Records Broken by Danielle--watch the video!!!

Hey Hey!  It's official... I'm going to be caught up with contributing to Keep It Clean!  I'm sure I'll be out a few more times before Sept. 15, so I'll be sure to send those to you as well :)


So far in September, we've been out on three different occasions.


On Sept. 2, we went to Access 36.  We mainly focused on the wrack line (the bits of styrofoam were HORRIBLE!!), but I made a point to walk over to Crystal Pier to check for straws from the Oceanic dining area.  I was super happy to not find any straws that had appeared to have blown off the pier!!  (Yes, we found straws... but they were away from the pier and mostly in the wrack line.)


Our Daily Ocean: Day 94 = 1 bag of litter


244 cigarette butts
23 caps
10 straws
3 plastic bottles
1 spoon


Then on Sept. 3, we went to Access 17 with Bonnie.  Our old record for the amount of cigarette butts we picked up was done last year at Access 20... the record used to be 1,833.  Friday night, Bonnie, my daughter and I picked up 2,026 cigarette butts!!!  (we ended up going over our 20 minute time frame simply because we started an area and wanted to finish it.... but really we didn't even come CLOSE to finishing.)  The wrack line was so completely disgusting... cigarette butts, straws, caps... I didn't think a picture could explain it.... so I took a short video:  http://youtu.be/WhFY2U6MHZs


Oh, right... this record breaking clean up has also pushed the cigarette butt tally past the 30k mark!!!  (who would have ever guessed?!?  Over 30k cigarette butts are sitting in my garage!)


Our Daily Ocean: Day 95 = 2.5 bags of litter


2,026 cigarette butts
44 caps
43 straws
6 plastic bottles
2 aluminum cans


AND... finally!  My husband and oldest son had been in Alaska for 11 days and on Labor Day (Monday, Sept. 5) they were finally able to make it out to the beach to do a clean up!  My husband was bummed to have missed out on the record breaking night... so we headed back to Access 17.  We got to the beach very close to sunset, so it got dark pretty fast!  But that doesn't mean that we didn't find a lot of litter!!!  We picked up nearly 7 lbs of trash!!!  This clean up marked another kind of record:  We have officially picked up over 200 lbs of litter off of WB (and that doesn't include the weight of large items such as boogie boards and chairs!!)


Our Daily Ocean: Day 96 = 5 bags of litter

1,879 cigarette butts
22 caps/lids
20 straws
9 toys
5 plastic bottles
4 aluminum cans










Danielle


"It Starts With Me" a Brita FilterForGood Film Project


www.itstartswithme-danielle.blogspot.com

Danielle Richardet--Post Hurricane Irene clean-ups

Hey!  Me again!  


On the Saturday that Hurricane Irene blew on out of Wrightsville Beach, my two youngest children and I along with friends went to the beach to hopefully find some treasures from the ocean.  We DID!!  ...but we also found a lot of things that Irene helped the ocean purge.  Most noticeable were things that I just couldn't get... TIRES!  What we were able to remove from the beach were a lot things mostly distributed through the wrack line.  As we've done an additional 5 clean ups since the hurricane... the wrack line is proving to be a collection of all things plastic... cigarette butts, straws, caps and lots and lots of styrofoam that is nearly impossible to pick up.  Here's the run down from our August post Irene clean ups.  


Add an additional 12 bags to the tally.


Day 91: August 27, 2011 post Hurricane Irene at Access 41 


8 lbs 11 oz of litter
344 cigarette butts
92 plastic caps
7 plastic/styrofoam cups
11 straws
4 aluminum cans
4 plastic bottles
10 toys    


Day 92: August 28, 2011 at Access 42


12.7 oz of litter
270 cigarette butts
2 plastic bottles
25 plastic caps
6 straws


Day 93: August 29, 2011 at Access 43


3 lbs 12.1 oz of litter
182 cigarette butts
115 caps
7 straws
4 aluminum cans
9 toys
2 balloons
2 plastic spoons
1 UNOPENED Corona (beer)!!! (it appears to be old!)


