TOWN Cleanup with Sustainable Coastlines

On Saturday, three of our staff – Brad, Jamie and Rosie, headed to Magic Island Beach Park to take part in Sustainable Coastlines’ Town cleanup. The goal was to clean a large area of the South Shore of Oahu along the coast, beach park, harbor and Ala Wai canal. This area of Oahu is where trash that is left behind or escapes our waste stream ends up in the ocean. Shuttles were available for those that wanted to head to Kaka’ako beach park or farther up the Ala Wai – but we opted to stay near Magic Island and get dirty in the canal.

As we started our morning, we began cleaning in the park and along the shore on Magic Island but soon found there was very little trash left to be cleaned due to the HUGE amount of volunteers. So we made our way over to the canal and that’s where the real fun began. Luckily the water level was very low, so we could see all kinds of garbage eagerly waiting to be retrieved. Parking signs, bicycle seats, bicycle wheels, more than a few cell phones, bungee cords, batteries, clothing, beer bottles – you name it, we found it.

When it was over, we made sure to hit the shower for a thorough rinse to remove the bacteria infested Ala Wai waters before  enjoying a delish buddha bowl provided by the event sponsors… bonus, we even got to take home a free pineapple!

Later that day, we learned that it was the biggest town cleanup ever with over 800 volunteers coming together to divert 2,260 lbs of trash. What an inspirational and amazing day and major thanks to team HIC for coming out to malama our aina!