week 16--Kym finds little trash in zone 5 (except for cig. butts)

Hi Ginger

Not much trash today-yay!
1 recyclable bag and one barely filled bag of small stuff; bottle caps, wrappers &
cig butts (I stopped counting at 150).

I did find a pair of kids blue croc flops at nest sight from last night, if anyone is missing a pair.

Thanks

Kym

week 16--Kim Meyer finds sleeping peeps, balloons, and recyclables in zone 1

I picked up 6 grocery size bags of trash, two of which were recyclables.  Among the recyclables were 2 glass beer bottles, 5 beer cans, and about 7 plastic bottles.  There were also plastic cups, straws, toys, etc.  I found two leashes from surfboards that had broken.  There were also several small balloons and several shoes.  We are finding a lot of used wipes on the beach this year. The only unusual thing that really isn't that unusual lately was 4 people sleeping on the beach.   No clothes found this week though.  That's rare.

Excitement from Susan about our nest hatching!

Well, what an exciting week it has been!! I have just been so busy bragging to everyone about our successful hatching on Sunday, and excavation on Wednesday. ;) It has also been such a privilege to work with so many other nice WBSTP volunteers.

Because of all the excitement, I had my heart set on finding turtle tracks this week. Alas, I found none. However, I did find a substantial amount of litter in zone #3 today. For the past few weeks, I have found little to no glass bottles, which is a nice trend, because last year I remember finding quite a few. Today I did not find a single piece of glass. I collected one Target bag of trash, and 3/4 of my reusable bag (3 grocery bags) of reusables and recyclables.

The majority of the trash consisted of plastic such as cracker, chip, and snack wrappers; drink lids; straws; bottle caps; ziplock, grocery, and ice bags, and cups. I also found one large clear sheet of plastic that was perhaps from a case of bottled water or something. For some reason I also found a lot of random pieces of rope and string today, along with stray clothing items such as hair ties (lots of these), socks, and a pair of plaid boxer shorts. 

There was a seemingly unending number of cigarette butts.

Reusables and recyclables included aluminum beer and juice cans, plastic water bottles, one pair of neon green flip flops, a pair of blue snorkeling flippers, and several sand toys.

One thing that still bums me out is other people's disregard for the litter at the beach. I am trying to get past this, I really am, because I realize there are a lot of other like minded people in this world. But today I had an experience that really bummed me out. While I was walking my zone, I was approaching a family of four: a mom, dad, and two elementary school age kids. As I walked, I could see them looking at me with a strange look, as though they disapproved of what I was doing or were angry at me. (I don't get this look often, so I found it weird.) As I drew nearer, the family hustled from the water up towards one of the beach accesses. As they passed, I could see that the daughter was eating a piece of fruit. Then as I reached the spot where they had been standing, I found a plastic produce sticker in the sand that said "black plum." I was so sad that this young girl had seen me picking up litter, then still decided to throw a piece of plastic on the ground.

I'm not really sure what to do about this. Today I have been asking myself, "how can I help spread the word about keeping our beach clean, and reach these people who don't seem to care?" I will meditate on this this week.

-Susan


-- 
Susan Z. Miller
Freelance Writer and Editor
email: szmiller980@gmail.com
web: http://www.szmiller.homestead.com

week 10 Wicked Clouds & a Skeletal Bone by Susan

Well, I've had 2 crazy weather adventures 2 weeks in a row. I'm on a roll! This morning was really quite amazing at WB. When I arrived, it was looking rather threatening. Then the sun came out while I was walking my zone. I made it to the end at beach access #32, when it poured very hard for only about 60 seconds. On my return trip the weather varied wildly between sun, then clouds, then seriously black clouds with thunder and lightning. I know the weather changes quickly on the coast here, but sheesh!

One neat thing about the weather was that it made for some cool cloud formations and awesome shell hunting.

I did, however, complete one full walk of my zone, then go back and look for shells just so that I wouldn't be distracted the first time around!

