User:TGLO Adopt-A-Beach

Texas General Land Office Adopt-A-Beach Program
The Texas Adopt-A-Beach program was originated in the fall of 1986, when 2,800 volunteers picked up 124 tons of trash. The Texas Adopt-A-Beach program is an all-volunteer effort to remove trash from Texas beaches and waterways and to increase public awareness of the problems of marine debris and beach litter. Twice each year, volunteers check in at sites along the coast to pick up trash.

The data collected from the beach cleanups played an integral part in the passage of MARPOL Annex V, an international treaty that prohibits the dumping of plastics in the world’s oceans. In July of 1991, the International Maritime Organization designated the Gulf of Mexico and the Wider Caribbean as a “special area” where the dumping of trash, with the exception of finely ground food scraps, is prohibited.