Organizers are recruiting volunteers to help with Washington Coast Cleanup Day, set for April 21.
This is the biggest cleanup of the year organized by Washington CoastSavers, a part of the Washington Clean Coast Alliance.
Volunteers will hit popular and remote locations to pick up household plastics and other man-made debris. The cleanup stretches from Hobuck Beach just south of Neah Bay all the way to Long Beach at Cape Disappointment.
Last year, 1,158 volunteers helped remove more than 23 tons of debris that included crab pot floats, plastic water bottles, tires, ropes, Styrofoam, carpeting, remnants of fireworks and discarded clothing.
Since the cleanup began, more than 9,400 people have taken part in the event, timed to coincide with Earth Day. They have removed more than 300 tons of debris. For comparison, that’s a little more than two times the weight of the 74-foot Foss hybrid tug Carolyn Dorothy.
Organizers estimate the people who have taken part have contributed 47,020 hours. That effort is valued at almost $1.02 million.
The cleanup began in April 2000, organized by Seattle environmentalist Jan Klippert. He decided to do something after hiking the northern coast and finding many of the remote beaches littered with debris.
In 2007, the alliance brought together three groups that were organizing cleanups: the Olympic Coast Cleanup founded by Klippert, three annual Long Beach cleanups organized by the Grass Roots Garbage Gang and Operation Shore Patrol organized by the Pacific Northwest Four Wheel Drive Association since 1971.
Jeffrey P. Mayor: 253-597-8640 jeff.mayor@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/adventure
Get involved
To sign up for the event, go to coastsavers.org. For more information, you can send an email to info@coastsavers.org.
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