ANY COMMENTS?  WE WOULD LIKE TO HEAR FROM YOU

If you have any comments that you would like posted please contact us at comments@sandsifter.org


Which would you prefer to see in your parks waters?

                

Our environment is being attacked by copius amounts of  litter each year.  Our parks, beaches ,waterways  and especially our animals are victims of this worldwide epidemic.  Plastic alone has created its own island such as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.  To stop this treatable problem it will take the efforts of all of us to make a difference. 

Plain and simple, dispose of litter in an appropriate matter.  This includes cigarette butts, orange peels and papers.  No matter how small the trash adds up to more than we can clean up.  Recycling is also helpful for the environment.  When we recycle we cut down on the number of new potential trash being made.  Our environment only has so much room.  Let's share it with trees, flowers and animals and not with the likes of someone's elses litter. 

Click here for more education of the consequences of littering

THIS IS LITTER TOO!

   

Some people are still not getting the message that this is litter too.  more opportunity  Cigarette butts are the most littered item in the world.  Over 4.5 trillion yes trillion butts are littered every year.  It doesn't matter how small the piece of trash is, throw it away.  Together it creates a mess and is harmful for animals to ingest. 

Some of our local beaches provide pocket ashtrays for our smoking friends.  Ask your lifeguard for one and help keep the cigarette butt litter from reaching our beaches.

    

IF YOU WOULDN'T THROUGH THIS TRASH IN YOUR BACKYARD,

   

 DON'T THROUGH IT IN THEIRS!!!

YOUR COMMENTS

COMMENTS@SANDSIFTERS.ORG

Please allow 24 hours for comment to be posted

POSTED 11/7/07

On behalf of the Community Caring Center of Boynton Beach, again and again Thank you very much for your support and enthusiasm in helping us feeding the needy in our community.

Our Thanksgiving project is for Nov. 17th-Saturday.  We are distributing 150 baskets for families including a voucher for a Turkey.   If any of your volunteers would like to help us that day, please contact me.   The distribution will be from 8 a.m. to 10:30 at the Ezzell Hester Community Center on 1901 N. Seacrest Blvd. (by the Kwik stop before Gateway).


Sandra Vanegas
Community Caring Center  (for more information go to www.cccbb.org )

POSTED 5/23/07

Hi there! I did a story on you guys a while back for the Neighborhood Post. I'm a HUGE advocate of the environment, especially stopping the incessant littering of cigarette butts. I just saw your story on Channel 12. Good for you, getting the word out! If there is anything I can do for you, please let me know!

POSTED 5/21/07

Dear Sand Sifters,

My wife and I are extremely supportive of your efforts in keeping our beaches clean, because of work we have not been able to join you in your Saturday Clean-ups.  We do walk the beaches from the Inlet to the concrete jetty/wall in Briney Breezes and along A1A almost every evening. We do pick up trash along the way and I would like to give you some of our observations.  We know that this is probably old news to you, but please bear with us and our thoughts.Shipping and boaters appear to contribute to over half the trash that we find along the shore.  Plastic bags, fishing line and boating supplies from cargo ships in particular.

 As for beverage containers, all kinds, plastic, glass, drink boxes, aluminum pouches and fast food drink cups and coffee cups and lids.  I’m originally from New England and can tell you from experience that a deposit law on beverage containers works.  Florida, being a peninsula, with only a northern border, is an ideal state to implement a Deposit law for beverage containers.  I emphasize Beverage Containers because the Law should include ANY container holding a consumable beverage. This would eliminate the mistake made in many states where non-carbonated beverages are exempt. The law would therefore include water, milk, juice, sport drinks etc. and would also include drink boxes and pouches. It would also include liquor and wine bottles, the deposit amount would vary according to the size of the bottle. 

We would also like to ask the Town of Ocean Ridge, City of Boynton Beach etc. to provide information on how many Littering tickets and of fines have been issued in the past year, 5 years etc. Additional, how many of those have been issued for littering on the beach. Sad to say, I think we all know the answer.

My wife and I have come upon mounds of trash from people partying on the beach and making no effort to clean up.  The beaches are simply not being patrolled on a regular basis.

I know your main concerns are the beaches, but as I said, we walk A1A as well.  Recently we’ve noticed an increase in the litter in the exact locations where the State is working on Improving A1A and widening the road.  We’ve complained to the Ocean Ridge PD and were told they would speak to the state contractor, but sadly we have not noticed any change in amount of trash, which includes empty fast food bags and boxes in addition to the beverage containers.  Once again, where are the tickets for littering?

Thank you for putting up with my rants and good luck in your efforts.   

Jennifer and Ed Kraus,  Ocean Ridge

POSTED 4/24/07

JUST SAW THE VIDEO.  IT IS EXCELLENT.  I HOPE PEOPLE WILL GET THE MESSAGE.   MY HUSBAND, MYSELF AND 5 GRADCHILDREN CAME ONE SAT. LAST YEAR. MATTER OF FACT YOU MIGHT REMEMBER, MY GRANDDAUGHTER STEPPED ON GLASS. 

