Our Daily Ocean: Day 152

Even though I spent all day last Saturday at Wrightsville Beach for Life Rolls On, it's been way too long since I've done a 20 minute beach clean up.  Whenever there's a long stretch between clean ups, it seems I always feel a bit like a slacker (and slightly guilty) for not doing more.  Then I give myself a reality check and remind myself of all that we have done and continue to do to raise awareness, educate and, of course, clean up.

After my kids and I cleaned up the beach for 20 minutes, we made our way to Surfberry to cool off with some froyo.  Surfberry isn't your average froyo place.  Nope!  They're locally owned by the good people of WB Surf Camp and they're doing things a bit different.  One of the most notable things that they're doing is encouraging people to help clean up the beach.

From Surfberry's Facebook page:

Did you know that cigarette butts are the most prevalent form of litter on earth? Over 4.5 trillion cigarettes are littered worldwide each year! Help our oceans and beaches! Stop by Surfberry and grab a bag- and if you fill it with cigarette butts from the beach and bring it back, we will give you a FREE grom sized shave ice!! The earth and we thank you!!

After talking to a couple of Surfberry employees about how many cigarette butts we've picked up, one of the employees handed me a stack of coupons for FREE shaved ice and told me that if I run out to let them know. (VERY RAD!!!)  Thanks Surfberry!!!

20 minutes on August 4, 2012 at Access 17

Litter by weight: 1 lb 12 oz
Cigarette butts: 227
Straws: 17

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 152 days:

48,579