The Jacksonville Coastal Cleanup, a city-wide volunteer cleanup hosted by the City of Jacksonville on Saturday, Sept. 19, was a great success.

The City of Jacksonville’s Clean it Up, Green it Up/Keep Jacksonville Beautiful initiative invited residents to participate in the 2009 Jacksonville Coastal Cleanup event providing volunteers with an opportunity to help beautify the city’s shorelines as part of the Ocean Conservancy’s 24th Annual International Coastal Cleanup.

Individual residents, families, students, scouts, businesses and other organizations spent time in the morning collecting litter. Together, 587 volunteers contributed 1,193 hours, and collected 10,880 pounds of bagged litter— more than five tons!

Since 1999, 4,050 event volunteers have logged 9,475.75 hours and have collected 128,000 pounds of litter through this annual event.

The Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup has historically been the largest and most successful volunteer event of its kind. Since 1986, thousands of volunteers from around the globe have come together to clear more than 100 million pounds of trash from 170,000 miles of shorelines, rivers, lakes and wetlands.

Worldwide, thousands volunteered in collecting millions of pounds of litter and debris on inland roadsides, coastal areas, inland lakes and rivers.  Jacksonville volunteers clean and protect the environment by eliminating debris that injures wildlife, contaminates beaches and waterways, and threatens boater safety.

Spearheaded by the City’s Environmental and Compliance Department /Clean It Up, Green It Up and the Keep Jacksonville Beautiful Commission, the event is a partnership with Henry Schein, Inc.; Coca-Cola of Jacksonville; the Department of Recreation and Community Services and the Department of Public Works/Solid Waste Division. Henry Schein, Inc. provided ICC t-shirts for the volunteers. Southland Waste and Waste Management provided dumpsters.

Cleanup sites were staffed by Mayport Naval Station personnel; the Terry Parker High School NROTC; Beaches Sea Turtle Patrol volunteers; Surfrider Foundation volunteers; Jacksonville Reef Research Team; WJCT; Henry Schein, Inc.; “Friends of the Park”;  Watershed Action Volunteers,  WBOB Radio- 1320 AM and The St. Johns Riverkeeper.

Current sponsors for Keep Jacksonville Beautiful include: Waste Management; Florida Inland Navigation District; JEA; Henry Schein, Inc.; Folio Weekly; Sherwin Williams-Jacksonville Group; WJCT; Coca-Cola Jacksonville; Comcast; All Wet Sports; Publix Charities; Winn Dixie; Army Navy Outdoors; Aerial Tribe Band and JCS-Roy Jorgensen Associates, Inc.

For more information about the event, visit  Florida Coastal Cleanup.