THE Jamaican Environment Trust (JET) will stage its annual clean-up of the Palisadoes strip this Saturday to mark International Coastal Clean-up Day.

For the past eight years, JET, assisted by volunteers, has cleared the beach of litter and other wastes. Prior to this, the beach was being used as an illegal dump.

Students from a number of schools as well as volunteers are expected to participate in this year’s exercise, aiming to protect marine life from carelessly discarded waste to restore the beach at Palisadoes and to expose Jamaicans to the serious problem of improper waste disposal.

The organisers say approximately 400 volunteers turned up to assist at last year’s clean-up exercise.

A very important aspect of the clean-up exercise is the data collection. Volunteers work in teams to collect and record waste for submission to the Centre for Marine Conservation in the United States for its annual report on beach debris.

The centre is the co-ordinator for International Coastal Clean-up Day which began in 1986. Since then, over one million volunteers from more than 90 countries have taken hands-on action to clean the ocean and shores of our planet.