SE Conn Skin Divers rock…and so can you!
After more than fifteen years, Ryan Patrylak is ready to stop being unique. “I’d prefer everyone to clean up underwater,” he says. Ryan and his colleagues from SE Conn Skin Divers coordinate what’s believed to be the only Connecticut-based annual cleanup that collects trash not from beaches, parks and hiking trails but from the floor of Long Island Sound itself. On Sunday, September 21 they’ll be at it again, spending International Coastal Cleanup Day 2025 in the waters off the Custom House Pier in New London, filling mesh bags with an unsettling array and amount of litter.
“Plastic wrappers, aluminum cans, one year there were a lot of Solo cups,” said Ryan, whose cleanup crew has also fished less-expected items out of the Thames River, such as skateboards, ironing boards, and even a gun. “Based on what we typically find, a lot of it’s coming from land, coming from people tossing stuff off the pier that they think will just disappear.”
Spoiler alert—it does not disappear. Trash has to be removed. Over the years, the Ocean Conservancy’s ICC efforts have involved more than 11.5 million volunteers around the world, removing 210 million pounds of trash from nearly 390,000 miles of shoreline. Save the Sound has served as the official coordinator for ICC cleanups in Connecticut since 2002. Through the CT Cleanup, which runs from August through October, volunteers remove thousands of pounds of trash every year from rivers, beaches, parks, and other natural areas across the state. In each of the last eight years, the most common items collected are cigarette butts, food wrappers, plastic and metal bottle caps, and small plastic pieces.
“I’m not sure the majority of people are fully aware of the scope of the problem,” said Lauren Cleary, Save the Sound’s cleanup coordinator, who helps plan and support the CT Cleanup events as well as other cleanups that take place beyond its three-month season and include some in New York. “The data collection is important because it helps raise awareness, and it can be used for decisions by legislators to protect the environment.”
It wasn’t data that first drew Lauren’s attention to the magnitude of the marine debris problem. It was the pollution itself.
As a high school student in Jamaica, Lauren first volunteered for a cleanup along the coastline of Kingston Harbour. She showed up looking forward to picking up some community service hours and hanging out with friends. Over the years that followed, she would be confronted by pollution upon arriving at a cleanup site.
“I got there early to set up, maybe 7:00 or 8:00,” she said. “The water was so beautiful and flat, and full of plastic bottles floating over to greet us.” Once you see that, Lauren said, you can never unsee it. Lauren’s path led her to eventually become a project manager at the ICC coordinators in Jamaica. Their flagship beach cleanup has grown to a thousand people participating every year, coming in groups from churches and schools, from community organizations and corporations providing their employees an ideal team-building exercise. “Momentum has built up over the years,” said Lauren. “I would love to help keep building that energy here as well.”
Fortunately, similar energy behind the Connecticut Cleanup has been growing over the last couple of decades. Many cleanups consistently draw several dozen volunteers; others have blossomed into something even bigger.
“We’ve created a little festival,” said Kanako MacLennon, executive director of Greenwich Green and Clean. “We invite local organizations to set up tables, giving them a platform to educate and inspire participation in the community. It’s very joyful.”
Kanako expects this year’s event will once again involve close to 400 community members, including local scout troops and Boys & Girls Clubs. The entire Greenwich Japanese School community—students, parents, siblings, teachers, staff—shows up to help fill 150 green two-gallon buckets with trash from Tod’s Point. “The Japanese community feels this is a way to give back to the community which welcomed them here,” said Kanako.
Anyone looking to get involved in—or even start!—a cleanup in their community can find helpful information at savethesound.org/2025cleanups/#all-dates. “I’m definitely pushing to get more youth groups involved and more inland cleanup locations,” said Lauren. “It’s a big opportunity.”
And a very big need. ■
Save the Sound leads environmental action across the Long Island Sound region to protect the Sound and its rivers, fight climate change, save endangered lands, and work with nature to restore ecosystems. More info at savethesound.org.
