Our favorite place to explore is on the far southend of Wrightsville Beach from Access 44 to 43. We walk the paths winding through the dunes...grasses, bugs (lots of the kind that jump!), sand spurs, rabbits, flowers... it's a great place to see where life on the beach lives.
It's also where (because of water sometimes flowing through) the wrack no longer forms a line... instead it forms a carpet. As you walk through the dunes... some low lying areas will be completely blanketed. The organic wrack material is the foundation for new dunes to form. But the foundation is tainted with our trash. The top of the "organic carpet" is studded with various plastics-- cigarette butts, styrofoam, bottle caps, straws, etc. But the surface is usually only a fraction of what lies beneath. As many times as I've gone through the wrack... I'm always torn with the fact that nature put the wrack the way it is for a reason... I truly hate to disturb it. BUT... I can't stand the thought of trash being in the foundation of our beach.
Did you know that those plastic pieces I'm holding comes from a mesh bag filled with beach toys? Have no idea what I'm talking about? Check out an example here. To be honest, besides the plastic mesh bag and the plastic pieces holding it all together... the beach toys are cheap junk. The handles of the shovels break off, sand castle molds crack and the sifters break. Single-use beach toys. BUT... did you know there's another option?
In March, I met Valerie of zoë b organic and learned about her "fantastic anti-plastic beach toys". A few notable things that I love about the zoë b beach toys is that they're: Made in the USA, certified to biodegrade in ocean water, durable and have a smart design (everything fits in the bucket and a sifting lid keeps it all together!). Interested? Learn more here: Faq Zoë b biodegradable toys
20 minutes on October 17, 2013 at Access 44
Litter by weight: 11.5 oz
Cigarette butts: 35
Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 209 days:
56,143
I wish I didn't fall down the plastic toys traps years ago. Mine lasted a long time and I passed them down to another family. Thanks for the link to the biodegradable ones.
ReplyDeleteGreat picture of your kids, it looks like a painting.
Laura,
Deletethanks so much for reading and for the compliment :)
You know... I fell down the same plastic toy trap too. It's easy to do when we don't know there are other options. Though, it's really good that yours lasted a long time! We have found so many beach toys during our cleanups... and while we find a good amount that are in perfect condition, we find way more that are broken (and the ones we find in good condition end up breaking too). :/ here's hoping more people learn about zoë b's beach toys. :)
Hope you're well... I've been checking in on your blog every once in awhile hoping to see something new and yummy ;) hint hint