New Year’s Beach Cleanup Nets 1,000 Pounds of Trash

Sustainability is a goal of many local governments and St. Johns County is no exception. Those goals are easier to achieve with community support and if the county’s recent New Year’s Beach Cleanup is any indication, residents are on board.

The second annual New Year’s Trash Bash was organized under the umbrella of the county’s award-winning “Get Hooked” anti-littering imitative in partnership with St. Johns River State College for their Vikings Day of Service, according to a media release. 

Residents were joined in the effort by County Commission Chair Krista Joseph, as well as commissioners Ann Taylor and Clay Murphy.

“Trash Bash is great, but it needs to be every day,” Joseph said in the release. “This is our county. This is our life. This is our backyard. We want to take care of it.”

Taylor said cleanup efforts should be something residents make a priority every day.

“If everybody would just pick up something when they see it, how much that would help overall,” Taylor said in the release. “It just takes a little bit from each of us.”

A total of 250 volunteers from 20 different county departments and community organizations teamed up for the event.  Together, they were able to clean up more than1,000 pounds of trash across eight different locations, the release states.

“This is another great project to bring people together and to get something done for the beaches of St. Johns County,” Murphy said in the release. “People are stepping up, and I’m so proud of them.”

St. Johns County will host another county-wide beach cleanup event in May for the start of sea turtle nesting season.