Our Town Manager and Town Clerk got away from their desks for an hour to hit the beach in Orchid last week, joining seventeen local residents in a beach clean-up effort guided by Coastal Connections. It was a cloudy morning, but that didn't dampen the spirits of the volunteers, who tackled the work armed with big blue buckets and nifty trash pickers. Altogether 22.5 pounds of debris were removed from the beach, with teams splitting off in both north and south directions. This is an astonishing number, when one considers that the most prevalent debris was hundreds of pieces of nearly weightless Styrofoam. Plastic bottle caps (whole and in pieces) were another frequent find - their bright colors helpful for spotting among natural materials on the beach. Spiderman was part of the effort too, but in the form of two foil balloons.
Keeping the beach pristine is important not just for recreational enjoyment, but also for the safety and health of the flora and fauna in this delicate ecosystem. It's a challenge when debris moves easily and swiftly from beach to beach, carried by the wind and water. Next time you're at the beach, bring along a plastic bag and see if you can leave it cleaner than how you found it. Every effort helps!
Here are the stats from the organized beach clean-up:
In all, 537 pieces of trash were removed from the property. Top items were as follows:
- 251 foam pieces
- 145 pieces of hard plastic
- 41 plastic bottle caps
- 24 pieces of fishing line/rope
- 16 pieces of plastic film
