One of its
ongoing outreach efforts is called Adopt-a-Beach, and throughout the year
groups of volunteers descend on Lake Michigan’s beaches to collect
and record accumulated debris.
Data
is analyzed to identify the major sources of beach litter and educate the
public about what can be done to keep the shoreline clean. Adopt-a-Beach
volunteers and sponsors consist of individuals, schools, companies and community
groups.
Since 1991, ITW Hi-Cone has been an enthusiastic corporate supporter of
Adopt-a-Beach. Every year its employees pitch in on their own time at Osterman
Beach on Chicago’s north lakefront. On Sept.16, some 15 ITW employees
were joined by more than 100 students from Chicago’s Senn High School
and Notre Dame High School to pick up trash strewn on Osterman Beach. Also
on hand was Illinois State Representative Harry Osterman. The beach is named
in honor of Rep. Osterman’s mother, Betty, who preceded her son in
the legislature.
“We demand a lot from our coasts, everything from jobs to recreation
to an overall quality of life,” said Matt Hayden, general products
sales manager, ITW Hi-Cone and vice president of the Alliance board of directors.
“Through the years, we’ve been pleased to learn that six-pack
rings are a negligible amount of what gets picked up on the beaches, and
this year we found none on Osterman Beach. We have to believe that the superb
environmental education programs of The Alliance, including their new K-8
curriculum, Great Lakes in My World; expansion of Adopt-a-Beach throughout
the year; and, Hi-Cone’s own Ring Leader school recycling program
are making an impact in reducing litter and encouraging proper disposal
of the plastic rings,” Hayden said.
As in past years, cigarette butts accounted for the majority of beach litter.
Several thousand butts were picked by the volunteers. In a news conference
before the Osterman Beach clean up event, Chicago Alderman Mary Ann Smith
said she is investigating ways the Chicago Park District could recover money
used to clean up after those who litter. “We want to take action in
ways that will allow the city to reclaim that money to go toward lakefront
and revitalization,” said Smith.
According to the Alliance, discarded cigarette butts contain cadmium, lead,
arsenic and other chemicals that seep into the waterways. Young children
pick them up on the beach and wildlife ingest them. Earlier this year, the
Alliance began a cigarette butt bounty program in which more than 8,000
butts were retrieved. Each collected butt netted ten cents.
Part of the world’s largest shoreline cleanup, the September Adopt-a-Beach
event coincides with the Ocean
Conservatory’s International Coastal Cleanup. In 2005, the regional
cleanup had more than 1500 volunteers who removed some 7300 pounds of trash
from 27 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline.
