PANAMA CITY BEACH. With only a few weeks left until summer, millions of tourists are about to flock to the area and the authorities are asking everyone to clean up trash from the beach.
Lacey Rudd, a spokeswoman for Visit Panama City Beach, stressed that white sand beaches are “the most important demand driver” for the city’s tourism-fuelled economy.
This is also the reason why Panama City Beach residents do not pay property taxes.
“Each year as we enter ‘beach season’, there is an increase in the amount of trash that cleaners have to contend with,” Rudd said. “We always encourage beachgoers to do their part to preserve the beauty of Panama City Beach.”
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The Panama City Beach Tourism Development Board has a beach maintenance and garbage collection contract with Coastal Parasail, an extension of Adventures At Sea, a boat rental service in the Panama City Beach area.
Coastal Parasail serves over 18 miles of beaches from St. Andrew State Park to Camp Helen State Park.
A Facebook post by the Panama City Beach government last week noted that the group was picking up trash in the area twice a day from March 5 to October 14. The coastal parachute also cleans the beach twice a week from March 5 to May 22, three times. a week from May 23 to September 10 and twice a week from September 11 to October 14.
March to October is considered the peak tourist season in Panama City Beach.
“A lot of garbage is generated during the busy holiday weekend,” PCB said in a statement. “Sometimes it takes a little time to make a detour and collect everything you need. We appreciate all of our locals and guests who help us maintain the beauty of The World’s Most Beautiful Beach.”
Beach cleanup planned
In addition to Coastal Parasail’s ongoing garbage collection and beach maintenance efforts, Keep PCB Beautiful, a local non-profit organization, will host one of four annual major beach cleanups.
According to the group’s website, the cleanup is in conjunction with World Ocean Day, which is celebrated on June 8th. Other major harvests take place in March, July and September.
Affiliated with Keep America Beautiful and Keep Florida Beautiful, Keep PCB Beautiful works to inspire people and businesses to contribute to the environment.
“Everyone knows that litter increases crime, reduces property values and damages our wildlife. Not to mention, ecotourists are not returning to a literate environment,” his website says. “This issue is critical to our tourism-based economy and requires our attention.”
