Edison Students, Teens Clean Over 700 Pounds Of Garbage From NJ Beach

EDISON, NJ – While most of New Jersey and tourists head to the state’s pristine beaches during the summer, few care about leaving behind garbage.

Last month over 150 teens from across the state came together at Middletown’s Ideal Beach for a beach cleanup project.

The teens were brought together by Edison students who formed the group Don’t Be A Beach (DBAB).

The founders of DBAB are mostly from Edison and J.P Stevens High School.

Speaking about their project, Sashank Penugonda, one of the founders said it was heartwarming to bring together like-minded teens for a greater cause.

“We decided to do this because New Jersey is famous for its beaches and has lots of people coming from all over to visit. A lot of us had so many fond memories growing up and visiting all these beaches. We feel it's important to make sure these beaches stay clean and give people the opportunity to create fond memories,” Penugonda said.

During their beach cleaning project, the group collected over 700 pounds of garbage.

And for these young people, cleaning the beach during their summer vacation proved to be therapeutic.

“It is really important to give back to the community. We see many problems in the world such as pollution and global warming and feel helpless. This is our way of taking action.”

DBAB was founded by seven students - Penugonda, Vidhi Patel, Yashwanth Immadi, Tejas Hegde, Aaron Bansal, Dev Puthur, and Anshul Panchal.

The group got in touch with other teens through various methods, including promoting their beach cleaning project through Instagram.

“We also spread around flyers to whoever we could, whether it be community group chats or online forums. Word of mouth also plays a big role with friends always inviting their friends and family,” Penugonda said.

As the group keeps growing with like-minded teenagers joining their efforts, they plan to keep cleaning public spaces.

"We are growing every day and we plan on expanding to not only beaches but also other public places such as rivers, lakes, and parks,” Penugonda said.

We don’t want to just clean beaches but ensure they stay clean. For that we plan to embark on educational initiatives for the public,” Penugonda said.

“We want to fundraise and implement items such as sea bins and floating trash collectors to ensure that these spaces remain clean.”

To learn more about the organization and the work they do, visit dbabnow.org or follow their Instagram @dbabnow.

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