How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. - Anne Frank

April 2008 Beautiful beaches begin at home While doing your spring cleaning, remember that what we do at home does impact the ocean. Many household cleaners contain toxic chemicals that can harm you and end up going down the drain, getting into local water systems, and eventually end up in the ocean, harming living things all along the way. You can have a clean home while protecting the health of your family and our extended ocean family. And it’s not just your cleaners, other daily habits and decisions affect the health of our beaches and ocean…read on to learn more and discover what you can do to help!

  Three for me...

1. Use ocean-friendly cleaners. A little baking soda, vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice and other common household items can go a long way towards keeping your home fresh, clean, and safe while protecting the health of beaches and our ocean. Check out these do-it-yourself recipes for 16 effective ocean-friendly cleaners for the whole house, from the kitchen to the bathroom and laundry room. No time to do it yourself? No problem. There are a number of safe ocean-friendly cleaners on the market today such as those found at products4causes.com.
   
   
2. Don't make yours a hazardous home! There are now many effective non-toxic and "green" alternatives for all household products including paint, pesticides, and cleaners. You can also make the switch to rechargeable batteries and recycle old batteries before they leach toxins into your local water systems. If you have hazardous materials in your home, store them safely in spill-proof containers and dispose of them properly at a hazardous waste recycling program in your area. If your town or city doesn’t have one yet, lobby for one. Your neighbors and the ocean will thank you!
   
   
3. Keep the beaches open! The number of beach closings and advisory days in the US topped 25,000 in 2006 according to the NRDC. Runoff from roads, parking lots, roofs, farms, and lawns followed by sewage, are the largest sources of bacteria and other pollutants that foul beach waters and lead to closures.
   
   You can take simple actions to keep your favorite beach safe for swimming including using a bag to "scoop the poop" left by your pet; replacing chemical fertilizers with compost (enriches soil) and mycorrhizae (helps plants take up water and nutrients); replacing chemical pesticides with natural pest controls; maintaining your septic tank to prevent leakage that can make its way to beaches; and disposing of oil, grease, and toxic wastes properly.

  ...and three for the seas

1. Reduce waste while cleaning. Use washable rags for cleaning and dusting and newspapers for cleaning windows instead of paper towels - and recycle them afterwards. Also, purchase ocean-friendly cleaners in concentrated or bulk versions to reduce packaging waste. Reducing your use of disposable paper and plastic products benefits the ocean. Paper towels production costs trees and most times involves bleaching which pollutes waterways. Plastics are a nonrenewable resource which can create litter that pollutes our waterways and traps or chokes sea animals.
   
   
2. Don’t be a litter bug - on and off the beach.

   Beaches across the world are littered with plastic bags and bottles, cigarettes, hazardous medical wastes, fishing line, and more. In addition to spoiling the view, these are dangerous to beach goers and marine animals. 80% of beach litter comes from activities we do on land. Keeping beaches clean means reducing the amount of waste we produce and disposing of it properly when we are on and off the beach.

   • On the beach – only leave the sand behind. Make sure you take all your trash with you and recycle it or place it securely in a trash bin. Don’t leave light items unattended – they can be easily blown away and become litter.
     
     
   • Off the beach – litter takes a free ride to the beach via rain, storm drains, rivers and streams, and strong winds. Pick up some of the plastic trash you see in your neighborhood and recycle it or dump it in secure bins.
     
     
   • You can also make a big contribution to clean beaches through participating in coastal cleanups and encouraging friends and family to volunteer with you.
     
3. Give beaches some wiggle room. It's not surprising that people are drawn to build on beachfronts, but if beaches are to maintain that irresistible beauty they need a little wiggle room. Improper beachfront development, jetties, breakwaters, and sea walls interfere with the natural processes that maintain a healthy beach and eventually lead to beach erosion and property loss. You can support smart coastal development in your area that requires adequate setbacks for coastal homes, preserves sand dunes, and prevents "coastal armoring" such as jetty and sea wall construction.
   
   You can also support preventative beach erosion activities including planting deep-rooting vegetation along the shoreline to stabilize beaches and constructing wooden walkways at beach entrances to prevent wear and tear by beachgoers.