Tybee Clean Beach Volunteers

First and formost, we seek to remove litter from in and around the island’s waterways as a means of preventing harm to marine life. We seek to directly engage the public in clean-up activities on a weekly basis as both a means of removing litter from harm’s way and educating participants on the need to reduce the consumption of single-use plastics in their daily life.

Using social media, community events, and email lists, we invite volunteers to attend beach clean ups, trash-to-art projects, and other activities aimed at reducing litter. We also host university, school, church, and business group clean up events as a means of raising awareness and enlarging our impact through large-scale group efforts.

We have a network of core volunteers that assist in set up and break down logistics and transport equipment to clean up sites in a branded cargo van. We manage several social media sites and an expansive email list for promoting our events as well as advocating for litter reduction.

In the past eight years, Tybee Clean Beach has hosted 435 clean up events involving nearly 14,000 participants. While many of our volunteers are locals, a sizable number come from broader Chatham County as well as visitors to the island from all over the USA that seek to give back to a place that they love. In addition to beach sweeps, we participate in numerous community events, art projects, lectures, and special events designed to increase awareness and engagement in the fight against marine debris, particularly throw-away plastics. We also manage several popular community projects, including a Hard-to-Recycle Center, an upcycling shop where recovered plastics are shredded and melted into useful products, such as planters and coasters, the Re-Beachables program, where abandoned or unwanted beach toys can be deposited and borrowed for reuse, and the Turtle Friendly Restaurant Program to recognize sustainability efforts of our local restaurants. Our network and impact continues to grow as we seek innovative ways of engaging City authorities, island residents, and visitors in combating the prevalence of litter in and around the beach and in the world’s oceans.