Hundreds of Jamaicans turned out last Saturday to remove marine litter from beaches across the island as the world marked International Coastal Cleanup Day.

The volume of garbage removed from the island’s shorelines was not immediately clear on Sunday, but the effort put into the day’s activities by corporate entities was impressive.

In the Corporate Area, spirits industry giant J Wray & Nephew and GraceKennedy Foundation collaborated to have Sirgany Beach cleaned, while National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) joined forces with Urban Development Corporation to clear Shipwreck beach along the Palisadoes strip.

According to NEPA, approximately 600 volunteers from schools, church groups, service organisations, government entities, and private sector companies participated in the activity at Shipwreck beach.

Telecoms giant Flow supported the cleanup by having volunteers on the beach to assist with trash removal and data collection. Flow also provided mobile devices and credit to be used as spot prizes during the exercise.

Hard-working employee volunteers of J Wray & Nephew Limited Helen Simpson, quality and compliance director, and Dwayne Bailey, agriculture finance operations manager, remove an old refrigerator from Sirgany beach in Kingston on International Coastal Cleanup Day last Saturday.

Deleen Powell, business communications manager at Flow, removes marine litter from Shipwreck beach along the Palisadoes strip last Saturday, International Coastal Cleanup Day.

Tavaris Nicholson of Flow (right) is assisted by NEPA’s Donovan Sankey in weighing the plastic bottles and other recyclables collected by his team during the agency’s beach cleanup exercise last Saturday.