Volunteers still needed for 2012 Coastal Cleanup Saturday | Community Spirit

New Port Richey, Florida -- Pasco County is getting ready to take part in the annual International Coast Cleanup--the world's largest volunteer effort to help protect our ocean, lakes and rivers--and they need your help!

Each year, hundreds of thousands of volunteers from around the world spend a few hours removing trash and debris from beaches, lakes, and rivers and inland areas keeping track of every piece of trash they find. Ocean Conservancy uses that information to produce an annual country-by-country, state-by-state index of the problem of marine debris.

The cleanup will be held on Saturday, Sept. 15 from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. There are 17 teams around the County and you can sign up to be on one of them at www.keeppascobeautiful.com and get your captain's list.

In the past 26 years, more than 9 million volunteers have removed 153 million pounds of trash from more than 312,000 miles of coastline and waterways in 153 countries and locations. Last year in Pasco, 1,283 volunteers picked up over 23,000 pounds of trash.