| NJDEP'S ANNUAL FALL BEACH
CLEANUP SCHEDULED (02/82) TRENTON - The New Jersey
Department of Environmental Protection's annual post-summer Adopt-A-Beach cleanup
is scheduled for Saturday, September 21, at beachfront communities along the coast.
The clean-up coincides with the observance of International Coastal Clean-Up Day
which is sponsored by the Ocean Conservancy, a Washington DC based non-profit. The
International Coastal Clean-Up is the largest marine pollution cleanup effort
currently in existence. The event heightens public awareness about the problems
caused by debris in the marine environment, and unites citizens from around the
world in an attempt to fight pollution in their communities. In the year 2001,
volunteers world-wide combed more than 12,000 miles of beaches and waterways hauling
in 12.5 million pounds of trash during the cleanup, including 79,670 pieces of
trash removed from New Jersey's shoreline. Under the NJDEP's
Adopt-A-Beach Program, individuals, families, school students and other volunteers
armed with plastic bags and tally sheets, remove litter and other debris at least
twice a year from beaches they have adopted. Since the DEP's program inception
in 1993, volunteers have removed more than half a million items from Garden State
beaches. Cigarette butts and plastics are among the most frequently found types
of litter. For more information about New Jersey's Adopt-A-Beach
Program or to "adopt" a section of beach for cleanup, call (609)-29-BEACH. | 