 WE DON'T GET TO COME ON THE SAT. BUT I DO WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT WHEN WE DO GET TO THE BEACH, THE CHILDREN AS WELL AS MY HUSBAND AND MYSELF MAKE IT OUR BUSINESS TO PICK UP LITTER WHEN EVER WE SEE IT.

I AM A SMOKER, BUT I HAVE ALWAYS CARRIED MY LITTLE ASHTRAY IN MY BEACH BAG.
JUST WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT I AM SO PROUD OF SANDSIFTERS.  YOU ARE ALL DOING
A GREAT JOB.
 MY FAMILY WILL ALWAYS CONTINUE TO PICK UP AT THE BEACH.  WE LOVE THE BEACH,
 IT IS LIKE OUR SECOND HOME.
 THANK YOU AND GOD BLESS
 EILEENE M SCHERZER

POSTED 4/12/07
For 8 years my wife and I cleaned the beach on the north 1 mile of the Town of Palm Beach. I tried for years to get the Town of Palm Beach to get involved but their response was always evasive and negative.
Eventually I started my own web site dedicated to the preservation of the beaches and beach fauna of Palm Beach. This soon earned me "personna non grata" status in Palm Beach even though I was a long time resident. A survey was conducted when the beaches were studied to be "renourished" with sand. The survey revealed that less than 1% of the Town of Palm Beach residents ever go to the beach. The residents simply don't see and don't care about their beaches except for the fact that they like to say they live on a beach !
It's a shame that towns like Palm Beach ( the richest town in the world) have absolutely no interest in keeping their beaches clean. The only concession the Town ever made was to have a guy in a cart roar down the beach once a week to grab all the biggest trash. Very sporadic and not at all thorough.
The Town of Palm Beach has about 12 lineal miles of beach so it is a major factor in the County so far as washed up trash is concerned.
About 3 years ago I stopped cleaning the beach there and moved out of Palm Beach. We live in North Palm Beach now so I often visit Munyon Island and the area around it. Here also I see tons of trash and very few signs ( if any) asking people to not litter and to help pick up trash.
MacArthur Park and the surrounding areas of Lake Worth lagoon deserve more signs, more trash barrels and generally more activity in picking up the trash.
 
The biggest problem I have ever faced when picking up beach trash is where to drop my many filled trash bags. There really needs to be barrels every few hundred yards in order to stow trash until it can be picked up by the proper personnel.
 
I would like to get involved again at some level with your organization. Maybe you can help me to get more  signs and trash barrels stationed on the islands.
 
Sincerely,
 
Joel Martino
Posted 4/12/07
RESPONSE FROM: Lourdes Ferris, Executive Director
Mr. Martino,
I am glad you were able to write the Sand Sifters, one of our best volunteer
groups in South County. They spend many hours cleaning Oceanfront Park and
surrounding beaches in Boynton Beach, and bring much awareness to the litter
problem. Keep Palm Beach County Beautiful, Inc. is also doing a Cigarette
 Litter Prevention pilot program with them, since cigarettes are the number
one item littered at our beaches. The filters unfortunately are cellulose
acetate, a plastic, that does not decompose easily and contains nicotine and
other harmful chemicals to the environment and wildlife.
Keep Palm Beach County Beautiful, Inc. is a non-profit and local affiliate
of Keep America Beautiful and an advocate for anti-litter strategies and
education. We encourage volunteers such as yourself to get involved and
sponsor groups like the Sand Sifters, whom you wrote. We hold two major
cleanup events per year,  to bring attention to the problem. We also
encourage and support, groups like the Sand Sifters that clean the beach at
least monthly, and usually more often. On several occasions, Town of Palm
Beach residents have approached us for information about our cleanups,
complaining that the beaches in the Town are very littered. I send
information to the Town, but I basically need a volunteer or Town staff to
come forward to coordinate a cleanup at their facilities with our support.
Recently I contacted the Town Public Works Department because a local
 university baseball team wanted to cleanup up the municipal beach. I was
told the Town regularly cleans the beach and there was also parking issues.
I sent the group down to Phipps Ocean Park and they cleaned there. They told
me the beach was pretty clean. Nevertheless, a group sponsored by the
 Parrotheads of the Palm Beaches will be at Phipps Ocean doing a beach
cleanup on April 21 as part of our Great American Cleanup event around Earth
Day weekend.  We would welcome any group in the Town of Palm Beach to
participate in future events. A similar situation  exists in towns like
Ocean Ridge where there exists a lot of private beachfront. There, the
Garden Club sponsors the beach cleanups twice a year and involves residents
(so there are no parking issues). They primarily do the events during
season, as I allow them to do to maximize participation. Perhaps a group in
Palm Beach, similar to the Garden Club in Ocean Ridge, could be encouraged
to be the lead in beach cleanups on Palm Beach. Since litter is very mobile,
often machinery that is used to clean the beaches misses litter stuck along
the dunes and under boardwalks. Often smaller items like cigarette butts
merely get buried by the machines.
 Now that you are a resident of North Palm Beach, I can also tell you that
 MacArthur Beach State Park also participates in our cleanup events twice a
 year. Their beach cleanup is this coming Saturday, April 14. They will be
 doing the Great American Cleanup as part of their Naturescaping event. On a
 few occasions in the past, kayakers have gone to Munyon and Little Munyon
 Islands to clean up there. They have used their own kayaks or the park's.
 I'm not sure if there will be volunteers doing this, this Saturday, or if
 the volunteers will concentrate their efforts in the park mangroves and on
 the beach. Generally if they go into the islands, they bring the trash back
 in the kayaks for disposal at the park.
 I will forward your concerns about the signs and trash cans to my contact at
 MacArthur Beach State Park. I'll let Art Carton answer you about signage and
 trash receptacles and if they have plans for more of that in the future.
 Sometimes putting trash receptacles out in remote locations is a problem
 because they have to be maintained continuously (which costs $ in tight
 budgets) and they are vandalized often.

