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BRADLEY BEACH — Dozens of volunteers came out to the Fifth Avenue gazebo on April 15 for Clean Ocean Action’s spring Beach Sweep following a two-week postponement due to bad weather on April 1.
Scores of beach sweepers—Bradley Beach residents and others—gathered under the gazebo on a misty Saturday morning to scour the up and down the beach in search of trash.
“We have so many volunteers from so many different organizations here to help us,” said Rona Parker, Commissioner of Bradley Beach Environmental Commission [BBEC]. “Volunteers of all ages came to help out from the [Bradley Beach] Elementary School, Valley Bank, the New Jersey Humanist Network and the Colts Neck JROTC [Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps], just to name a few.”
The BBEC, who carried out the Bradley Beach sweep, provided personal protective equipment, bags for trash collection and even healthy snacks for the sweepers.
“The Bradley Beach Environmental Commission is always proud to host the bi-annual Clean Ocean Action Beach Sweeps. The sweeps draw attention to the harmful impacts of plastic pollution along our coastlines and in our waterways while creating an opportunity for community members to roll up their sleeves and be part of the solution,” said Council President Meredith DeMarco, who is also the council liaison for the BBEC.
“The data collected during these events help Clean Ocean Action and local elected officials to reduce the sources of marine debris, especially single-use plastics,” she said. “Since the enactments of our local single-use plastic bag ban and balloon release ban, Bradley Beach has seen a year-over-year reduction in balloon fragment and plastic-bag fragment debris on the beach, making our beaches and water safer for marine life and more enjoyable for residents and visitors alike.”
Mayor Larry Fox, who also volunteered, echoed the sentiment, saying that the beach itself was already quite clean before the sweep even started, giving him optimism about the future of Bradley Beach.
“This is the cleanest this beach has been in a long time,” said Mayor Larry Fox, who also volunteered. “We really had to hunt for trash this year…which is already a good sign that Bradley Beach is doing its part in reducing pollution.”
CLEAN OCEAN ACTION
Clean Ocean Action’s spring Beach Sweeps were held on Saturday, April 15 from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., after having been postponed from April 1 and rescheduled due to heavy weather that had ravaged parts of the state. In all, 74 locations across the Garden State participated in the bi-annual cleanup efforts along its coastal counties, as well as a few riverside sweeps.
Since 1985, Clean Ocean Action Beach Sweeps have collected over eight million pieces of garbage from the shores of New Jersey.
The beach sweeps this year were sponsored statewide by ShopRite and Vantage Apparel.
Clean Ocean Action holds both a spring and a fall beach sweep each year. The next Beach Sweep event is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023.
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