JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. – Nearly 650 volunteers dedicated two hours of their day during a Saturday morning cleanup at Jacksonville Beach.
According to Beaches Go Green, the organization believes the turnout was a single-event record.
Anne Marie Moquin, Beaches Go Green founder, said she was thrilled at the turnout.
“So many of them have come up to me and said what a blast they’ve had today. It’s something they can do with their friends. It brings the community together. They’re outside; they’re in nature,” Moquin said.
In total, 84 trash bags — weighing 20 pounds each — were collected, making a total of $2,616 in trash abatement contributions.
Out of the hundreds of volunteers, it was hard to believe anyone could beat Casey Jones and his team.
The team loaded up in his Jeep with all kinds of items — such as pipes, piles of trash, and a giant piece of concrete found behind an abandoned building.
“Jackets, shoes, and just bags and buckets of stuff. Hundreds of cigarette butts. My friends and I just went in there and started cleaning it all out. I realized how much we had, and said ‘I’ve got to go grab my car. We’re not going to be able to carry all this,” Jones said.
The organization Tobacco Free Jacksonville was also at the cleanup event. They gave away prizes for whoever picked up the most littered item on the plant — cigarette butts —and almost 19,000 cigarette butts were collected.
Moquin reminded people cigarettes contain harmful plastic, cellulose acetate.
“As they break down, it can take up to five years, and they leach toxic chemicals into the water and the soil. Like arsenic, lead, nicotine and other things. So, it’s really important to pick them up,” Moquin said.
For Jones, participating in this event is also about being a part of something good and beneficial to the community.
“It’s not really to judge others for what they put out. It’s really just to clean up and help make this world a little bit cleaner in our community as well. Walking by and not seeing trash and not on the sidewalk. That’s a good feeling,” Jones said.
The Beaches Oktoberfest is also hosting a beach clean-up on Oct. 9 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Attendees can meet directly behind the Sea Walk Pavilion. The first 100 participants to check in the day of will receive a t-shirt or stein.
