September 5, 2010
 
Texas 'Adopt a Beach' Sept. 25

- The 24th Texas General Land Office Adopt-A-Beach Fall Cleanup will be held Saturday, Sept. 25 at 28 sites along the Texas coast.

"Any day is a good day to go the beach, but Adopt-A-Beach Cleanups are something special," Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson said.

"Come on down for a fun-filled day with about 10,000 other Texans who care about the coast."

Adopt-A-Beach volunteers can register at any of 27 check-in sites all along the Texas coast between 8:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. on Sept. 25.

Volunteers must pre-register for the St. Jo Island location in advance, as reservations are required due to limited access.

Volunteers may register on-line at www.TexasAdoptABeach.org or become a fan of the Texas General Land Office Adopt-A-Beach program on Facebook.

Texans who can't make it to the beach but still want to support the volunteer effort can make a tax-deductible donation online at TexasAdoptABeach.org. '

Sponsorship levels range from $25 to $25,000.

Patterson urged Adopt-A-Beach volunteers to wear shoes, a hat and sunscreen. Volunteers will be given data cards, gloves, pencils and trash bags.

Most sites along the coast conclude the day's cleanup with cold drinks, hot food and lots of fun.

The success of the Adopt-A-Beach program is made possible not only by the generous efforts of thousands of volunteers, but through the generous donations of community leaders and sponsors statewide.

The lead statewide sponsor for the 24th Texas General Land Office Adopt-A-Beach Fall Cleanup is Shell Oil Company. Other sponsors include HNTB Corporation, AT&T Pioneers, El Paso Corporation, KBR, Halliburton, LyondellBasell and the Ocean Conservancy.

The Texas Adopt-A-Beach program was originated in the fall of 1986, when 2,800 volunteers picked up 124 tons of trash.  Since then, more than 397,000 volunteers have removed 7,700 tons of trash from Texas beaches. 

The Texas Adopt-A-Beach program is an all-volunteer effort to remove trash from Texas beaches and waterways and to increase public awareness of the problems of marine debris and beach litter. 

Twice each year, volunteers check in at sites along the coast to pick up trash.

The data collected from the beach cleanups played an integral part in the passage of MARPOL Annex V, an international treaty that prohibits the dumping of plastics in the world's oceans. 

In July of 1991, the International Maritime Organization designated the Gulf of Mexico and the Wider Caribbean as a "special area" where the dumping of trash is prohibited.