Covanta Energy partners with Ocean Conservancy

In October, thousands of volunteers hit beaches, lakes and rivers to help remove trash from waterways by participating in Ocean Conservancy’s 24th annual International Coastal Cleanup. To help with that effort, Covanta Energy partnered with Ocean Conservancy to convert some of this year’s collected debris into clean renewable energy.

Covanta Energy will dispose of marine debris collected in Washington, DC and Cape Cod, Massachusetts in its local energy-from-waste facilities. Rather than being landfilled, the material collected during the one day event will be turned into clean, renewable energy to power local homes.

“Trash in the ocean is one of the most widespread pollution problems threatening our ocean and waterways, yet it’s entirely preventable,” said Dianne Sherman, director of the International Coastal Cleanup. “The Cleanup gives everyone a chance to work in their backyard and be a part of an important global movement to end the tide of ocean trash.”

In just one day last year, volunteers collected 6.8 million pounds of debris from 6,485 sites in 100 countries. Within the States, volunteers worked to collect coastal debris in 42 states and the District of Columbia.

Each year during Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup, volunteers from around the world work to remove trash and debris from waterways and catalog every piece of trash they find. Ocean Conservancy uses that information to produce the world’s only annual country-by-country, state-by-state index of the magnitude of marine debris. The report is shared with the public, industry, and government officials as we work together to end to problem of marine debris.