Why is this site here?   What’s it all about?   Who started it?

CleanupUtah.org was started as an informational site, originally for a single aquatic cleanup at Bountiful Pond several years ago.  At the time, it was sponsored by Elfon, LLC, a webhosting company based in Utah.   Elfon has since gone out of business, but CleanupUtah lives on.   Jon Rusho, former managing partner of Elfon, had teamed up with a group from the Living Planet Aquarium.   Jon is a PADI Course Director (scuba diving instructor trainer) and avid scuba diver, hence the interest in protecting and cleaning aquatic environments.

Trash washed ashore after a storm.

Why should we clean up aquatic environments?   From a scuba diver’s point of view, any body of water is a place to explore.   The last thing we want to see on an adventure of exploration is trash, or aquatic life harmed by trash.   While many items of trash might degrade, plastics in particular last for a very long time.   All too often, aquatic life are either ensnared by the plastic or eat it thinking it’s food.

The first step in a cleanup is awareness.   If you know where your trash might end up, perhaps you’ll think twice before throwing things away.   Remember the three R’s: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.    If you reduce how much you use, reuse what you can and recycle the rest, it makes for a better environment for all of us.

CleanupUtah hasn’t been too active in the last couple of years.  If you’re planning an aquatic cleanup, please contact Jon Rusho so he can post it on this website to help advertise your cleanup.

For more information about aquatic debris, please visit Project AWARE’s Marine Debris page.

To help future PADI Open Water Scuba Instructors, Jon usually includes a Project AWARE workshop during his PADI Instructor Development Courses.