PANACEA, Fla. (WTXL) — Keep Wakulla County Beautiful is ready to clean up our county with the International Coastal Clean-up and the quarterly roadside clean-up on September 20th, 2025.
- Keep Wakulla County Beautiful will be hosting a local International Coastal Clean-up and welcome over 500 volunteers.
- These efforts are more than just about the environment, it's about our neighborhoods.
- Watch the video above to see how our local families are coming together to better our county.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
"90% of the litter ends up in the waterways at some point," said Tammie Nason, the Executive Director of Keep Wakulla County Beautiful.
We see litter everywhere. It can affect our environment and our neighborhoods. Besides not littering in the first place, picking out and throwing trash away properly is how you can keep our county beautiful.
I have details on how you can help protect our environment and keep our neighborhoods looking beautiful.
Keeping our county beautiful isn't just the effort of some people, but hundreds of people who come together for a better tomorrow.
On September 20th, the annual international coastal clean-up and the start of quarterly roadside clean-ups will be underway.
Keep Wakulla Beautiful says they collect 60-67,000 pounds of trash from their work.
"And then you have all the microplastics now that you hear about getting in the waters. And when they break down, it affects water quality. It affects, you know, the marine life," explained Nason. "And litter in the forests. And when we do a forest cleanup, you know, we've got such a unique ecosystem in Wakulla County with so many different areas. The trash that builds up, though, it affects all of those animals and, you know, they mistake them for food and ingest them, causing issues."
Though holding these events has become more than just about the environment, it's about families in our neighborhoods
"I've been here long enough now, kids that were five years old when I started are now 20 and they're still showing up," said Steve Cushman, the President of Keep Wakulla County Beautiful. "So it's a big attraction for families with small children to come get involved in it, and we've seen over the past 15 years here that a lot of those families that get involved, they'll stay involved from then on."
The coastal cleanup alone has over 500 people coming annually to help. There are also other cleanups during the year that'll help our rivers and forests. Although if you can't volunteer, you still can help them in other ways.
"So, we just encourage people to make good choices as far as their disposing of items and what they can do to reduce the amount of waste that each household produces," said Nason.
The quarterly roadside clean-ups will also happen on November 1st and December 6th.
If you're interested in helping to clean our neighborhoods, you can visit Keep Wakulla County Beautiful and Friends of Wakulla Springs Facebook pages for contact information to sign up.
Want to see more local news? Visit the WTXL ABC 27 Website.
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