Category Archives: beach cleanup

beach cleanup, Brevard County, environmental volulnteers, Robert Barossi

Volunteers Help People Pack it Out

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P1000405(Photo by Robert Barossi)

by Robert Barossi

Finally back at the blog after a vacation in New  York City and then a few days of recovering from vacation in New York City. A great story this morning from far south of there, Brevard County, Florida. A group called Keep Brevard Beautiful is holding a number of events this summer, all aimed at living up to their name, keeping Brevard’s beaches protected and preserved. Their most recent event implored visitors to those beaches to “pick it up, pack it out.” This was a great event which saw volunteers handing out biodegradable bags to beach visitors. Doing this eliminates one reason why trash so often gets left behind on beaches (“I didn’t have anything to put the trash in”). Hopefully, it led to lots of people picking up and packing out their trash and also gave them the inspiration and motivation to keep doing so in the future.

If you’ve enjoyed the stories on this blog, download my eBook – Being Where You Are: How Environmental Volunteers Impact Their Community and the Planet Every Day

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beach cleanup, environmental volulnteers, Philippines, Robert Barossi

Environmental Volunteers in the Philippines

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1024px-Boracay_Sailing_Paraw(Photo by Anthony Alger, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

by Robert Barossi

For the second day in a row, an unexpected theme jumped out at me when I searched for environmental volunteer stories. This time – the Philippines. It got me thinking that I really need to post more international stories on here. So, let’s start today. The first story is a great article about 4,000 volunteers cleaning up beaches in the Dumanquillas Bay Protected Landscape and Seascape. The amazing event was part of a celebration of Coral Triangle Day and involved six coastal municipalities. I’ve posted many stories on this blog about beach cleanups and this  is a great one due to the sheer numbers involved. It also demonstrates something I’ve tried to emphasize in the past, that these kinds of volunteer efforts do happen all the time, all over the world. The second article implores people to get involved in environmental volunteer efforts and offers six organizations to get involved with. While it is specific to the Philippines, it offers some great insight and advice that potential volunteers can use no matter where they live.

If you have enjoyed the stories on this blog, download my eBook – Being Where You Are: How Environmental Volunteers Impact Their Community and the Planet Every Day

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beach cleanup, environmental volunteers, Rhode Island, Save the Bay

Ocean State Volunteers Clear Tons of Trash

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IMG_1383(Photo by Robert Barossi)

by Robert Barossi

There’s an old joke that includes the line, “Rhode Island is neither a road nor an island…” While that may be true, the smallest state does, in fact, have an awful lot of coastline, over 400 miles, according to the state’s government, if you include all the bays, coves and islands close to the coast. That makes for an awful lot of land where ocean debris and trash can wash up on shore. Recently, though, environmental volunteers have been making a huge effort to clean up the state’s beaches and coastal areas. This includes more than three tons of trash cleaned up by volunteers of Save the Bay, one of the state’s most prominent environmental organizations. That’s just one of the amazing efforts mentioned in the article linked above. In each volunteer event, local citizens cleaned up hundreds or thousands of pounds of trash, working together to protect and preserve the natural environment along all those miles of coastline.

If you’ve enjoyed the stories on this blog, download my eBook, Being Where You Are: How Environmental Volunteers Impact Their Community and the Planet Every Day

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BeingFinal

beach cleanup, environmental volunteers, river cleanup, Robert Barossi

Volunteers are Cleaning Up

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IMG_0685(Photo by Robert Barossi)

by Robert Barossi

Whenever searching for volunteer stories around the internet, there’s never a lack of cleanup stories. Volunteers are constantly proving their dedication, passion and enthusiasm for the local environment by cleaning up rivers, lakes, ponds, beaches and ocean shores. Three recent stories include: Volunteers wade into water and pull muddy bicycles out of rivers in Idaho. All the way across the country, in New Jersey, they work to clean up a beach and plant dune grass at an annual event. Finally, up north in Michigan, shopping carts are just some of the items pulled out of Grand River by 120 volunteers.

All of these volunteers, and the hundreds more like them all over the world, deserve our appreciation and thanks. Their tireless efforts go a long way towards protecting waterways everywhere. Environmental organizations involved in the above efforts include Portneuf Watershed Partnership in Idaho, the Sea Isle City Environmental Commission in New Jersey, and the Grand River Environmental Action Team in Michigan.