AUSTIN - The results for Friday's South Padre Island Winter Cleanup and Saturday's Coastal Bend Winter Cleanup organized by the Adopt-A-Beach program of the Texas General Land Office are in. At the Winter Texan Cleanup at Andy Bowie Park on South Padre Island, 721 volunteers showed up to remove 54,075 pounds of trash from five miles of Texas coastline. The Coastal Bend Winter Cleanuphad 730 volunteers at eight sites who removed 18,406 pounds of trash from 30.5 miles of beach.
"Marine debris kills wildlife and hurts local tourism, but it's a problem we can fix together," said Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush. "I want to thank the more than 1,400 Adopt-A-Beach volunteers who joined forces to care for the coast on Friday and Saturday. Texans across the Lone Star State are welcome to make a tax-deductible donation or find information about the next clean up online at www.TexasAdoptABeach.org ."
The results from the Winter Cleanup include:
RGV/South Padre Island - 721 volunteers - 54,075 pounds of trash from 5 miles (all-time record!)
Aransas Pass - 34 volunteers - 1,760 pounds of trash from 1.5 miles
Cole Park - 75 volunteers - 636 pounds of trash from 4 miles
North Beach Corpus Christi - 317 volunteers - 4,000 pounds of trash from 9 miles
Packery Flats - 59 volunteers - 2,750 pounds of trash from 3 miles
Padre Island National Seashore - 170 volunteers - 7,250 pounds of trash from 7 miles
Port Aransas - 61 volunteers - 900 pounds of trash from 3 miles
Rockport - 5 volunteers - 50 pounds of trash from 1 mile
San Jose Island - 9 volunteers - 1,060 pounds of trash from 2 miles
Since the program began in 1986, more than 505,000 volunteers have removed more than 9,400 tons of trash from Texas beaches. Cigarette butts, beer cans and plastic bags are among the most common items found. But with each cleanup, plenty of odd and unusual items inevitably are reported. Odd and unusual items removed during the two cleanups included a mannequin, trash can full of cement, bag of Christmas lights, a McDonald's sign, a bullet, a large inter tube, various plastic toys, a coconut, a wood pallet, 800 pounds of tires, furniture, and a luggage strap.
The Texas General Land Office Adopt-A-Beach program is an all-volunteer effort to remove trash from Texas' shores. Coastal cleanups are held three times each year and the program's success is due to the hard work of volunteers, including local coordinators who work many unpaid hours publicizing the cleanups in coastal communities. The Winter Texan Cleanup featured snowbirds from South Dakota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, New York, Canada, and Ohio, as well as school groups from Donna, Harlingen, LaFeria, McAllen, Mercedes, Pharr, Rancho Viejo, Raymondville, Weslaco, and also the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.
The next coastwide cleanup will be the Spring Adopt-A-Beach effort scheduled for Saturday, April 22, 2017. Adopt-A-Beach volunteers record data on the trash they find to learn more about the causes of marine debris and to help mitigate pollution along Texas' 367 miles of coastline. Adopt-A-Beach corporate sponsors and local media sponsors provide the necessary resources to help underwrite the costs associated with our annual events.
The Texas General Land Office's Adopt-A-Beach program is funded primarily by private contributions. To help out, or for more information, call the Adopt-A-Beach program at 1-877-TXCOAST or visit our website at TexasAdoptABeach.org.
You can follow Adopt-A-Beach on Facebook at Facebook.com/TexasAdoptABeach or on Twitter at Twitter.com/TXAdoptABeach.
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