PRESQUE ISLE — The Alliance for the Great Lakes invites volunteers from across the region to join in on Saturday, Sept. 20 for a Great Lakes Day of Action. Hundreds of Adopt-a-Beach volunteers will clean and celebrate Great Lakes shorelines as part of the International Coastal Cleanup. Volunteers across the Great Lakes region will join volunteers all over the world who care for and take a stand for their local waters.

In Northeast Michigan, a beach cleanup is planned on Sept. 20 at Presque Isle Harbor. For more information, visit adopt.greatlakes.org/s/find-a-cleanup.

“Volunteering to pick up litter and trash on Great Lakes’ beaches can be a great way to connect with nature, escape the noise of everyday life, while helping your community,” said Oliva Reda, volunteer engagement manager at Alliance for the Great Lakes.

Adopt-a-Beach volunteers also participate in citizen science, by helping to catalog exactly what is picked up from beaches. Volunteers have removed more than 10 million pieces of litter from the five Great Lakes’ shorelines since Adopt-a-Beach started tracking litter data in 2003. Last year, 11,342 volunteers spent 28,312 hours cleaning beaches and collected 573,608 pieces of litter totaling 23,560 pounds. On average, 86% of the litter is plastic in a given season.

Armed with this data collected by volunteers, the Alliance is working with state legislatures to pass laws to protect the Great Lakes and our drinking water from the scourge of plastic pollution.