Florida Coastal Beach Cleanup

Saturday, September 15, 2012  8am-10am

Volunteers Needed - Okaloosa Island and Destin Beaches

Free Event T-Shirts

Citizen Okaloosa Environmental Council organizes volunteers to collect marine debris.  Litter can travel to the Gulf from miles inland, blown on the wind or carried along by rivers. 

Trash can travel long distances in the water, becoming one of our greatest pollution problems. The citizen Okaloosa County Environmental Council has organized more than 30,000 volunteers during two cleanups each year since 1988.  The top three items found were cigarettes filters, plastic bags, and food wrappers.

From the most prevalent trash worldwide (4.5 trillion cigarette filters each year) to tires and household appliances; marine debris contributes to the deterioration of ocean ecosystems and harms people and wildlife, impacting budgets from incurring removal costs.   

The ocean is no more than 75 miles away from every Floridian, providing much of the food, water, and oxygen we need to survive.  Because trash travels, we are all part of the problem—and the solution—some items may last hundreds and thousands of years, or forever, in the water.

Volunteers of all ages are invited to participate on September 15  from 8am-10am at Beasley Park (Okaloosa Island), Island Beach Park west of Island Princess (Okaloosa Island), and Henderson Beach State Park (Destin).