(Photo by Robert Barossi)

by Robert Barossi

Cleaning up coasts, shorelines and bodies of water is one of the most common environmental volunteer activities. It’s also one of the most important. It’s easy to imagine just how polluted our beaches and coastlines would be if nobody ever picked up all that trash and pollution. Not just easy to imagine but kind of frightening. Fortunately, there are dedicated and passionate people, like the 1,616 people who showed up to clean the shores of Mississippi during the annual Mississippi Coastal Cleanup. They picked up an impressive 1,603 bags of trash at 47 sites. The debris included many recyclables and a number of strange and unusual objects. Removing all of it will go a long way to improving or maintaining the health of the beaches and all the ecosystems along the Mississippi coast.