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1,430 Pounds of Trash Removed From San José Island

Earlier this month, an incredible coalition of volunteers removed 1,430 pounds of litter from San José Island during a major coastal cleanup effort organized by the Texas Coastal Bend Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation and the Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR).

In just two hours, 53 volunteers collected 287 bags of trash — enough debris to fill a 20-yard dumpster once transported back to Port Aransas. According to organizers, roughly 95% of the recovered material consisted of plastic waste, including an estimated 4,600 plastic bottles collected from the shoreline and jetty system.

Texans for Clean Water is proud to recognize the outstanding work done by Surfrider and the Mission-Aransas NERR team. The scale of this cleanup effort demonstrates both the seriousness of the litter problem facing the Texas coast and the dedication of the Texans stepping up to protect it.

Unfortunately, the amount of waste collected also highlights a much larger, systemic problem. Far too many recyclable beverage containers are escaping into the environment instead of being recovered and reused through modern recycling systems.

Aluminum, PET plastic, and glass beverage containers are valuable commodities. When properly recovered, they support domestic manufacturing, strengthen supply chains, and reduce the amount of waste flowing into waterways, bays, beaches, and coastal ecosystems.

This is why Texans for Clean Water continues advocating for practical, market-driven Deposit Recycling systems that create direct incentives for consumers to return beverage containers before they become litter. States with strong container recovery systems consistently recover dramatically more recyclable material while reducing beverage-container waste in the environment.

Thank you for being part of this mission.

 

Joe Trotter

Texans For Clean Water

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