The city is looking for a few good eyes — to help keep Brooklyn’s waterfront safe from trash.
The Department of Environmental Protection is looking for volunteers to stroll the borough’s beaches this summer and count garbage.
The Volunteer Floatables Beach Surveillance program, which runs through October, asks volunteers to dedicate 20 minutes per week to walk along the shore and record any “floatables” — that is, floating waste materials such as Styrofoam and plastic that tend to get washed up on shore.
The trash census helps the city target beaches for clean-up. Organizers say the program is thriving and their hard work is paying off.
“It seems to be going really well,” said Robert Gans, who founded the program in 1998. “It’s exciting to see the progress from year to year, particularly in places like the Rockaways and Staten Island that have been rebuilding from Sandy.”
Program volunteers are passionate about keeping their beaches clean, usually returning year after year to patrol for debris, often on the beaches they call their own.
“These people are really committed,” said Gans. “They’re committing themselves to go out every week and monitor. I try to give them a place where they would frequent anyway. I want them to come back next year and the year after.”
The program arms the trash monitors with a checklist that includes a dizzying variety of flotsam, such as bottles, diapers, and tires, but also light sticks, crack vials, syringes, and condoms. But Gans is quick to point out that program volunteers are just reporting the presence of garbage, not picking up the trash themselves. The city organizes beach clean-ups based on the data collected by the floatables surveillance program.
The program is always in need of newcomers to monitor more shorelines. Gans said that Gowanus, Coney Island, and Manhattan Beach in particular need extra hands, but there can never be too many in any one place.
“We could always use volunteers,” he said. “Wherever we can get volunteers, it’s an extra set of ears and eyes for the city.”
To volunteer, contact Robert Gans, program manager for the Volunteer Beach Floatables Program, via e-mail at ozone