Posted 4/7/07

Hi Sand Sifters -- what a great thing you're doing to keep your beaches healthy and beautiful!  Your web site is very interesting.

Alison Dahl                                                                                                   Chester, NJ

Posted 3/17/07

Really like the new (new to me) web site, especially the photo album. if you ever do links, please consider the boynton beach inlet 'beach cam', which is or was part of the county parks or dnr site. hope all is well with you and your various efforts.

George Bierlin

(Ask and  you shall receive. Good ideas are always welcomed.  Check at the home page and the link to the "beach cam".  Now our volunteers can know the conditions down at the beach prior to going.  Thanks George for the tip.)from- webmaster RAH

Posted 1/31/07

Hi Janell & Robyn,

I just wanted to let you know the Sand Sifters newsletter and the website look great. Robyn the pictures of the beach beautification day are terrific. Thank you for all you do.

Kathy Silverio                                                                                                    Sand sifters Volunteer

Posted 1/23/07

Dear Sandsifters,                                                                                                The way Oceanfront park looks is amazing. Thank you for helping make it look so clean and beautiful.

Justin    (Ocean  Rescue at Oceanfront Park )                                                                                                      

Posted 1/19/07

I cannot comment on the comments of other sansifters because I don't know what was said; all I know is: "I feel we are not against smokers. We are against their inconsiderate habits of disposing their cigarette butts... which in our case happens to be the beach." But all you need to do is walk the streets of our town and you'll see this happens everywhere. Yesterday I went to the Boynton Mall with a friend and the entrance was covered by cigarette butts... looked really disgusting.

Soraya Figueiredo

Posted 1/11/07                                                                                                     Gary and others:                                                                                                                                            I saw the Sand Sifter blog on the TV news and I have a question. Is the Sand Sifters group turning into a political group trying to impose ideals on the rest of society or are we trying to clean up the beach?

First of all I'm not a smoker, never have been and would not blink one eye if smoking were outlawed. Second, I was the one person responsible for getting the 4 trash cans put on the beach side of the public walkovers in Ocean Ridge. It took me 4 years, but now it is done. On to the show. One TV announcer said that 60% of the trash picked up on the beach consist of cigarette butts. Really? In all the trash I've picked up on the beach I've never had even 1/2 of 1% consist of cigarette butts. Next, I didn't like the way two of the Sandsifters (who were planting) got down on someone who was merely sitting on a bench smoking and taking care to throw her butts in the garbage. Bottom line Gary, what are we becoming? What is the goal/mission of Sand Sifters? In your Subject line you say beach cleanup/beautification project. Are we now going on to alienate people along the way? Thanks for all you've been doing relative to cleaning up the beach and I'm always there to help.

Regards,                                                                                                                                                     Dr. Joseph Belmonte, Ocean Ridge

Posted 1/11/07

Hi Joseph,

Thank you so much for your remarks.  I did not get a chance to see the television blog.  The Sand Sifters main duty is to rid the beach, parks and walk ways of all litter.  Our data on the International and Coastal cleanups do indeed indicate that cigarette butts are our largest number of items collected.  This also holds true for all 44 Palm Beach locations that participated in these two annual events and 100 countries that participated.  Henceforth, we will do use any means necessary to reach out to the community and educate our beach and park goers about this problem and try to change their behavior.

This Tuesday we attended a seminar about cigarette litter and are adapting a program that is due to decrease cigarette litter by 35%. I will write an article and post it on www.SandSifters.org.  It involves monthly scanning(counting), placement of cigarette receptacles, Butt-Bag systems, Public Service Announcements and education material as well as enforcement. We also have Mary McCarty coming to our Oceanfront site with her staff to see what we are doing.  I hope you can understand that our wildlife IS endangered by all litter, especially the butts that they are ingesting.

Sincerely,                                                                                                       

Gary Solomon

                                                                                

Hi Gary,

Thanks so much for your wonderful response.  Yes, I certainly agree about education.  What really bothered me was the fact that some of our members used harassment rather than education last Saturday.  That in itself turns people off.  If we get the smokers on our side(education, not harassment) then we have a great chance of never seeing another cigarette butt on the beach.  Well, that should be our goal.              Regards,                                                                                                                                                   Dr. Joseph Belmonte