The Lake Huron Coastal Centre is hosting two sunset beach clean-ups this month.
Coastal Stewardship Technician, Alyssa Bourassa, says the first one is at Sauble Beach on August 4, starting at 7 p.m.
The second one is August 18 at the Port Elgin main beach and is also at 7 p.m.
Bourassa says they pick up an amazing amount of waste from the clean-ups.
“Especially the areas that we pick are public areas and then people kind of forget about the smaller stuff, what's in the sand. We get so many cigarette butts from these clean-ups, so really doing a deep dive into the clean is important,” said Bourassa.
She says, over the last few years, cigarette butts are still far and away the number one piece of litter.
Bourassa points out the filters in cigarette butts contain plastic, so they take forever to break down. She adds, the filters also absorb toxins from the cigarette and those get released into the environment.
More information about the clean-ups and how to register for them can be found at www.lakehuron/volunteer.