How Tropical Hawaii Keeps Its Beaches Clean
In Hawaii, the beach isn’t just scenery. It’s part of daily life, local culture, wildlife habitat, and the visitor economy, all at once. That sounds simple enough, but clean beaches in a tropical island chain take steady work.
Warm weather speeds up smells and decay. Heavy footfall adds litter. Ocean currents, winter surf, and sudden storms can push waste back onshore. Even fast plant growth can make paths, bins, and beach edges harder to manage. So this is less about one big clean-up and more about a system.
At the coast, keep away from nesting birds and never walk on sand dunes. Learn how to keep dogs safe by the seaside (check beach bans before travel).
Where is Hawaii?
Hawaii is one of the 50 states of the USA, but as an island in the Pacific Ocean, it’s very different and more independent. Home to singer/songwriter Jack Johnson (who with his wife is heavily involved in education on keeping beaches clean – they even invented a reusable pint cup to stop plastic waste).
These islands are home to Kona coffee, hula dances, volcanoes and the world’s highest mountain (not Everest, this is higher if you include underwater ones).
But plastic waste (and wildfires due to climate change) means these six major islands have really taken a serious approach to reducing carbon emissions and beach litter, for residents, tourists (a major income) and marine creatures.
There are tap water refill stations across the island, along with marine trash identification lesson plans, to get the next generation involved in helping to keeping the island clean for future generations.
Most of the world’s discarded rubbish collects into one massive mound in the North Pacific, bound by the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. It’s divided into the eastern garbage patch (between Hawaii and California) and the western garbage patch (near Japan).
Hawaii Wildlife Fund estimates that 15 to 20 tones of marine trashed are washed up on the island’s shores each year, most of which are plastic. Kamilo Beach (on Big Island) is now listed as the most plastic-polluted place on earth, with over 47 tons of plastic removed from the shore in just 24 days.
On one volunteer beach clean, one find was an endangered Hawaiian monk seal, who had netting wrapped tightly around her neck). Another local monk seal died, after becoming entangled from ‘jug fishing’ (when someone lowers a plastic jug to try to catch a fish).
Due to so many active volcanoes, some have asked why Hawaii does not use the heat for energy. But experts say this would not work, as volcanoes are unpredictable – collecting it would be ‘the most dangerous job on earth’.
We’ll just look at you. If you look scared, then we’ll panic. Discovery Channel crew to volcanologist John Seach, while filming at a volcano
I have seen so many eruptions in the last 20 years, that I don’t care if I die tomorrow. Maurice Krafft (volcanologist on the day before he, his wife and another volcanologist were killed on Unzen Volcano, Japan).
Reducing the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Near to Hawaii, this is a swirling current of rubbish that is apparently the size of Texas. Hawaii’s island accumulate a lot of marine debris from the north side, including thousands of pounds of plastic, fishing gear and consumer litter that wash up on the windward coasts.
Despite Hawaii’s best efforts, Kamilo Beach on Big Island is one of the most littered areas on earth, due to ocean currents washing up plastic waste. Locals say it’s not unusual to see the ocean filled with confetti-like plastic pieces’, and someone once came across hundreds of coat hangers in one go.
It’s so bad, that local hotels even offer free nights for tourists, who get involved in volunteer beach clean-ups. The government has also mandated that all cesspools be replaced by 2025, to improve water quality and beach sanitation.
Now the government has another fight on its hands. After legislating for the single-use plastic ban, President Trump has reversed it saying that ‘paper straws don’t work’. So now Americans will be able to buy, use and litter plastic straws all over again, after such a fight to rid the world of them.
