JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. — The Fourth of July has come and gone, but not without leaving a mess on Jacksonville’s beaches. One hundred and fifteen volunteers picked up more than 1,000 pounds of trash on Jacksonville Beach Friday morning after the 4th of July festivities.
“It’s disgusting. And I’ve had lived in a place where we had fireworks for a couple years out seven, eight o’clock in the morning, picking up all the litter,” volunteer Mark Pecci said at the cleanup.
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It’s part of an annual tradition with JEA and Beaches Sea Turtle Patrol to clean the beaches after Independence Day. Pecci and his daughter Victoria Pecci found everything from fireworks, clothes, and even a prescription medication bottle full of marijuana and a hospital bracelet while doing cleanup.
“That is part of what makes Jacksonville, Jacksonville: the beach. So if you are either making it dirty or harming the animals, the beach just won’t be the same,” Victoria Pecci said.
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It’s an important cause aimed at not just cleaning the beach for Jacksonville’s residents and beachgoers, but for the animals and wildlife that call Northeast Florida’s coastlines home.
“With Beaches Sea Turtle Patrol, that’s real important for nesting females and emerging hatchlings,” Kevin Brown with Beaches Sea Turtle Patrol said.
“We’re not the only ones on this earth, especially so close to the ocean like there’s no way trash isn’t getting into the ocean from this,” Victoria Pecci said. “So like teaching people to clean up after themselves in general, but that other animals and wildlife need to live here too.”
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