ach year, countries around the world join together for one day in September to clean up their beaches, rivers, and shorelines. The cleanup effort is organized by Ocean Conservancy. The organization works to create the Ocean Trash Index, the world’s largest item-by-item, location-by-location database of trash found in near-shore environments.

The cleanups have been taking place for over 30 years, with more than 225 million items of trash logged and removed from the world’s beaches and waterways.

This year, Panama and the Limpieza de Playas, Costas y Ríos group celebrates 25 years of joining in the international effort. Panama’s nation-wide Beach Cleanup will take place on September 25th, 2016. This year, up to 60 groups of volunteers are expected to participate with coordinators working to organize clean-ups nationwide. Over 5000 participants are expected to help out in the effort. The Libra de Basura (LBD) group will be coordinating the Coronado, Playa Serena beach cleanup.