Sierra Club Leading Belmar Beach Cleanup Saturday

The New Jersey Sierra Club is scheduled to hold its annual coastal cleanup Saturday, Sept. 15, at Belmar beach from 10 a.m. to noon, organizers said. 

The Sierra Club's International Coastal Cleanup runs every year on the third Saturday in September, and this year more than 75 concerned citizens will gather at 10 a.m. on Belmar's 12th Avenue beach to collect trash and other harmful debris, according to a release from the organization. 

Last year cleanup crews in Asbury Park collected 564 cigarettes, 492 bottle caps and 417 straws, among other trash, the release says. 

"Plastic trash and pollution is not only an eye sore, but harms our marine ecosystem, marine animals, and birds," the release says. 

Dedicated individuals along with proposing legislation can help protect the environment from plastic pollution, the release says.

The event spans the country and across borders, according to the release. 

Last year, nearly half-a-million people from 108 countries and locations and 45 U.S. states removed 7.4 million pounds of trash from the planet's waterways, the release says.

"It is a day where hundreds of thousands of volunteers comb lakes, rivers, and beaches around the world for litter," the release says.