Thank you to the ~100 volunteers, including the amazing students from Liberty City Elementary, who came out and slayed the cleanup game!
We met underneath the cypress and oak tree canopies on the morning of April 15th, where we collected 39.2 lbs of trash and 27.6 lbs of recyclables from around the grounds of Amelia Earhart Park! Much of what we picked up were small bits of confetti and balloon debris. We had the chance to speak with Hialeah Commissioner and former senator Rene Garcia about hopefully banning these harmful items within the park in the future.
Participants submitted data to the Clean Swell collection app, which helps us track what we are picking up— and how much of it— so that we all more clearly understand the threats to our environment. This data is super valuable and helps to drive legislative action! We highly recommend this user-friendly app for your next cleanup!
A huge thank you to Hialeah Councilman Calvo and Commissioner Garcia for speaking and to Local 10 News for covering the event!! + Thank you to Lo Cubano Tropical for the plastic-free bites! And, of course, major props to the Hialeah Senior High School Plastic Free Cities students, who helped to put this whole day together! Here’s to stopping plastic pollution at its source and engaging in more collective action campaigns, in Hialeah and beyond.
Plastic Free Cities is a collaborative initiative between Ocean Conservancy, Big Blue and You, and Debris Free Oceans. Read more about this project at debrisfreeoceans.org/plasticfreecities
