Hundreds of volunteers will scatter far and wide across the island today to take part in the EY Coastal Clean-up.

The island-wide event organised by Keep Bermuda Beautiful is part of a global initiative by Ocean Conservancy.

It is also the largest global coastal cleanup that Bermuda has participated in for the past 31 years.

Scores of teams will be taking part in today’s event including two teams from EY who will be in Dockyard and in St George’s, and also three teams from the America’s Cup Event Authority including young sailors from the Endeavour Sailing Programme.

Pupils and parents from Saltus Grammar School will be at John Smith’s Bay, while a team from Bermuda College will descend on Church Bay in Southampton.

The clean-up began early for some teams; 30 employees from IKONIC Fund Services tackled Grape Bay Beach on Friday night, while a small team from the US Consulate’s Office combed the Blue Hole Hill Park.

All the collected debris will be trucked away by hired truckers and the Department of Parks.

In 2015 Ocean Conservancy reported that 90 countries participated in the clean-up and more than 790,000 volunteers picked up over 18,000,000 lbs of trash worldwide.

Bermuda’s results for the 2015 EY Coastal Clean-up showed that 544 people in 40 locations picked up more than 13,700 lbs of debris from the island’s shoreline.