Pre-Marine Debris Cleanup: August 2019

To celebrate Embrace the Gulf 2020 and Great American Cleanup month, CHNEP held a trash pickup at Ponce de Leon park. We discussed the impact of single use plastics on our waterways. Limiting our use of these products and picking up trash before it enters our waters are small daily choices that make BIG impacts! Thanks to all our volunteers who joined us and to Keep Charlotte Beautiful for the cleanup supplies.

Nearly 60 CHNEP volunteers spent a hot August morning cleaning up over 1,000 pounds of trash from three locations in Charlotte County - WOW! Our volunteers gathered by foot and by kayak to clean Veteran’s Boulevard, Ponce de Leon Park, and the Port Charlotte Beach Complex. CHNEP is so grateful for these environmentalists who spent their Saturday picking up litter! A special thank you to Keep Charlotte Beautiful for donating supplies.

The work we accomplished was meaningful. If left in the environment, the litter we removed would have broken down into smaller pieces and microplastics, or may have been mistakenly consumed by birds, turtles or mammals.

The trash we collected was used to build an educational interactive Marine Debris sculpture at the CHNEP Nature Festival. Single-use plastics are a BIG problem. You can help by REFUSING to use them. Bringing your own water bottle, travel mug, straw, and shopping bags does make a difference!

Our CHNEP volunteers were featured on WINK News and in the Charlotte Sun for our good work.