The two areas with the most litter in my zone this morning were right around Johnnie Mercer's Pier, and at beach access #29. (There is a large hotel at this access, but I am not sure what it is called.) There was just so much litter in both of these spots-- really overwhelming amounts. I collected one full bag of trash at each of these spots, then a third bag through the remainder of my zone. I also filled my reusable bag about 3/4 full, which is equivalent to 3 bags of recyclables. Large items that I took to the trash right away included some sort of large plastic horn, 2 broken shovels, and 1 tee shirt.

Recyclables today included 2 beer bottles, 11 plastic water/iced tea/soda bottles, 5 beer cans, and 8 plastic sand toys.

I discarded my trash at the beach today rather than bringing it home and sorting it, so I'm not sure about the counts there. However, there were an awful lot of plastic water bottle caps.

And it felt like I was picking up another straw every time I turned around. There were so, so many straws, and lots of other plastic litter today as well, such as these bracelets. I am not sure what these are from, but there were several of them. This one had green smiley faces on it, but the majority of the ones I found were neon orange.

The most interesting thing I found today was what I at first thought was a large piece of plastic. However, upon further inspection I discovered that it was a bone from some sort of marine animal. It smelled highly unpleasant.

-Susan

week 10 Kim M. & Celia--When the Surf's Up, it is hard to keep your Bottoms Up!

For Zone 1 Sunday July 3rd the beach was not nearly as bad as I was anticipating.  We collected about 4 grocery bags of trash.  Most of it was plastic bottles and cans so after recycling it, there wasn't much trash at all.

There was an unusual amount of women's personal items.  Among the assortment we found at least a 2-cup size padded insert and a brown pair of ladies bottoms.  A friend just called and told me some man lost his bottoms twice today when he was trying to get out past the breakers.  At least he was able to hold on to his bottoms without them washing up in the surf or out to sea.  Apparently it was just as rough yesterday and the poor lady was not as fortunate.  Hopefully it wasn't her insert as well.  What a site that conjures up!

week 9 Kym---Proud Nest Mother!!!

2 bags of litter, one bag of litter to reclycle ...one beautiful marked nest as a reminder of it all!

week 8 Mellissa zone 4

OMG Ginger, I dont think I sent out my trash report for last Friday 6/24. I just found it in my draft folder. I am so sorry. Last week we had a grocery bag and 1/2. We found lots of beer cans all over, so when I put my recycling in the correct bin my trash amount went down a whole lot.
Thanks!

Week 7 A lesson on Crab Mating by Julie Nichols

I always like learning new things and so I appreciate the lesson Julie shares with us below.  I have a different and profound perception of crabs now  :)


Ginger,

Well here’s my education lesson for this morning:


CRABS – Reproduction
When male and female crabs reproduce, they assume the doubler position, which is when the male carries the female. Mating lasts about five-and-a-half hours, but the crabs may stay in this position for up to three days afterward.


My apologies to the crabs I disturbed.


I subbed Zone 4 this morning (Sat. 6-18) for Nancy Faye.  An absolutely beautiful morning for a walk on the beach – OK, so EVERY morning is a beautiful morning for a walk on the beach.  I picked up 1 grocery bag of trash – mostly food packaging, cups, etc., some fireworks debris, 2 spools of kite string, a pacifier, a few children’s toys, 2 full Budweisers. I filled in a few holes with the nice wooden-handled toy shovel I found and decided to keep in the trunk of my car for future early morning walks.


Possible suggestion for Blockade Runner – their trash can was overflowing, most of it appearing to be plastic drink bottles.  This sounds like a great spot for a recycle receptacle.


There were 2 people sleeping in the edge of the dunes just past the Blockade Runner. 


On my way back I climbed the Life Guard stand and watched pelicans skim over the water and a few fishing boats on their way to a great day of angling. What a view!!  Also a great view for looking for tracks or anything that looks repetitive in the sand.


I also subbed Zone 4 Wednesday morning, gathering about 1/3 bag of trash that morning.
Julie

week 6 Susan zone 3--recycling, hoels and plastic

Hi Ginger,

It is so interesting to me to see how the beach changes each Friday morning that I go. This morning, there were a lot of people walking, running, and lounging, even as early as 6:00 am. The sand seemed particularly hot, dry and powdery, which I am sure has something to do with our extreme lack of rain lately.

