For the fourth year in a row, members of the Osprey Initiative team participated in the Alabama Coastal Cleanup efforts on Saturday, September 21st.
Four employees and two volunteers were on the Osprey team, who coordinated the recycling for all 28 sites of the cleanup. The team started at 6:30 a.m. and completed the last bit of data collection and sorting around 5 p.m.
The long day was worth it: the final tally was 385 cubic feet of recycling.
What does this mean? Roughly 126 pounds of aluminum, 200 pounds of plastic, and five super sacks were removed from the coast and sorted to go to recycling. This not only cleaned up the coast, but helped to keep these items out of the landfill.
The Osprey mission isn’t just to remove litter from our waterways, but to also find sustainable solutions to prevent litter and determine second uses for litter collected. We work with the local Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in each area to get as much of the materials we recover into the recycling stream. All items collected are tagged and included in the data we record at each site.
This was the 32nd year for this annual event, coordinated through the Alabama Department of Conservation & Natural Resources State Lands Division, Coastal Section, and the Alabama People Against A Littered State (PALS). Since its start in 1987, over 87,000 volunteers have helped to “get the trash out of the splash.”
Thanks to all the volunteers who worked to clean up our coast. We hope that you will get involved next year and find out everyday ways you can prevent marine debris. Learn more on the Alabama Coastal Cleanup website.
