A Reflection of Beach Clean-up Efforts in 2013 from Steve Yost
A Reflection of Beach Clean-up Efforts in 2013 Happy New Year everyone! Here’s hoping you and your family had a great 2013 AND that 2014 will be even better. It seems everywhere I look, someone has created a top–ten list for 2013. There’s a top-ten for music, a top-ten for sports plays, a top-ten for books, and there’s a top-ten for trash-picked up items for 2013. Yes, if you didn’t know it, there is a top-ten list for that last category because I just created it. So, now that you know it exists and, since you asked, below is Steve’s [The-Beach- Clean-up Guy], Sunset Beach’s top-ten most picked up items in 2013:
- #10 Construction debris
- #9 Glass
- #8 Abandoned Toys
- #7 Clothes / shoes
- #6 Beer/ Soda cans
- #5 Cigar tips
- #4 Plastic bottles
- #3 Bottle caps
- #2 Plastic Straws
- #1 Cigarette Butts
Now that this list has been established, you may ask: “What does it say about our beach?” You may even ask for clarification of some of the items, as in what is meant by “construction debris”? Allow me to focus on the second question first. When we go out to pick-up trash, we look for stuff that doesn’t belong on our beach, so we’re not out to pick up dead horse-shoe crabs or dead sea-critters (like those large, broken fan-shaped clamshells that sometimes litter our beach), or even palm fronds that may have blown onto the beach. All those items are items we categorize as: “part of the beach environment.” But, we do pick-up building construction debris like little pieces of a dock that may have broken off, or small piece of wooden, quarter-round trim or the block/cut-off end of a 2 X 6 that may have been accidentally dropped into the water, and bits of brown, or white, Styrofoam insulation that somehow made it into the water and washed up on our beach (i.e. construction debris). The wood we pick up may be considered “bio-degradable,” but these things don’t really belong on our beach so we pick them up. And, of course, we pick up the more obvious items that don’t belong, like discarded beer and soda cans, glass and plastic bottles, bottle caps (metal and plastic), straws and cigarette butts. Now, back to the first question – “What does this list say about our beach?” Let me begin by saying this, we have a pretty clean beach. We have trash receptacles and cigarette butt disposal stations out there that most of our visitors and fellow beach goers use (and these trash receptacles and butt stations are regularly picked up by the City). We also don’t have a tire disposal problem and we aren’t the dumping grounds for abandoned washers and dryers. However, we do have an issue on our beach with our visitors and possibly our fellow residents and it relates to those who smoke. It seems that many of these “smokers,” as I’ll refer to them as, can be categorized into one of three types. They are either? Type 1) very aware that left behind cigarette butts is littering and they pick up after themselves, or Type 2) completely ignorant of the fact that their left behind cigarette butts is trash and should be disposed of elsewhere, or Type 3) they are completely aware that their left behind cigarette butts is trash but they just don’t care and leave them behind for the rest of us to “enjoy”. The reality of it is that Types 2 & 3 smokers are not healthy for our beach and the issue needs to be addressed.
Other than to continue to clean up our beach and pick up after our Type 2 and Type 3 smokers, I can only suggest that we do something different in an attempt to change their habits and bring what they leave on our beach to their attention. One idea would be to post signs. Another idea would be make our beach a smoke-free beach. I really don’t like this second idea because this may backfire and drive away many or our beach goers. Another idea may be to start an awareness campaign. Maybe, just maybe, articles like this and other direct (and indirect) ways of bringing the issue to light would be the ticket. I’m for anything that our Type 2 and Type 3 smokers may read and see that will get them think twice before they put their butts to the ground. However, before such a campaign is begun, I respectfully request your ideas and thoughts on this matter! Steve Yost Contact Steve at: [email protected]