Coastal Clean Up Day this Saturday

Keepers of the Coast announced to Historic City News the installation of new cigarette butt disposal receptacles at the Fishing Pier to be completed on “International Coastal Clean Up Day”, this Saturday, September 19, 2009.

Cigarette butts were one of the top three items collected during the 2008 International Coastal Clean Up Day and during its local July 5, 2009 Beach clean up.

Keepers of the Coast volunteers picked up almost 10,000 cigarette butts on St Johns County Beaches.

“We can prevent this trash from landing on our beaches and in our ocean if people dispose of them carefully” said Billy Zeits.

To assist beach visitors in disposing of cigarette butts properly, Keepers of the Coast and St Johns County Parks and Recreation will install the first six of sixteen new cigarette butt disposal receptacles as part of the International Coastal Clean Up Day on September 19, 2009.

The first six receptacles will be placed in and around the St Johns County Fishing Pier. Wooden boxes decorated by local artists with beach wildlife themes will surround the receptacles, creating pieces of public art for beach visitors to enjoy.

Keepers of the Coast is a St Augustine based 501(c )3 non-profit organization dedicated to local coastal preservation and clean up, in partnership with St Johns County Parks and Recreation,

The mission of Keepers of the Coast is to create an active community that works together to ensure St. Johns County beaches remain a beautiful part of our local environment and to provide a safe place for coastal residents to recreate for future generations.

The International Coastal Cleanup is the “World’s Largest Volunteer Effort for the Ocean.” In partnership with organizations and individuals across the globe, Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup engages people to remove trash and debris from the world’s beaches and waterways, identify the sources of debris, and change the behaviors that cause marine debris in the first place.

During the 2008 Cleanup, volunteers picked up an astounding 6.8 million pounds of trash along an estimated 17,000 miles of coastline.

For more information please contact Billy Zeits 814-1299, or Tara Dodson 814-2172.