Photos by Maria Lamb | July 20th, 7 AM, Beach-Wide Clean-up sponsored by JW Marriott. Thanks to all the volunteers who joined the beach clean-up event.

On July 20th,at 7AM, aJWMarriottssponsored beach-wideclean-up was underwayfrom theirbeachfront propertyto Crystal Shores.Volunteers scoured the sand and parts of the dunes for collectibles such as plastic cups, lids, bags, straws and also found disposable wipes and masks.

JWs team members were joinedby their beachfront neighbors,the crew of the Marco Island Watersports and Regency Watersports and members of the community.According to Jamie Bowden, JWs Director of GuestExperience and organizer of the July clean-up, 30+ volunteers joined the morning event and collected 50+ poundsof trash.

Andrew Tyler,a beach resident,has been on record arguing that the hotel community of Marco Island needs to be more attentive to trash accumulation as a consequence of their use of our beach.Having attended the beach clean-up,Tyler acknowledged that,The event was a success and he would like to encourage other properties on the beach to consider similar sponsorshipsin the future.

According to Bowden,theJW Marriott has always done a routine beach clean-upwith their staff every day,andthis is their firstsponsored beach-wideclean-up.Bowden added that JW is committed to the cleanliness of the beach and keeping it safe for the nesting sea turtles.

JW Marriotts Team Members.

TracyTirell,JW MarriottsSenior Marketing Manager,shared thatthe resort fosters a clean-up as you go mentality with all of their associates.Ifthestaffseesdebris, they pick it up.Daily beach pick-up occurs twice dailyonce when the resort officially close the beach at nightandwhen the team departs for the evening.Tirelladded that since guests are never prohibited access to the beach in the evening hours, each morning when the team returns there is always a new round of debris from guests.Bowden added that his team is present on the beach from 6:30AM to8:30PM.

Industry research has also shownthat when guests are visiting a beachdestination, a clean beach isvery important to them.In addition, a clean beachis an indicator thatJWs Marco locationis engaged inenvironmental issues such astheprotection of endangered sea turtles.As part of JWs checkin procedure,during nesting season,guests are provided information on the nesting sea turtlesand migratory birds.

In Augustof2018,theJWMarriottmade a commitmenttoreduce plastic pollution on the beach.Amanda CoxtheJW Marriotts Director of Sales and Marketing was proud to announce their commitment to preserve paradiseone sipat a time.TheJW Marriotteliminated the use of plastic straws throughout the resort and replaced them with Aardvark paper straws made in the USA and are 100% compostable and marinedegradable. Cox indicated that JW MarriottsMarcolocation used 60,000 straws per month prior to the plastic straw ban.Thats 720,000 plastic strawsless per year!

Jamie Bowden announced thattheJWMarriottwill move to a quarterly sponsored beach-wide clean-up schedule.BookmarkSeptember 7th, starting at 7AM 8AM.To join the clean-up, please contact:Jamie.Bowden@marriott.com.

See more here:

JW Marriott Making a Difference on the Beach - coastalbreezenews.com