September Adopt-a-Beach 2005
September 17th, 9 a.m. - 12 noon

Our goal is make the shoreline as clean as possible and educate communities about pollution prevention.

• Arrive at your beach around 8:00 a.m. to prepare for the volunteers. Expect to stay until 1:00 p.m. to complete your tasks. Volunteers will be at the beach from 9 a.m. - 12 noon. Please supply your own registration table (a card table would work well), a scale, and a calculator.
• Cleaning the beach of small items such as cigarette butts and bottle caps is just as important as the larger pieces of debris. Many beaches have trash that is not evenly spread out. Trash gets stuck near rocks, piers and breakwaters. Trash also blows away from the shore and into park areas. This year we want to include these problem areas in the cleanup.
  
  On a beach that has lots of trash, you may want to use a board or broom to draw lines on the beach in 20-foot wide sections to which volunteers can be assigned. If a beach is especially wide (from the water to the back end of the beach), cut the sections in half, so you'll end up with front and back sections. This also provides an opportunity for you to measure or estimate the length and width of the beach, which you'll need to report on the datacards.
• Welcome and Sign-in: Have the supplied sign-in sheets available for all volunteers to fill out. We need these sign-in sheets for our records - please ask people to write clearly. Depending on the number of volunteers at your beach, you may need a person just to work on this.
• We will send you the list of volunteers from the on-line registration a few days prior to the cleanup.
• Instructions: Expect a rush of people around 9:00 a.m. Show large groups of volunteers at a time how to participate in the cleanup. Be sure to give careful instructions on filling out the datacards.
  

Instructions for Volunteers:

• Safety: Emphasize personal safety - do not touch suspicious looking materials, sharp glass, barrels, needles, etc., but please be sure to record them on the datacard. Then alert 311 for Cook County and for Lake County, please contact your local police department. Inform them that you found these items at your beach, and request that they be picked up as soon as possible.
• All barrels, except those that are empty and completely clean, should be reported to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at (312) 353-2318. Mark down all codes on barrels to assist in identifying the contents. To report an oil or chemical spill, contact the U.S. Coast Guard's National Response Center at (800) 424-8802.
• Teams: Create teams of 2-4 people, depending on the number of volunteers that show up. One member of each team is responsible for filling in the datacard. The other team members pick up the debris, call out what they find to the data recorder and fill the trash/recycle bags. They should separate garbage from recyclables (see "Recyclables" paragraph).
• Supplies: Each team receives one datacard and one pencil. They are given one bag for trash and one Blue Bag for recyclable items. Volunteers need only one glove for the hand that picks up the trash, but can be given two, if there are enough. Try to announce that they are latex, in case anyone has allergies.
• Recyclables: These include aluminum cans, plastic bottles #1 & 2 (the number is usually indicated on the bottom of the container), and intact glass bottles. At city beaches, recyclables go into Blue Bags for the City to pick up. At suburban beaches, recyclables also go into the Blue Bags. Suburban park districts have been alerted to know that recyclable items are in these bags.

Let September Adopt-a-Beach begin! Once the volunteers have received instructions and supplies, assign them to a section. Start with the dirtiest sections near piers, breakwaters, etc. because the wind deposits the debris there.

During the cleanup, captains should circulate, answer questions, and supervise.