Next Texas Adopt-a-beach clean-up September 28!

[image id="9185" title="adopt a beach" class="size-medium wp-image-15948" width="300" height="225" ] Volunteers help keep Corpus Christi beaches clean.

You can thank the volunteers of the Texas Adopt-a-Beach program for Corpus Christi’s beautiful beaches. Thousands of volunteers tackled 11 sites along the Coastal Bend region April 30, with plans to do another beach cleanup  on Saturday, September 28. In addition, Beach Guardians adopt mile stretches of the coastline and work to keep it neat and tidy throughout the year.

The Adopt-A-Beach program has been in place since 1986, when it was the first of its kind in the nation. It recruited more than 3,000 volunteers to clean coastal beaches. Since then, some 446,000 volunteers have helped remove more than 8,500 tons of trash.

“Seventy percent of the litter is land-based, which means that it’s left by people coming to the beach and leaving their trash,” says Renee Tuggle, program director for Adopt-a-Beach. “In addition, inland debris as far away as Austin makes its way down through storm drains, lakes and rivers all the way to the coast where it is deposited on beaches.”

The trash deposited in the gulf ends up along the shoreline as well because of loop currents sweeping it up onto the sand rather than out to sea.

How to keep our beaches clean

When you plan a day at a Corpus Christi beach, dispose of all litter in the provided trash receptacles or take it out with you. In addition, don't bring glass containers. Dogs must be kept on a leash and their poop must be scooped. Ten pet waste stations have been installed to make it easier to dispose of pet waste, an effort that will help reduce the bacterial counts in the Corpus Christi Bay.

The trash on the beach consists mostly of plastic and cigarette butts, two deadly detriments.

“The plastic is the most threatening because it takes so long for it to break down and many of our sea critters mistake it for food,” says Tuggle.

And while some may consider cigarette butts to be biodegradable, it still takes 20 years to break them down. Styrofoam takes 50 years to decompose, a soda can improperly disposed can take 200 years to deteriorate. Disposable diapers are the worse. They take 450 years!

To find out more about the Adopt-a-Beach program run by the Texas General Land Office, visit the website. You can register for the any of the clean ups scheduled throughout the year.

Clean ups are only three-hours, an easy way of helping make the Corpus Christi beaches beautiful.  Supplies and directions are provided, and scouting organization members can earn a patch. Call the office at 877-TX-Coast, (877-892-6278) for more information.