Belle Isle Beach cleanup set for June 20 ahead of peak summer crowds

The Cleanup Club returns to Belle Isle on Saturday, June 20, for a morning shoreline cleanup alongside the Belle Isle Conservancy. The event runs from 10 a.m. to noon at the Belle Isle Beach House on Riverbank Drive, and anyone is welcome to join. Volunteers meet to the left of the Beach House, and organizers say all cleanup supplies are provided.

According to the event listing, the cleanup is part of a monthly partnership between the two groups. Volunteers complete a short waiver on arrival. A Recreation Passport is required for vehicles entering the island, but not for passengers, pedestrians, cyclists, or anyone arriving by transit. Organizers ask attendees to bring a reusable water bottle, with refills provided on site.

The work has a reason beyond appearances. Belle Isle Beach sits on the Detroit River, and litter left along the shoreline can wash into the water. The Cleanup Club frames each pickup in those terms, noting that removing trash helps keep plastic from entering the Detroit River and, in turn, the Great Lakes.

The Cleanup Club is a Michigan-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded by artist and environmental advocate Hannah Tizedes, who spent years doing solo cleanups before building an organization around the work. By her own account, she collected more than 100,000 pieces of plastic from Great Lakes shorelines and used the debris in art meant to start conversations about pollution. The scale of the problem is large: a 2016 Rochester Institute of Technology study estimated that roughly 22 million pounds of plastic enter the Great Lakes each year.

Tizedes is candid that a single cleanup does not solve that. "While we acknowledge that cleanups are not the ultimate solution, we strongly believe they play an accessible and active role in education and advancing our collaborative efforts for a brighter, more sustainable future for people and the planet," she told SBN Detroit.

The cleanup also fits a longer effort on the island. The Belle Isle Conservancy launched its Keep Belle Isle Beautiful anti-litter campaign in 2017, and the program has since drawn thousands of volunteers to remove litter from the park's land and waterways. The June 20 event is a chance to help clear the beach before summer crowds peak and foot traffic on the island climbs. Belle Isle remains one of the few public swimming spots in the city, and the beach draws steady visitors through July and August.

For full details and to register, visit thecleanupclub.org or follow @the.cleanup.club on Instagram.