Visitors to many of the Island’s popular beaches are being reminded this summer to help keep the shorelines clean.
Students with the province’s Environment Futures Program are putting up signs at 42 public beaches this week, encouraging beach goers to take their trash with them when they leave. The initiative is a cooperative effort between the Department of Environment and Energy and Tourism PEI.
Minister of Environment and Energy Jamie Ballem joined the students as they kicked off the campaign at Blooming Point Beach Monday.
“Our beaches belong to all of us and that means we all have a responsibility to care for them and keep them clean,” said Minister Ballem. “That’s not a big chore if we simply clean up after ourselves. Hopefully these signs will serve as a reminder that if we can carry something in, we can just as easily carry it out.”
Through an agreement with Tourism PEI, the Environment Futures students are responsible for cleaning 42 beaches throughout the province this summer. Some beaches are cleaned on a weekly basis, others biweekly, with anywhere from one to five bags of garbage collected in one cleanup. The most common items are food packaging and beer bottles. However, the students have collected everything from clothing and diapers to syringes, car parts, fishing debris, and construction waste.
“It’s sad to see this happening because every piece of trash takes away the natural beauty of our beaches,” said Minister Ballem. “The other major concern is that items such as syringes, broken glass and pieces of metal can pose a danger to people who are visiting the beaches, particularly when they can so easily be buried in the sand.”
Beach litter can also attract pests, and it poses a threat to wildlife. Animals can get stuck in items such as old rope or nets, and they often mistake litter for food and end up choking on things like plastic or cigarette butts. Another concern on beaches that are home to piping plover nests is that litter attracts predators that threaten the endangered species.
Environment Futures is a summer program that trains high school and university students to do environmental protection and enhancement work. Students work in teams to carry out projects that provide environmental benefits to the community and offer a good educational and work experience to youth involved.
Another litter awareness project which the students will be working on this summer is designing litter prevention initiatives aimed at junior and senior high school students.
The new beach signs being erected carry the logo of the provincial litter awareness campaign, Keep the Island Clean! The provincial committee, comprised of government, industry and community representatives, continues to support projects aimed at preventing littering in Prince Edward Island. For further information, or to report an incident of littering, call the litter hotline at 1-866-368-5024.