Attached is the photo from Day 93 :)  Which happens to have been the day of the pizza party!!  I had such a great time...getting to meet people who are helping keep WB clean was the best!  Thank you so much for the invitation and the yummy pizza!!!! :)

Danielle


"It Starts With Me" a Brita FilterForGood Film Project


www.itstartswithme-danielle.blogspot.com

Danielle Richardet 8/7- 8/25

Hi Ginger!

It's been forever since I last sent you an update of our clean ups!  In fact, looking at the blog the last time I sent in my numbers was on our 83rd day (August 4) and we're now on #96!!!  Yikes... sorrry!  So here's the basic summary for our pre-Irene August clean ups... obviously, thoughts and such are on my blog and photos are on Facebook.
Photos: August 2011: 20 minute beach clean ups

For these days, 84-90... add 11 grocery sized bags to the tally.

Day 84: August 7, 2011 @ Access 38

10.4 oz of litter
242 cigarette butts
6 straws
4 baggies
5 plastic caps

Day 85: August 9, 2011 at Access 43

5 lbs .9 oz of litter

378 cigarette butts
17 food wrappers
1 plastic bag
2 fishing lines
4 sandwich/ziplock bags
2 plastic bottles
2 plastic cups
3 shoes
25 caps/lids
19 straws
9 toys
5 shotgun shells

Day 86: August 11, 2011 at access 36

1 lb 12.7 oz of litter
545 cigarette butts
60 straws (53 from Oceanic)
15 plastic caps
4 toys
2 balloons
2 condoms
fishing line

Day 87: August 17, 2011 at Access 16

1 lb 11.4 oz of litter
370 cigarette butts
28 straws
21 caps
4 baggies
4 plastic bottles

Day 88: August 20, 2011 at Access 25

2 lbs 6.5oz of litter
280 cigarette butts
5 straws
11 juice box straw wrappers
6 plastic caps
1 plastic waterbottle

Day 89: August 23, 2011 at Access 18

1 lb 11.2 oz
240 cigarette butts
25 food wrappers
10 straws
19 plastic caps
1 plastic bottle
1 juice pouch
5 sand toys
5 zip-lock bags
1 plastic bag

Day 90: Aug 25, 2011 at Access 39

1 lb 9.1 oz of litter
176 cigarette butts
1 straw
14 caps
1 plastic bottle
1 shoe
2 sand shovels


Danielle

"It Starts With Me" a Brita FilterForGood Film Project


www.itstartswithme-danielle.blogspot.com

A Picture is worth 25,000 Cigarette Butts!

Hi Ginger!

On Thursday evening, we did another 20 minute clean up (shocker, I know! ;) ) which makes it our 83rd!  The beach wasn't very busy, but the ocean was filled with lots of surfers!  :)

My husband and I picked up the equivalent of 1 bag of litter that weighed nearly a pound that included:

294 cigarette butts
15 caps
10 straws
7 zip-ties (not sure what was up with zip-ties?? ... they were everywhere!)
1 aluminum can
1 plastic bottle

Another thing... we hit a milestone.  We've officially picked up over 25,000 cigarette butts off of WB.  25,180 to be exact.  Here's the link to the post: Our Daily Ocean: Day 83

Also, wanted to let everyone know that Bonnie Monteleone (http://theplasticocean.blogspot.com) is working on an art piece and she needs blue plastic bottle caps.  I've been saving all the blue plastics that I find for her, so if anyone else would like to do the same... I'm sure she would appreciate the help!

Thanks to everyone who helps keep WB clean!! :)

Danielle

2, 472 butts in July & a video about Sara by Danielle

Cleaning access 21 for 20 minutes, we collected over a pound of litter (which would be 2 bags of litter) that included:


328 cigarette butts
8 plastic caps
1 plastic fork
7 plastic straws
1 plastic bag
1 crab pot (piece of one anyway)


Our Daily Ocean: Day 82


For the month of July, we collected 2,472 cigarette butts and the grand total after this clean up is 24,886. (yikes!  25,000 is just around the corner!)




Also, wanted to let you know that Sara was profiled on CBS news!!  Really great piece about what she's doing in Santa Monica :) http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7375134n&tag=contentMain

1,596 butts and "no thank you" to straws by Danielle

Hey Ginger!

