Juno Beach Fla. (November 30, 2022) – Loggerhead Marinelife Center (LMC) is proud to announce that a record-breaking 755,023 candy wrappers were collected through the 2022 Unwrap the Waves Initiative. Unwrap the Waves encourages the community and students to get in the spirit of conservation and to raise awareness about single-use waste.
“This year’s results show that even small, individual actions can make a huge impact in sustainability and conservation,” said Lindsay French, Senior Education Manager. “Whether you collected one wrapper or a hundred wrappers to be recycled, whether you live on the coast or in a land-locked area, your efforts contributed to ocean conservation by keeping mountains of wrappers out of our landfills and from possibly entering our local ecosystems as debris.”
In its seventh year, the Unwrap the Waves Competition resulted in participation from 37,883 students from 76 schools across 8 states nationwide. Additionally, 50% of students who participated were from Title 1 schools. Working alongside the students were 28 community partners, organizations, and sponsors.
The winning school, Gotsch Intermediate School in Missouri, collected 36,715 Halloween candy wrappers. For their conservation efforts, the students will get to name a sea turtle patient at LMC. Gotsch proves that even states with no access to the ocean can join the wave and get involved in ocean conservation efforts.
Mote Marine Laboratory International Center for Coral Reef Restoration and Research in Summerland Key, FL, is the winning community partner with 32,245 wrappers collected.
LMC’s Unwrap the Waves Initiative has recycled nearly 2 million candy wrappers. In a partnership with TerraCycle, wrappers will be turned into post-consumer products and saved from landfills and marine ecosystems. Watering cans, compost bins, and plant pots are just a few of the items that will be produced as a result of this collaborative effort.
Thank You to our Amazing 2022 Sponsors!
