Our Daily Ocean: Day 228

Happy New Year y'all!  Tis the season for reflecting, refocusing and resolving.  Last year this time, I was reflecting on the passing of the WB smoke-free beach ordinance... optimistic for what was to come.... not having any clue that the outcome could be as good as it's been.

With the New Year, I'm introducing a change to one of the pages of this blog.  At the top, there's a tab that says "Our Daily Ocean".  I've made some updates to the page because as this project was originally started to help bring awareness to the problem of cigarette litter on Wrightsville Beach--with the passage of the smoke-free beach ordinance--it has now evolved to show how beach smoking bans can (and do) help reduce cigarette litter.  With the updates, I've included monthly as well as yearly tallies and averages.  

AND.... I just have to share here that the average cigarette butts removed for 2010 was 379, 2011 was 322 and 2012 was 249.  BUT, the 2013 average cigarette butts removed per cleanup was 72!!  That's a HUGE HUGE decrease from the previous years because that's a 70-80% decrease!!  I'd say that the Town of Wrightsville Beach did a fantastic job in the first year implementing the smoke-free beach ordinance!! 

View the all the tallies and averages from 2010 to present here. 

Moving forward this year, I will be heading back to the Wrightsville Beach Board of Aldermen to share the positive news and encourage the new board to continue with education and enforcement of the ban.    I've also committed to completing this project of 365 non-consecutive beach cleanups this year.  As of now, I have 137 to go!  It's a lot to do in a short amount of time... but I'm up for trying!  

“Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. What if they are a little coarse and you may get your coat soiled or torn? What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice? Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble.”

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Bring on the beach cleanups!

20 minutes on January 1, 2014 at Access 16

Litter by weight: 6.7 oz
Cigarette butts: 62

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 228 days:

57,431