Eco Clean Marine, a local non-profit, will host Oct. 1 trash pick-up at Tacky Jacks Gulf Shores

Eco Clean Marine, a local non-profit, will host Oct. 1 trash pick-up at Tacky Jacks Gulf Shores

A local non-profit, Eco Clean Marine, will host a trash pick-up in Gulf Shores on Oct. 1 at 9 a.m. Volunteers are asked to meet at Tacky Jacks at 9 a.m. to pick up trash around the Waterway Village neighborhood for an hour. (Buckets, gloves, beverages provided).
Founded by Gulf Shores resident Courtney Dombroski just this past January, Eco Clean Marine has already contributed substantially to making a difference through community service targeted at reducing environmental pollution from Gulf Shores to Panama City, which also happens to be the service area for Dombroski’s business.
“Our trash pick-up events are designed to bring awareness about the problem, especially about proactive involvement from the local community,’’ Dombroski said. “We believe, together we will be able to keep the Gulf Coast clean and our marine life healthy.
“We hope to inspire others to share our vision to keep the beaches, waterways, and marine life happy and safe,” she added.
Dombroski was spending weekends in Gulf Shores with her family even before she graduated from Baker High School in Mobile. She has been living on Pleasure Island since 2013.
She said anybody who shares her passion for reducing environmental pollution is encouraged to jump on the Eco Clean Marine train.
Always a firm believer in community service, Dombroski was already volunteering at the Baldwin County Animal Shelter in Summerdale when she realized there was a need for a group such as hers while servicing her vending machine company, Feed The Fish.
“I was installing a new machine at the (Original Oyster House) gazebo when something clicked,’’ she said. “There was so much trash around. I said ‘I know I can pick up trash.’ So, I started doing that once a month at different locations.
“More recently it’s gotten some traction and we are getting volunteers to help,’’ she added.
Businesses have also stepped up in generous ways, with Smoothie King providing breakfast smoothies and other businesses donating prizes for the clean-up volunteers.
Another Eco Clean focus is creating awareness of the important role that keeping waterways and shores clean plays in providing a healthy marine ecosystem.
To that end, she has created an ebook that is available at mycleaneco.com. A wide range of merchandise from tees to tank tops is also available on the site.
John David Swiger, who co-owns Swiger Studio in Gulf Shores, has been taking trash collected by Eco-Clean and using it to provide artsy trash cans that are strategically placed in high density areas near waterways.
Swiger has been creating more substantial art work from trash he finds along his hometown’s shoreline since 2015. He has described it as a visual depiction of what the Leave Only Footprints and Save The Beach programs exemplify. One of the earliest pieces in the series was made from 2,000 cigarette butts.
This past April, Swiger presented The Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo with an interactive art display that was modeled after the zoo’s 12 ft. American Alligator, Chuckie. The piece was entirely made from hundreds of plastic beach toys that were recycled by zoo keepers.
Pictured: Swiger & Dombroski behind a trash receptacle that Swiger created from trash picked up by Eco-Clean Marine volunteers (right) around the Original Oyster House in Gulf Shores.