Adopt-a-Beach (Alliance for the Great Lakes)
Each year, Adopt-a-Beach volunteers remove tens of thousands of pounds of litter from Great Lakes beaches, about 85% of it plastic (Alliance for the Great Lakes).
Image: NASA Goddard (Great Lakes, No Clouds, August 28, 2010).
Last reviewed: 1 source cited
Explain Like I'm 10
- Adopt-a-Beach is when people go to a beach on the Great Lakes and pick up trash.
- Most of the trash they find is plastic.
- They also write down what they find, so scientists can learn where the trash comes from.
The Five W's of Adopt-a-Beach (Alliance for the Great Lakes)
Who
The Alliance for the Great Lakes and thousands of volunteers led by volunteer Team Leaders.
What
Beach cleanups where volunteers pick up litter and record what they find.
When
For more than 30 years, with cleanups through the year and a day of action each September.
Where
Beaches on all five Great Lakes, in each of the eight Great Lakes states.
Why
The Great Lakes hold 20% of the world's surface fresh water and give drinking water to 40 million people.
Impact Statement
Nonprofit solution · active
Volunteers remove tens of thousands of pounds of litter from Great Lakes beaches each year, about 85% of it plastic, and have collected more than 20 years of cleanup data that scientists use to study plastic pollution.
Source: Alliance for the Great Lakes, Adopt-a-Beach
For Further Information: Alliance for the Great Lakes, Adopt-a-Beach
About 85% of the litter Adopt-a-Beach volunteers pick up on Great Lakes beaches is plastic.
How This Saves People & the Planet
For People
Clean beaches are safer for families, and the cleanup data helps decision makers protect the lakes millions of people drink from.
Source: Alliance for the Great Lakes, Adopt-a-Beach
For Nature
Picking up plastic keeps it from breaking into Pieces of plastic smaller than 5 millimeters, about the size of a grain of rice or smaller. They come from bigger plastic breaking apart. Glossary in the lakes, where fish and birds can swallow it.
Support Adopt-a-Beach (Alliance for the Great Lakes)
Want to go deeper? The Alliance for the Great Lakes has the full Adopt-a-Beach story.
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For Teachers
Discussion questions
- What is Adopt-a-Beach (Alliance for the Great Lakes), and what problem does it help solve?
- Who is behind Adopt-a-Beach (Alliance for the Great Lakes), and where does the work happen?
- How does Adopt-a-Beach (Alliance for the Great Lakes) help both people and nature? Use one fact from this page.
Sources are listed with each fact in the Five W's above.
Cite This Page
APA
Saving Planets. (n.d.). Adopt-a-Beach (Alliance for the Great Lakes). https://www.savingplanets.com/Alliance_for_the_Great_Lakes_Adopt_a_Beach.html
MLA
"Adopt-a-Beach (Alliance for the Great Lakes)." Saving Planets, https://www.savingplanets.com/Alliance_for_the_Great_Lakes_Adopt_a_Beach.html.