Coast is clean: Volunteers participate in annual International Coastal Cleanup event

Ocean Conservancy’s 38th International Coastal Cleanup was held Saturday, Sept. 16, with more than 20 locations up and down local beaches. 

Volusia County's Environmental Management Division hosted the local effort in Volusia County, where volunteers collected trash along the coast and local rivers. 

Ocean Conservancy's cleanup event has grown to include more than 150 countries. Locally, volunteers filled contractor trash bags with debris, including hubcaps, propane tanks, dishes, refrigerant parts, and a car's side mirror. Volunteers at Tomoka State Park collected 915 pounds of trash, according to Dream Green Volusia.

Ormond Beach resident Martina Wasdin, a Volusia County International Coastal Cleanup site coordinator, organized volunteers at Michael Crotty Bicentennial Park in Ormond-by-the-Sea.

"This is our home," she said. "We live here, and every single day, I want to come and see this. ... People are very active, and they are happy to participate."

She was joined by her husband, Scott Wasdin, and daughter Lindsey Kauffman.

"We like doing our thing for our beaches and our parks," Martina Wasdin said. 

Thirty-nine volunteers participated at the Michael Crotty Bicentennial Park location.

In Flagler County, the county's Land Management staff supported a cleanup in Marineland hosted by the University of Florida and the Guana-Tolomato-Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve.

“I am happy to be participating and picking up trash,” Public Lands & Natural Resource Manager Michael Lagasse said, according to a Flagler County news release. “The International Coastal Cleanup engages people from around the world to remove trash from the world’s beaches and waterways, and it’s great to be a part of that.”

Flagler Beach residents took part in a cleanup event organized by the Flagler Beach All-Stars along the stretch of beach near the city's pier.

"Personally, what I have been seeing the most of on the beach have been the rubber bands for hair ties," said the All-Stars' Carla Cline. "That's like the new straw, I guess. And then, obviously, the cigarette butts."

The All-Stars have been organizing beach cleanups for about eight years.

Flagler Beach Mayor Suzie Johnston took part in the All-Stars cleanup and noted that the Matanzas High School National Honor Society and Students Working Against Tobacco participated, earning volunteer hours required for graduation.

Attendees recorded their finds on Ocean Conservancy’s Clean Swell App, she said. 

Because the tide was high during the cleanup, they found more regular litter than wash-up trash, she said.  

"It was great," she said. "As long as people are happy to show up, I'm happy, and people always show up with a really great attitude."

— Managing Editor Jonathan Simmons contributed to this story.