Today I collected 3 bags of trash and one large bag of recyclables (one large bag converts into 4 bags making Susan's total bags = 7).  There was a very high concentration of litter right next to Johnnie Mercer's Pier; I collected one whole bag of trash there alone, most of which consisted of snack wrappers and chip bags. 

The bulk of what I picked up today was plastic water and Gatorade bottles-- I found a total of 15 of these. At one moment I looked out across the high tide line and could just see plastic shimmering in the sand. Conversely, I found only one glass beer bottle and a few beer cans, which is drastically less than normal. I can only assume that this is due to the very hot weather.

One thing I observed today is that there seemed to be several areas where people had just sat down, smoked 5-10 cigarettes, and stuck the butts right in the sand like an ashtray. 

Ugh. This makes me concerned not only for these individuals' blatant disregard of the environment but also for their personal health. Another thing I observed today is that the vast majority of the items in the trashcans were Rita's cups, aluminum cans and plastic bottles. Of course, I am grateful that these items made it into the trashcans and were not left on the beach. But it seems like a real shame that all of this is going in trash when the vast majority of it is recyclable. I really do think that people would use recycling bins for cans and plastic if they were right alongside the trash cans.

The most interesting thing I found today was a very deep hole with a sea turtle sand sculpture right next to it. I am not sure if this qualifies as irony or just deserves a facepalm.

-Susan Miller

week 3 (Thurs. 5/19) Renee zone 2

Since Renee is using a "large" reusable bag, I'm counting that as 4 bags.  The reason is:  my HT reusable bag will hold 3 plastic bags if filled jam-packed full!.

 Like I said in my last email....it was great getting back to the beach.  I really appreciated your suggestion about re-usable bags rather than plastic bags.  You might be happy to hear that it seems like more people are using the recycling station at Wrightsville Beach.  I bring my recyclables there and, after Earth Day, I could not fit any plastics or metals into the bins.  They were overflowing and people had to leave their things next to the bins rather than inside them.  A few days later, I was there when one of the recycle trucks was there and the drivers told me that they are having to do more loads because the bins are getting filled up more quickly.  While I was there about 4 guys from the college were recycling bags and bags of beer cans and other recyclables.  I said they must have had quite a party...they laughed but I also thanked them for recycling.  So, there are all kinds of signs that people are starting to recognize the importance of recycling. 

Zone 2  Thursday May 19th

I'm using a large re-usable shopping bag/tote.  I filled one bag.  

When you say, "one bag" it doesn't really sound like that much.  

So, I took a picture of all the shovels, pails, flip flops, nets, bottle caps and cigarette butts that fit into that bag. Maybe a picture will be worth more than words.  I also have a picture of some of the things I moved away from the shoreline....a baby stroller, and a chair.  

I also picked up pieces of styrofoam.  When I picked up the big pieces I noticed some tiny white pellets that were caught up in the debris.  Sadly, I couldn't pick it all up.  I've attached two more pics:  a close up and as far as I looked....little pieces caught in the debris all down the beach.

Until next week,

Renee



Ginger,
    As I looked over the pics I sent to you.....I realize I forgot to mention the two little wheels I found .....  they weren't together either.  They were seperated and I found them on different parts of the beach.


   Okay :o)  this really is my last email about trash until next week. :o)
Renee

Beautiful Morning in Zone 4 Michelle Leonard (wed 5/18)

Hi Ginger,

Today is May 18, 2011.  I did my first beach walk at Zone 4 and only found 1 soda can:)  The sun was coming up in the east and the full moon was setting in the west!  It was absolutely beautiful.  The only thing that could have been better was if the recycling barrels had been emptied.  They were overflowing with trash when I was by the Oceanic Restaurant on Monday, and still had not been emptied.  You could tell that people had been trying to keep things clean because the plastic bottles and aluminum cans were stacked around the recycling barrels.  Hopefully as the summer gets closer, the cans will be emptied more often.  No turtle tracks, but lots of hope.  Michelle