Currently, it's 6:20 am Wed Jan 7 2009 in beautiful Miami-Dade County, Florida
Surfrider "Respect the Beach" Anti-Litter Event - Nov. 8, 9, 15, and 16th - from 1-3 p.m.
WE NEED VOLUNTEERS FOR TWO HOURS ON THE WEEKEND IN SOUTH BEACH.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP!!
(put what day/s you can make it in the comments section)
When: Saturday and Sunday, November 8, 9, 15 & 16, 1:00 to 3:00 PM
Surfrider Foundation South Florida Chapter and Miami Beach Commissioner Jerry Libbin have organized an effort to curb the amount of people that litter on the beach, especially around South Beach.
** PLEASE BE SURE TO INCLUDE WHICH DAY(S) YOU CAN VOLUNTEER IN YOUR REPLY.
Libbin has already incorporated Surfrider strategies and worked with the city and county to start trash pick up at the southern end of the beach, getting to the most polluted spots earlier in the day. He has also scheduled another truck to pick up trash, and found a place close to SoBe to park them.
Other Surfrider solutions he is working on is to have Code Officers give out warnings to litterers starting at the end of November, and then to issue tickets a few weeks later. But before the warnings and tickets, he is trying to educate beachgoers about the litter laws, and to keep glass off the beach. To do that - he needs OUR HELP.
He has set up two successive weekends where volunteers will be stationed at every beach access to greet and welcome visitors, and remind them of our litter and glass on the beach laws. The four days are: November 8th, 9th, 15th, and 16th - from 1 to 3 p.m. You only have to come out for one day if you like, any help would be appreciated.
If you are interested in volunteering to make our beaches cleaner, then come out to the planning meeting at 5 p.m. on October 29th. It will be in the City Hall Commission Chambers (3rd floor), on 1700 Convention Center Drive in Miami Beach. At this meeting we will find out at which access point you will be needed.
For more info, contact Commissioner Libbin at 305-673-7106 or jerry@miamibeachfl.gov.
You know this summer I went to outer banks N. Carolina. I happened to notice that there was not one single trash can along the beach for miles and miles. And unbelieveaby there was not one piece of trash left on the beach for miles and miles. While on Miami Beach there is a trash can every 50 ft. and The Beach is strewn with litter. Why? well that is another discussion. I see two solutions. 1) Leave all the trash and do not clean it up until the beach becomes so disgusting that even the pigs that leave the trash are compelled to help clean up. 2) I think the preferrable solution is to have a police detail assigned to handing out littering tickets. Or allow the lifeguards to observe anyone leaving trash on the beach and give them a $50.00 littering ticket.
Perhaps your organization which apparently has some communication with the Miami Beach City Commission could help get this on the agenda. It may also generate revenue for the city.
Or we can just continue to clean up after them and enable their disgusting behavior.
We already got that pushed through. THey start handing out warnings this coming weekend and citations the weekend after that. While you have a great idea, we have been working this angle for 10 years now. We finally have the attention of the City.
The bad part was, we participated in a two week long campaign with the city to let people coming to the beach know they were going to hand out citations soon, and only a handfull of people showed up to volunteer for this effort. Everyone on this site says how dirty the beach is and yet only a few of us do anything about it.
Cheers,
Shane Close
Chairman
Surfrider Foundation
South Florida