OCEAN CITY – Ocean City’s Coastal Resources Legislative Committee, or Green Team, last week selected the Maryland Coastal Bays Program (MCBP) to administer funds received from a pilot program that uses decorative trashcans to promote public art and clean beaches.
Over the summer, the Art League of Ocean City organized a pilot program called Art “Can” Clean Beaches, which utilizes business sponsorships and partnerships with local organizations to create and install decorated trash cans along the beach.
The goal of the program is to provide a form of public artwork that encourages individuals to throw trash into waste bins and not on the beach.
While most of the sponsorship money was used to pay for the cans’ designs and accompanying business logos, $10 from each trash can was given to the Green Team for beach cleanup efforts.
Councilman Tony DeLuca, liaison for the Green Team, originally proposed the idea for the pilot program in a Green Team meeting earlier this year.
Gail Blazer, the town’s environmental engineer, told the committee last week that the MCBP was selected to administer funds the Green Team received through the program.
“There was some funds from these beach cans that the Art League was going to donate to our cause of cleaning,” she said. “We were trying to figure out who is going to funnel this money … We decided it would be Coastal Bays.”
Money from the pass through account will be used by Green Team committee members for beach cleanup efforts, which includes the purchase of cleaning supplies like gloves and trash bags and t-shirts that can be used to promote beach cleanups.
While the Green Team received $130 from this year’s pilot program, DeLuca said the committee could receive more money next year as more businesses become aware of the sponsorship opportunity.
“If this thing really goes next summer, it can be a lot of people who want their stuff on a can … We can do pretty good,” he said.
Ocean City Surf Club’s Effie Cox added that the Surf Club would also match whatever is donated from the program.
“So this year we are matching $130,” she said, “but we’ve agreed to do that moving forward.”
