Cleanup removes 85 pounds of garbage

The Glen Cove Beautification Commission, in partnership with the American Littoral Society, hosted their annual International Coastal Cleanup at Pryibil Beach on Saturday. This long-standing community event, which has been a fixture in Glen Cove for over 20 years, brought together 55 volunteers of all ages who worked both on land and underwater to clear trash from the local shoreline, with 28 volunteers combing the beach and 27 scuba divers tackling underwater debris.
Collectively, the volunteers removed 85 pounds of trash from the beach and surrounding waters. According to Lora Cusumano, a member of the Beautification Commission, the most common items found were cigarette butts, plastic pieces, and bottle caps—an ongoing reflection of how pervasive plastic waste has become. She noted that plastic bottle caps, in particular, were collected in much larger quantities than their metal counterparts.
Divers working in the water found more unusual items, including several cell phones and an entire fishing pole.
“It is amazing doing the international cleanup and having it year after year,” Cusumano said. “You do see how things have changed, maybe because of legislation and also because of public awareness that the numbers on certain items haven’t gone down or have become more popular like plastic.”
Cusumano said many people don’t realize that if they don’t have a lid on their trash pile, and if the garbage blows out and it goes in the street and will likely go down the storm drain at the beach.

“It actually ends up in our Hempstead Harbor,” Cusumano said. “So that’s probably one of the big points that we’d like to bring out to people to make them aware that they should not have loose trash in their garbage that can blow into the storm water drain.”
Councilman Michael Ktistakis, liaison to the Beautification Commission, emphasized the importance of these events in raising public awareness about environmental pollution.
“We’ve become so dependent on plastic over metal or tin,” he said. “The last 50 years now we’re paying the ultimate price of how to dispose of it and all the pollution that it’s caused.”
The Glen Cove Beautification Commission is actively seeking new members to support its mission of maintaining a clean, safe, and beautiful environment for the community to enjoy year-round.