Participation in beach, river sweeps up this year

Local participation in an annual litter and trash clean-up effort along the area's beaches and waterways was up significantly this year.

Last Saturday, about 700 people volunteered in beach and river sweeps at sites throughout Beaufort County, according to preliminary estimates from the South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium, which has organized the statewide cleanup events in conjunction with the S.C. Department of Natural Resources since 1988.

That is up from 445 participants in 2014.

Susan Ferris Hill, Sea Grant's coastal beach and river sweep coordinator, praised the work of the volunteers Thursday.

"Their time, dedication, and concern for the health of our environmentally sensitive areas is second to none," she said.

Data on exactly how much trash and debris was collected from each local site is still being collected.

But Hill said "most of the cleanup locations are reporting more debris collected this year compared to last year."

While site-specific data is not yet available, Hill said preliminary estimates indicate volunteers in coastal region, which includes Beaufort County, collected about 33 tons of debris this year.

That is more than twice the amount of trash collected last year, which totaled about 12.5 tons.

A full breakdown of past river and beach sweep data from around the state is available on Sea Grant's website, www.scseagrant.org.

Follow reporter Lucas High on Twitter at twitter.com/IPBG_Lucas.

Related content:

• Volunteers to swarm local beaches, rivers for annual clean-up, Sept. 16, 2015

This story was originally published September 24, 2015 at 5:06 PM with the headline "Participation in beach, river sweeps up this year."