Delaware Natural Resources and Environmental Control issued the following announcement on July 19.
Online volunteer registration is now open for the 31st annual Delaware Coastal Cleanup, to be held from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Sept. 15. Sponsored by the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, the cleanup spans the First State’s 97-mile eastern coastline and includes river and ocean shorelines as well as wetland and watershed areas. This year, more than 45 sites in New Castle, Kent and Sussex counties are targeted for cleanup by volunteers.
Individual volunteers and groups are strongly encouraged to preregister on DNREC’s website at de.gov/coastalcleanup to ensure enough supplies are readied for each site. Preregistration will close Wednesday, Sept. 5.
Groups of 10 volunteers or more also are asked to contact Delaware Coastal Cleanup Coordinator Joanna Wilson, at 302-739-9902 or joanna.wilson@state.de.us, or the appropriate zone captain listed on the website for advance site placement.
At last year’s Coastal Cleanup, 1,567 dedicated volunteers from civic organizations, youth groups, businesses and families collected 3.8 tons of trash from 47 sites along Delaware’s shorelines and tributaries. About one-quarter of that trash – mostly aluminum cans and plastic bottles – was recycled. Cleanup volunteers’ more unusual finds included a wallet, wrist watch, cell phone, parmesan cheese shaker, a large heavy rug, a statue of the Virgin Mary, golf tee, ant trap, Big Wheel tire, garden hose, vacuum cleaner, trailer registration tag, toy bulldozer, green army men, half a driver’s license and credit card, handle bars, snow hat, mermaid doll, Mardi Gras beads, confetti, glowsticks, oil cans, multiple gas tanks and televisions, and, at one site, 205 liquor bottles.
Delaware’s Cleanup is part of the Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup, the world’s largest annual clearing of trash from coastlines, rivers, streams, and lakes by volunteers. Hundreds of thousands of people all over the world help each year to rid the environment of marine debris and collect detailed information on the types and quantities of refuse they find. Information is recorded on data cards and sent to the Center for Marine Conservation, which compiles data for all cleanups to help identify debris sources and focus efforts on eliminating or reducing marine debris. For more information, visit www.oceanconservancy.org.
For more information about the Delaware Coastal Cleanup, please contact Joanna Wilson, Delaware Coastal Cleanup coordinator, at 302-739-9902, or joanna.wilson@state.de.us.
Original source can be found here.
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