By Hal Daume
The Berkeley Heights Rotary Club and friends recently showed up at Sandy Hook Beach and served vittles for the more than 850 volunteers who came out to clean the beaches there of litter of all sorts.
The Rotary Club has been doing this for over 15 consecutive years, in cooperation with Clean Ocean Action, the semi-annual cleanup of New Jersey beaches known as “Beach Sweep.” During the course of the morning, cleanup volunteers plowed through 1000 hot dogs, gallons and gallons of iced tea and water, and ten 50-pack boxes of chips and nachos. All food and drinks are provided free to these sandy stalwarts by the Berkeley Heights Rotary Club.
This year’s Beach Sweep was a huge success. The “sweepers” at Sandy Hook removed vast amounts of litter. The “Top 5” were: over 9400 discarded pieces of plastic, including a major number of plastic water bottles; 6580 candy and food wrappers; 5989 bottle caps and coffee cup lids; and over 7442 straws, stirrers, and Styrofoam cups; plus one Styrofoam chunk of dock material measuring 5’x3’x2’! All this and much more in less than three hours’ time!
Beach Sweep 18 e
Beach Sweep 18 d
Beach Sweep 18 c
Beach Sweep 18 b
(above) Volunteers at Beach Sweep.