I wish that I could say that we went out to WB a ton over the month of June, but unfortunately I didn't get out to the beach as much as I would have liked. :(  Thank goodness I know that all of you are out there helping keep WB clean!! :D  Here are the totals for the littered items that I counted for the 5 clean ups we did in June.

Cigarette butts: 893
Straws: 71
Caps: 23
Shoes: 5.5 pairs

Obviously, we pick up a lot more than what is counted... sometimes the litter smells SO bad from all of the cigarette butts that I only focus on counting "high volume" items ;)


Also, I know that I said that I was going to share by month... but I'm thinking that I may email you after each clean up (we'll see!!).   Went out to JM pier last night (July 1)... thankfully it wasn't overwhelming like it has been in the past.  Lots of litter though.  (Just look at how this one 20 minute clean up compares to FIVE 20 minute clean ups in June!!... crazy)

Cigarette butts: 703
Straws: 64  (!!) 20 minutes... 64 straws in 20 minutes!!!  Can I please ask everyone to say "no thank you" to a straw?!?  And for parents to pretty please not buy juice boxes?!?  Please. :)
Caps: 63
Plastic utensils: 7

Attached is my attempt to sort all of the disgusting litter that we picked up!  YUCK!!  <--there was a panty liner and (used) condom!! *sigh* I can deal with a lot of stuff... shoot... I've counted over 23,000 cigarette butts... but GEEZ... some things are just REALLY nasty!!!

Danielle Richardet

week 8---8 straws (1 for each week) ;)

Wanted to tell you that my family from out of town picked up 8 straws at Oceanic yesterday morning during their walk. "Still in wrappers...It was obvious they blew off the pier."


Danielle 


My concern with straws in paper is that a "single use plastic" item was not even used one time before it became non-biodegradable litter.  Also, if a wrapped straw blew off the pier, did the customers ask for another straw?  If so, then that is more waste.  I really wish the area restaurants would reduce use of straws and only supply them on a limited basis (such as someone needs it for medical reasons, etc.)  I think if the restaurants adopted the position of "we do not serve plastic straws due to their detrimental impact on our environment", the customers would embrace it (at least most customers).  Come on Oceanic, lead this movement!!!!

Ginger

Danielle Richardet--end of May counts

The following are the number of items that Danielle and her family have removed from the beach during the month of May and since her last posting here.  Thanks Richardet Family!!!!  You can check out her blog here.


1136 cigarette butts
22 straws
5 plastic sandwich bags
8 plastic bottles 
20 plastic caps
1 glass beer bottle
9 beer bottle caps
13 juice box straw wrappers

It Starts With Me: Turtle Talk

Please click on the blue link below to read about our friend and fellow volunteer's educational trip to Norfolk, VA to visit a sea turtle stranding center.  Thank you Danielle Richardet.

It Starts With Me: Turtle Talk: "On June 1st--thanks to an early morning call from my friend Ginger -- my kids and I went to the sea turtle release at Topsail Island . It w..."

It Starts With Me: Talkin' Trash

I am posting a link to Danielle's blog below because she is able to capture in text and in pictures some of the reasons why we need to reduce our use of plastic.  Please click on her link below to see her full posting.

It Starts With Me: Talkin' Trash: "Trash. It's everywhere. The average American produces 4.5 lbs of trash a day.... adding up to over 1,600 lbs per year. Over the weekend, ..."

Danielle Richardet--collecting during the evening hours last weekend (5/21 & 5/22)

We went to WB on Saturday (Access 18) and Sunday (Access 15).  We parked at Johnnie Mercer's Pier (Access 16) and cleaned from the pier north.  For the two days, add an additional 1,583 cigarette butts and 41 straws.  I also tallied a bunch of other things from our Sunday clean up: 14 aluminum cans, 3 plastic bags, 13 plastic bottles, 24 caps. 

Danielle Richardet

Danielle Richardet and her family pick up cigarette butts and other litter for 20 minutes a day on WB.  They are keeping track of the number of butts and also the number of straws.  I have added these numbers to our totals.   In May 2011 Danielle has collected 880 cig butts and 56 straws.  

In 64 days she has collected 17,786 butts.  That's a lot of butts!!!

You can view her blog here.