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Every year, volunteers with the nonprofit Ocean Conservancy pick up 6.8 million pounds of marine debris and other trash—that's roughly 17 pounds of garbage for every cleanup volunteer. It's a sad reality, but there's so much litter cluttering up our beaches and oceans that people can find anything from household appliances to syringes to construction materials clogging America's favorite vacation spots. But you can help! Here are the top 10 sources of beach litter found on U.S. beaches every year, and what you can do to stem the trashy tide.
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#1: Cigarettes/Cigarette Filters By far the most prevalent litter along coastlines—more cigarettes and cigarette butts were found than any other form of trash the Conservancy tracks, accounting for 28 percent of all the trash collected. The butts linger on beaches and shores forever because about 95 percent of a cigarette's filter is made from plastic, which never degrades. And, according to the Keep America Beautiful Cigarette Litter Prevention program, cigarette filters are the most littered item in America, despite the fact that smoking has decreased by 28 percent over the last decade. Part of the blame for these pesky butts is being placed on indoor smoking bans that force people outside, where they ditch their cancer sticks on the sidewalks when they’re finished. WHAT YOU CAN DO: First off, stop smoking! It damages your heart and your lungs. But if you must continue, throw the filter in a trashcan, not on the ground or out the window. |
Thank you for providing this
Thank you for providing this interesting article and congratulations for your initiative to pick up trash in order to make the environment more eco-friendly.I am working at the Junk Removal Dedham company and we are fighting every year with tones of garbage especially on summer when people go to the beach and leave trash behind them.There should be organized more often this kind of campaigns and people should be encouraged to respect the environment.
clean up
While walking our dog, I use a pickup stick to clean up the streets of plastic, bottles, cigarette butts etc. It keeps items from going into the ocean and clogging up the sewer drains.
coastal trash
While vacationing on North Padre Island, we were in the National Seashore park and appalled at the trash washed up on the shoreline.
The shore was full of red seaweed and on top we saw tons of plastic and other trash that we were told included items all the way from Japan!
The locals seemed to take this in stride. They brought a rake, cleared themselves an area and parked their trucks, tents and more for the day...
I asked about cleanup but the rangers said there was no money for regular cleaning.
Outside the park, the town had daily cleanup of the beach with combing trucks clearing away seaweed and trash. I don't know what happened to it after,
but truly the National Park was a SAD place to visit.