Town of Newbury Celebrates Success of Fifth Annual COASTSWEEP Cleanup of Plum Island

NEWBURY – On Sept. 22, about 75 volunteers and members of the Newbury community came together to collect debris along Plum Island Beach as part of the state’s COASTSWEEP program.
The Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management’s COASTSWEEP program aims to bring together communities for the purpose of cleaning local beaches and collecting data that contributes to the Ocean Conservancy’s international database. The database is used to inform policies and actions that tackle the problem of marine debris.
Becky MacKnight, who has hosted COASTSWEEP programs in Newbury for several years, coordinated and organized this event.
Of the 75 volunteers were about 40 high school students from area schools. The collaborative efforts of the volunteers collected 25 full bags of marine debris along with various planks of wood and other larger debris.
“This is always a great event, and we are so proud to see our community and schools come together for Newbury’s best interest,” said Town Administrator Blais. “Thank you to Becky for leading and organizing this wonderful initiative, Tim Tolman from the Department of Public Works for picking up the debris, and all of the volunteers who participated.”