MEDIA RELEASE

Friends of McNabs Island Society - McNabs Island Beach Cleanup nets Vancouver Canucks sandal, Cadillac car seat, manual typewriter, old TV and more.

(June 6, 2011) Yesterday on World Environment Day June 5, 260 volunteers descended upon McNabs and Lawlor Islands Provincial Park to clean up the beaches. Volunteers of all ages spent World Environment Day "thinking globally, but acting locally."

In total, volunteers collected 550 bags of garbage and recyclables from the beaches. Among the unusual item found on the beaches were: a Vancouver Canucks sandal, a car seat from a Cadillac, a manual typewriter, an old television, an assortment of plastic action figures, toy soldiers and dolls, a few pillows and a mattress, 12 gauge shotgun shells, a military marine flare, the top to a pot belly stove, a old glass medicine vile, chemical dust masks, and an election sign from Liberal Scott Hemming's unsuccessful attempt to unseat Peter Stoffer, MP for Sackville - Eastern Shore. Coincidentally, Mr. Stoffer was one of the volunteers who took part in the daylong cleanup of McNabs Island, which is in his riding.

Among the recurring items found in the beach debris were plastic and Styrofoam sheets, old tires, Tim Horton's coffee cups and plastic tampon applicators. In spite of the fact that the HRM sewage treatment plants are operational, plastic garbage from the sewer system still continues to plague the beaches of this beautiful provincial park.

This is the twentieth consecutive year that the Friends of McNabs Island Society has organized a cleanup of McNabs Island. Since 1991, volunteers have collected a staggering 10,000 bags of garbage and recyclables from the beaches of this Provincial Park and national historic site. The McNabs and Lawlor Islands Provincial Park cleanup is the longest running and largest cleanup in the Maritimes.

Thanks to all the volunteers who gave up a beautiful Sunday to make World Environment Day a success on McNabs Island. Thanks to Clean Nova Scotia for providing garbage bags; Schooner Industrial and Esso - Imperial Oil for providing gloves; Murphy's Cable Wharf in Halifax and A & M Sea Charters in Eastern Passage for transporting volunteers; Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources staff for helping transport the garbage to a central location and Edge Marine for transporting the garbage by barge to Eastern Passage where it was loaded into two HRM garbage trucks for final disposal and recycling.