operation in Israel.

Here in Israel, it was decided that this year’s 25th

anniversary of the operation would be extended to the

whole period of Sukot holiday to allow as many volunteers

as possible.

In more than 30 individual Beach Clean Up operations, from

Nahariya in the North to Eilat In the South, the number of

volunteers participating in beach clean ups was reached, and

exceeded the target of 2500!!

Residents, Pupils soldiers and overseas volunteers have

participated in this huge clean up event, which was a great

success; tons of rubbish was collected.

A small yet visible difference to the environment, yet a big

difference in the volunteers’ mind-set.

The individual operations were initiated by schools, by local

authorities, youth groups and individual volunteers.

All groups were all assigned a guide, an environmental

volunteer with Hof Naki, who co-ordinated each operation

on the day; they would meet on arrival for a brief and

explanation regarding nature preservation, then distributed

bags/hats/gloves etc and coordinated the removal of the

collected waste by the local authority.

The volunteers were asked to fill a questionnaire regarding

the waste found.

The information collected is used to build a global database

of marine debris.

The report "Trash Travels" which is based on the cleaning

operations provides a roadmap for reducing marine debris,

reducing the source, modify the behaviour that leads to the

formation and taking actions and policies to better prevent

it.