Thanks to all the volunteers who make this event a success every year!
Coastweek is a national celebration of our coastal resources. In Maine, the annual Coastal Cleanup is the biggest volunteer event in the state!
To register, complete the form at the bottom of this webpage.
Maine Coastweek 2023 Results (2024 Results to Come!)
- Pounds cleaned - 5,578
- Miles of waterfront cleaned - 72.9
- Items recorded - 33,293
- Total volunteers - 736
The International Coastal Cleanup was established nearly 40-years ago to address the problem of trash in our oceans and on our coasts. The Ocean Conservancy manages the ICC and maintains a database of all the items that volunteers around the world record when collecting trash. As of 2020, the one-day event in September has become a whole month of Cleanups around the world!
DMR's Maine Coastal Program has been the State Coordinator for the International Coastal Cleanup for over 30 years and remains committed to supporting and facilitating annual Cleanups of Maine's coastal beaches and waterways. Volunteers support this effort by adopting a location and soliciting others to join them in cleaning up the trash from their location of choice and help to keep our coast and ocean trash free!
See the 2024 ICC report for results from other parts of the world (PDF, 34 pages).
For news and information on the impacts of marine debris please visit the following:
- NOAA - Zero Waste Back to School Preparation
- Ocean Conservancy - What the Foam!? Program: Learn about the impacts of foamed plastic!
- Ocean Conservancy - Charting a Course to Plastic Free Beaches
- Bloomberg.com - The no-packaging movement - By Elizabeth Elkin
- Ocean Conservancy - Pandemic Pollution: The Rising Tide of Plastic PPE
To get information on the high and low tides for your Cleanup location please visit:
https://www.usharbors.com/harbor/maine/
To promote your cleanup, a copy of the 2025 poster will soon be available here for download.
Sites looking for volunteers will be listed below: