GreenWorks - Ideas for a Cleaner Environment

September is a beautiful time of year to visit New Hampshire’s coast -- less traffic, quiet beaches, cooler weather, and the New Hampshire Coastal Cleanup! Scheduled for Saturday, September 20, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., the Coastal Cleanup provides an excellent way to enjoy New Hampshire’s coast while getting involved in helping the environment.

The N.H. Coastal Cleanup is celebrating its 16th anniversary as part of the larger International Coastal Cleanup effort that includes 55 states and territories, and more than 70 countries. In New Hampshire, the cleanup will be at over 10 locations along New Hampshire’s heavily visited coastline. There will also be an underwater site in Rye Harbor where volunteers from the United Divers of New Hampshire will be collecting everything from bicycles to antique bottles from under the water.

Volunteers will not only clean up the New Hampshire shorelines and learn about marine debris, they will also assist in the planning of future litter prevention programs. At each clean-up site, a coordinator will provide garbage bags, rubber gloves, and forms to record data on the trash that the volunteers find. As volunteers collect and remove trash from the shorelines, they record information on the trash they collect, including the total number of each type of item collected. The volunteers’ recorded data are then sent to the Ocean Conservancy (OC), a nationwide clearinghouse for this international event. The OC compiles all the information and assesses current and future litter prevention policies, such as an international treaty banning the ocean-disposal of plastics.

Marine debris comes both from ocean dumping and from littering on the land and beaches. Most stormdrains in the state carry rainwater that runs off the roads directly into lakes, streams, rivers, or the ocean. Debris picked up along the way also flows into these waterbodies. Lighter materials can be blown out over lakes and rivers or to sea. Trash from beachgoers is washed to the sea by the tides.

Litter is unsightly and can cause harm to wildlife and people. It can kill marine creatures that ingest it or become entangled in it. Perhaps you’ve had the experience of discovering cigarette butts in the stomach of an otherwise delectable fish? Discarded half-empty oil cans, car batteries, and other hazardous products can pollute surface and ground water. Glass shards and littered razor blades pose a hazard to swimmers, beachcombers, pets, and people playing along the shoreline.

Litter is one of our environmental problems with an easy solution -- reuse items that can be reused, recycle recyclables, and dispose of other waste materials in litter receptacles or at your local solid waste facility. Since litter can eventually end up in a waterbody, any effort to pick up trash, whether on land or water, helps keep our waters clean.

If you’d like to do even more, why not be a part of the Coastal Cleanup? Call the N.H. Coastal Program at (603) 431-9366 to volunteer. Or, contact your local conservation commission or watershed association to volunteer in a cleanup effort they may have organized. Or, organize a neighborhood cleanup or a stream walk of your own.