Members of the Sands Point Preserve Conservancy, Schreiber High School’s Tree Huggers Club and Transition Town Port Washington installed a new “self-serve” beach cleanup station, followed by a ribbon-cutting and beach cleanup at the Preserve on Thursday, June 20.
This youth-driven initiative is designed to make it easy for visitors to the preserve to help protect the region’s natural environment while also raising awareness about the harm single-use plastics bring to local beaches.
The new station is designed by Relic, which has more than 85 stations at beaches across Long Island, facilitating both planned and impromptu cleanups on the North Shore and South Shore.
The stations feature reusable, weather-proof baskets that are made of recycled materials and can hold more than 50 pounds of trash each, helping to fight plastic pollution.
The stations are situated near trash receptacles, for convenience. These stations also serve as a daily reminder about the importance of keeping our waters and shorelines clean.
“We are thrilled to partner with the forward-thinking members of the Schreiber High School Tree Huggers Club and the dedicated team at Transition Town Port Washington to bring the beach cleanup station to Sands Point Preserve. This station will give beachgoers the opportunity to not only help keep the Preserve clean, but also ensure that our majestic shores will be here for our children, grandchildren and the generations to come,” said Jeremiah Bosgang, executive director of the Sands Point Preserve Conservancy.
“Over the last several years, Transition Town Port Washington has worked with students from Schreiber High School to raise awareness about the damaging effects of single-use plastics on our environment and our health. This year, we are excited to partner with Tree Huggers and Sands Point Preserve to install a beach cleanup station at the Preserve. Cleanups will be done using reusable baskets and trash pickers so that no additional waste will be generated in the process. In addition to helping to clean up the Preserve, the new stations will also serve as educational centers, raising awareness about the blight that short-term-use plastics bring to our beaches and waters,” said Margaret Galbraith. president of Transition Town Port Washington.
“I am so grateful to be able to work with Transition Town Port Washington, the Sands Point Preserve Conservancy and Relic to make a change in my community. Not only will the introduction of the beach cleanup station help reduce garbage and waste from entering the Long Island Sound and Manhasset Bay, it will also inspire change and progress towards a cleaner future. The beauty of this beach cleanup station is that anyone can participate at any time. No longer will we need to organize beach cleanups and get volunteers. Anyone at any time can simply pick up a basket, head down to the beach, and prevent trash from entering our waters. I am so excited to see how the community responds to this new method of removing trash from our beaches,” said Isaac Graubard, president of Tree Huggers Club at Schreiber High School.
