BEACH CLEANUP CELEBRATES 20 YEARS AND 6,400 TONS OF TRASH

By Ella Tyler

In 1986, the Commissioner of the Texas General Land Office organized a small group of volunteers to pick up trash on Padre Island. The office of Land Commissioner has been held by several others since then, but twenty years later the GLO continues to organize the Adopt-A-Beach program. It now coordinates three cleanups a year. Since the first cleanup, more than 340,000 volunteers have picked up more than 6,400 tons of trash along 200 miles of Texas beaches. The US Department of the Interior will present a “Take Pride in America award to the program later this month.

The fall cleanup will be Saturday, Sept 23, at 26 sites along the Texas coast from Chambers County to Boca Chica, just above the mouth of the Rio Grande.

Renee Tuggle, statewide coordinator for the program, said that volunteers come from Dallas, San Antonio, and Austin, as well from cities that are nearer to the coast. “When people in Austin ask what a beach cleanup has to do with them, I tell them trash travels and litter from Austin ends up on a Texas beach,” she said.

However, all the trash on the beaches does not come from Texas, Tuggle said. “Currents from the Gulf of Mexico move in a circular pattern up the globe so we get trash from all over the world.

An important part of the fall cleanup is recording the kind of trash found. The Ocean Conservancy analyzes the data from this cleanup and uses it to lobby for stronger laws about marine dumping. Most of the trash is cigarettes/cigarette filters, food wrappers and containers, beverage bottles and cans, bags, and utensils. Odd items found during past cleanups include wigs, plastic pink flamingos, marble furniture, toilet seats, a parachute, a statue of Elvis, and a prosthetic leg.

Trash collectors also find items that can injure birds, fish, or beach goers. Dangerous items that are regularly collected include fishing line and nets, bags, balloons, fish or crab traps, plastic sheeting/tarps, rope, six-pack holders, strapping bands, and syringes.

Volunteers can choose a site to work at by checking the GLO website. They will be given data cards, gloves, pencils, and trash bags. Volunteers are advised to wear closed-toe shoes and to bring sunscreen and plenty of drinking water.

Local groups that are organizing collection crews include the Houston Sierra Club, which will be working a mile-long stretch of Crystal Beach on the Bolivar Peninsula. To join this group, contact Rita Davis at (281) 486-4462 or ritajeandavis@yahoo.com. The Houston Audubon Society will also be working at Crystal Beach, and they promise a picnic after the work is done, sponsored by the Bolivar Peninsula Chamber of Commerce. For directions to their meeting place, call (713) 932-1639. The Surfrider Foundation is going to (where else?) Surfside. For a map to the meeting place, see the Surfriders’ website.

Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson said, “We work to keep the coast as clean as possible, but tidal patterns in the Gulf of Mexico make Texas beaches the dumping ground for large amounts of marine debris. Texans have to fight extra hard to keep our Gulf Coast pristine for all to enjoy.