Courtesy photo A pair of students from the Posen Consolidated School District collect trash on Starlite Beach. The Alpena Municipal Council recently approved a self-serve beach cleanup station at Starlite.

ALPENA – During Monday’s Alpena Municipal Council meeting, Great Lakes Great Responsibilities (GLGR), the Northeast Michigan Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative, and volunteers from Posen High School, presented a project that could help keep Starlite Beach clean and document the amount of trash cleaned up.

The initiative is to construct a self-service clean up station that encourages people to pick up litter while at the park.

For several years, Posen High School students along with their teacher Stephanie Dege Goebel, have actively conducted beach cleanups and marine debris research at Starlite. The partnership allowed students to collect data while contributing their efforts to clean up the beach.

Executive Director for Great Lakes Great Responsibility, Meag Schwartz, explained the group’s mission.

“We have been around since the end of 2020, and our mission is preventing and removing marine debris in the Great Lakes watershed,” Schwartz said. “While my focus is on Northeast Michigan, currently our mission is based on reaching all five Great Lakes.”

Marine debris is any persistent, solid, human-made material, primarily plastics, metals, rubber, paper, and textiles, that is intentionally or unintentionally disposed of into the ocean or Great Lakes.

The proposal that was presented to the board regarding the self-serve beach clean-up was approved unanimously.

“They unanimously approved to work with us on the final design and look and feel of the clean-up stations,” Schwartz said. “The eighth and ninth graders that presented to the board proposed installing the clean-up stations because year after year they go back and collect over 1,000 pieces of trash.”

The goal is for locals and tourists alike to participate in the effort to clean up our beaches. Schwartz spoke about what the clean-up stations will look like and what their intended use will be.

“The clean up stations will involve having a set of buckets, along with signage with instructions about how to properly dispose of any trash collected,” Schwartz said. “There will also be a QR code with additional information.”

The hope is that Starlite Beach will be the first of many beaches that will include the self-serve cleanup stations.

“Starlite Beach is the first one, the city did mention that they are going to sponsor one for Mich-e-ke-wis Beach as well,” Schwartz added. “The funding for our cleanup stations is coming from a grant provided through the Community Foundation for Northeast Michigan.”

Besides funding provided through grants, GLGR relies on local businesses and donors to contribute and support their efforts.

“We have had businesses sponsor our work and we also have a lot of great donors as well,” Schwartz said. “We are a non-profit organization so grants, sponsorships and donors are our main sources of income.”

The plan is for the clean-up stations to be operational on a seasonal basis.

“The buckets will come out during earth month in April, after the snow has melted and people start going back to the beach,” Schwartz explained. “We will be responsible for pulling the buckets in November when the snow starts to fly.”