5 Fun Facts about Beach Clean-Ups

1)      Beach Clean-Ups help the Local Economy –

Beaches are an ideal tourist attraction. By helping maintain the highest standards, and keep our beaches clean, we can ensure that tourists continue to visit local beaches. The revenue generated from the support of tourists is essential to the local population, whose main source of revenue revolves around tourism and fishing. Coastal tourism and commercial fishing are a vital part of the Texas economy, contributing about $8.9 billion per year.

2)      Beach Clean-Ups help keep the Ocean clean too –

Due to tide patterns in the Gulf of Mexico, trash dumped anywhere in the gulf is likely to end up on a Texas beach. During periods of high tide, the ocean may also sweep some of the trash or debris that has been left on the beach back into the sea. This in turn puts marine wild life in danger. Beach clean-ups help reduce this risk towards the survival of marine wild life, and helps the overall marine system remain a little safer and healthier for all.

3)      Beach Clean-Up Volunteers can make a Global difference –

Volunteers through state programs, such as the Texas General Land Office’s “Texas Adopt-A-Beach” program, can record information such as the source and type of debris collected on data cards provided by Ocean Conservancy. The data that has been collected over time has been instrumental in the passage of international treaties and laws aimed at reducing the amount of offshore dumping.

4)      Beach Clean-Ups and Texas –

The first beach clean-up to be sponsored by the state of Texas occurred in 1986. Since then, over 400,000+ people have volunteered to clean up beaches across Texas, through the “Texas Adopt-A-Beach” program, and have collected over 8,000 tons of trash over a span of twenty-six years. Among the earliest and most renowned beach cleanup in Texas was one organized by Linda Maraniss, a former employee of Ocean Conservancy (then known as the Center for Environmental Education). Being appalled at the amount of trash she saw on a trip to the beaches of South Padre in 1986, she would team up with like-minded people to organize a beach cleanup. In a mere two hours, 2,800 Texans would pick up 124 tons of trash along 122 miles of coastline.

5)      First state-wide Beach Clean-Up in the World –

In 1984, Judy Nielson, an employee of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), would attend a conference on plastics in the marine environment. This conference led her to conceive the idea of statewide volunteer beach cleanups to raise awareness of the proliferation of plastic debris in the environment. The world’s first statewide volunteer beach cleanup would be held on October 13, 1984, under the title “Plague of Plastics”. Local coastal garbage haulers would volunteer to haul all the collected debris to local landfills at no charge. In all, 2,100 volunteers removed 26.3 tons of debris at that first beach cleanup.

Written by Viktor Kopic | Research & Development Coordinator