Participating Organizations
Marine debris is being addressed through the dedicated work of organizations and partnerships throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. Organizations listed below are actively engaged in efforts to prevent, reduce, remove, and research the impacts of marine debris in the region. For contact information, please visit the organizational websites.
Established by the Marine Debris Act of 2006, the NOAA Marine Debris Program is the lead U.S. federal agency for marine debris. The mission of the program is to investigate and prevent the adverse impacts of marine debris in our oceans and Great Lakes. Our work centers around coordination, research, removal, monitoring, response, and prevention of marine debris.
The City of Annapolis partnered with Annapolis Green in summer 2019 to implement a campaign to reduce plastic pollution in Annapolis, Maryland. Annapolis Green established relationships with area restaurants with its “Don’t Suck. Sip Responsibly.” campaign to eliminate the use of plastic straws during Annapolis Restaurant Week in February of 2018. The campaign resulted in over thirty local restaurants, bars, and coffee shops and the area’s two major yacht clubs going plastic straw-free, offering straws upon request, or offering only biodegradable straws. Building off that success, this project is aimed at education regarding the problems associated with disposable plastic and behavior change through a campaign targeted at restaurant use and their customer use of disposable plastic. The data gathered will be used to identify how additional efforts should be targeted and will support the City’s current and future work to prevent waterway pollution.
They conduct 1-2 cleanups per month on Kent Island. They participate in the annual international coastal cleanup in September. They started an internship program for high schoolers in 2017.
Trash Free Maryland started a pilot program, in the fall of 2018, to help reduce litter in neighborhoods and throughout the city. The program has volunteers conduct weekly cleanings around their neighborhood and workspace over an eight week period. The volunteers would also post pictures of the litter on social media to raise awareness and educate the community on the issue.
https://trashfreemaryland.org/lesslitterbmore/
Plastic Free QAC is raising awarness of the hazards of single-use plastics. By doing this they are hoping to change people's habits and mind-sets to then eliminate single-use plastics.
Last year the Ocean City Surfrider Foundation launched a citywide Strawless Summer Campaign demonstrating to city leaders the need and desire of area businesses (and individuals) to support single-use plastic source reduction strategies. Over 60 local businesses signed the pledge to reduce plastic straw use. The Mayor and City Council reached out to the Ocean City Green Team to take the Strawless Summer campaign to another level of source reduction for the plastic waste stream in Ocean City by encouraging/rewarding more businesses to go strawless, as well as motivate them to take further steps to reduce single-use plastics and other sources of waste. Building off that work, this project implemented a behavior change campaign with area restaurants throughout the summer of 2019 to reduce the amount of single-use plastic being provided and consumed in Ocean City.
https://mdcoastalbays.org/protect-our-sand-and-sea-by-making-a-pledge-or-more