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NJDEP'S ANNUAL FALL BEACH CLEANUP SCHEDULED
(02/82) TRENTON – The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's annual post-summer Adopt-A-Beach cleanup is scheduled for Saturday, September 21, at beachfront communities along the coast. The clean-up coincides with the observance of International Coastal Clean-Up Day which is sponsored by the Ocean Conservancy, a Washington DC based non-profit.
The International Coastal Clean-Up is the largest marine pollution cleanup effort currently in existence. The event heightens public awareness about the problems caused by debris in the marine environment, and unites citizens from around the world in an attempt to fight pollution in their communities. In the year 2001, volunteers world-wide combed more than 12,000 miles of beaches and waterways hauling in 12.5 million pounds of trash during the cleanup, including 79,670 pieces of trash removed from New Jersey's shoreline.
Under the NJDEP's Adopt-A-Beach Program, individuals, families, school students and other volunteers armed with plastic bags and tally sheets, remove litter and other debris at least twice a year from beaches they have adopted. Since the DEP's program inception in 1993, volunteers have removed more than half a million items from Garden State beaches. Cigarette butts and plastics are among the most frequently found types of litter.
For more information about New Jersey's Adopt-A-Beach Program or to "adopt" a section of beach for cleanup, call (609)-29-BEACH.
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OFFICIAL SITE OF THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY