Sweep the beach …

Environmental advocates from our Jersey Shore area can participate in Clean Ocean Action’s 2025 “Spring Beach Sweeps” on Saturday, April 12 from 9 am to 12:30 pm.

I urge area residents to participate in this worthy cause. We all must be better stewards of our planet. We only got one. I helped for several years, along with my two then young children, and found it invigorating and meaningful. Our precious coast needs constant care and guarding and I salute Clean Ocean Action for its long record of caring and doing.

This year there are 80+ locations to help with the cleanup — one in  Monmouth Beach and Sandy Hook, 3 in Sea Bright and in Long Branch — MORE INFO. All participants are asked to wear work gloves, hard-sole shoes and sunscreen, and be appropriately dressed. The event will be held rain or shine.

COA started the beach sweeps program back in 1985 to rid our precious coast of unsightly and harmful debris. One of the longest running cleanups of its kind in the world, the program has grown from 75 people at one site in 1985, to over 10,000 volunteers in recent years. To date, COA beach sweeps have removed nearly 8.5 million pieces of coastal trash. An amazing achievement.

“Nature and wisdom never are at strife.”
—Plutarch

Since the Beach Sweeps began two things remain constant, according to Cindy Zipf, marking 40 years as the COA’s Executive Director. “First, litter, especially plastic, is harmful and even lethal to marine life and it’s on the rise. Second, you can always count on the small and the tall to volunteer to help clean up. She calls it showing “Jersey Pride.”

According to the 2023 Beach Sweeps Report, 3,600+  volunteers collected some 176,000 pieces of debris from about 70 locations during the combined Spring and Fall cleanups last year. As in recent years, the most frequently collected items were plastic — with nearly 80% being made of plastic or foam plastic.

For more information about the program, call: 732-872-0111 or visit the COA website.