JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. — Earth Day is right around the corner and environmental advocates are reminding everyone to protect the planet and pick up their trash, especially on Florida beaches.
Hundreds of volunteers picked up trash left on the sand during four Earth Day beach cleanups hosted by Beaches Go Green on Saturday.
“Earth Day is every day," said Natalie Decker, a cleanup volunteer.
With summer-like temperatures hitting the First Coast, hundreds of people are flocking to beaches to soak up the sun. But with more people, comes more trash.
At Jacksonville Beach alone, 176 volunteers helped pick up 21 bags of trash and 10,026 cigarette butts, according to Beaches Go Green.
"It's really cool to have a day that people get really excited about coming out and cleaning and being sustainable," said Decker.
Across all locations, over 18,000 cigarette butts were removed from the First Coast beaches.
“Cigarette butts are the most littered item on the planet. For some reason people think they’re made of paper and they’re just going to bio-degrade but they actually have plastic in them, and tons of toxic chemicals," said Anne Marie Moquin, the founder of Beaches Go Green.
Beaches Go Green hosts cleanup events throughout the year, but the nonprofit's founder believes it’s the education they share with student clubs in St. Johns and Duval counties that make a long-lasting difference.
Moquin's message is to remember the four R’s: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle
“If we don’t educate the community to make better choice up front, stop littering, stop purchasing all the disposable items, were going to keep cleaning up after people our entire lives and that’s not what we want to do," Moquin said.