Since August of 2010, I've been choosing a random beach access at Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina to do a 20 minute beach clean up. During the 20 minutes, we remove ALL of the litter from the beach that we find. We take care that we're not bringing more trash to the beach by using reusable buckets and a reusable tote bag to carry the litter we find off of the beach. I then weigh the litter for The Daily Ocean Community Count and count the amount of cigarette butts that we find.
This project was started to help bring awareness to the problem of cigarette litter on Wrightsville Beach. By documenting and collecting cigarette butts in a specified amount of time throughout the year, I was able to convey that the problem was year round and unrelenting. With my documentation, I became involved in a successful campaign that ended with the residents of Wrightsville Beach voting to make the WB beach strand the first smoke-free beach in North Carolina.
The following is a month by month account of the amount of litter we picked up by weight and the amount of cigarette butts removed from the beach during 20 minute increments. As this project was originally created to help raise awareness to a problem, it has now evolved to show how beach smoking bans can (and do) help reduce cigarette litter. That being said, included below are also the monthly averages as well as yearly averages for the amount of cigarette butts removed.
August 2010: beach cleanups 1-6 (6 cleanups)
Litter removed by weight: 8 lbs 7.1 oz
Cigarette butts: 1,744 Average per cleanup: 291 cigarette butts
September 2010: beach cleanups 7-12 (6 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 10 lbs 3 oz
Cigarette butts: 4,603 Average per cleanup: 767
October 2010: beach cleanups 13- 16 (4 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 4 lbs 4.7 oz
Cigarette butts: 1,279 Average per cleanup: 320
November 2010: beach cleanups 17-24 (8 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 6 lbs 1.1 oz
Cigarette butts: 2,773 Average per cleanup: 347
December 2010: beach cleanups 25- 34 (10 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 13 lbs 11.6 oz
Cigarette butts: 2,480 Average per cleanup: 248
Average cigarette butts removed per cleanup August- December 2010 (34 cleanups): 379
January 2011: beach cleanups 35-40 (6 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 5 lbs 12.3oz
Cigarette butts: 1,187 Average per cleanup: 198
February 2011: beach cleanups 41-47 (7 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 4 lbs 15.4 oz
Cigarette butts: 750 Average per cleanup: 107
March 2011: beach cleanups 48-52 (5 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 5 lbs 10.3 oz
Cigarette butts: 787 Average per cleanup: 157
April 2011: beach cleanups 53-59 (7 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 31 lbs 8.3 oz
Cigarette butts: 1,334 Average per cleanup: 191
May 2011: beach cleanups 60-70 (11 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 33 lbs 14 oz
Cigarette butts: 4,155 Average per cleanup: 378
June 2011: beach cleanups 71-75 (5 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 8 lbs 11.1 oz
Cigarette butts: 1,362 Average per cleanup: 272
July 2011: beach cleanups 76-82 (7 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 28 lbs 8.8 oz
Cigarette butts: 2,472 Average per cleanup: 353
August 2011: beach cleanups 83-93 (11 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 29 lbs 1.7 oz
Cigarette butts: 3,317 Average per cleanup: 302
September 2011: beach cleanups 94-100 (7 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 23 lbs 6.1 oz
Cigarette butts: 6,897 Average per cleanup: 985
October 2011: beach cleanups 101- 103 (3 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 4 lbs 4.6 oz
Cigarette butts: 505 Average per cleanup: 168
November 2011: beach cleanups 104-106 (3 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 2 lbs 9.6 oz
Cigarette butts: 726 Average per cleanup: 242
December 2011: beach cleanups 107-111 (5 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 3 lbs 2 oz
Cigarette butts: 1,303 Average per cleanup: 261
Average cigarette butts removed per cleanup January- December 2011 (77 cleanups): 322
January 2012: beach cleanups 112- 115 (4 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 5 lbs 13.1 oz
Cigarette butts: 947 Average per cleanup: 237
February 2012: beach cleanups 116-121 (6 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 5 lbs 9.7 oz
Cigarette butts: 1,810 Average per cleanup: 302
March 2012: beach cleanups 122-129 (8 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 10 lbs 4.4 oz
Cigarette butts: 2,341 Average per cleanup: 293
April 2012: beach cleanups 130-135 (6 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 15 lbs 1.6 oz
Cigarette butts: 1,846 Average per cleanup: 308
May 2012: beach cleanups 136-142 (7 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 7 lbs 3.2 oz
Cigarette butts: 948 Average per cleanup: 135
June 2012: beach cleanups 143-145 (3 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 8 lbs 8 oz
Cigarette butts: 809 Average per cleanup: 270
July 2012: beach cleanups 146-151 (6 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 12 lbs 11.6 oz
Cigarette butts: 1,013 Average per cleanup: 169
August 2012: beach cleanups 152-155 (4 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 7 lbs 13 oz
Cigarette butts: 1,227 Average per cleanup: 307
September 2012: beach cleanups 156-159 (4 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 4 lbs 7.6 oz
Cigarette butts: 1,260 Average per cleanup: 315
October 2012: beach cleanups 160-167 (8 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 8 lbs 7.1 oz
Cigarette butts: 2,061 Average per cleanup: 258
November 2012: beach cleanups 168- 170 (3 cleanups) WB voted Smoke-Free Beach
Litter by weight: 3 lbs 13.1 oz
Cigarette butts: 412 Average per cleanup: 137
December 2012: beach cleanup 171 (1 cleanup)
Litter by weight: 7.5 oz
Cigarette butts: 275 Average per cleanup: 275
Average cigarette butts removed per cleanup January- December 2012 (60 cleanups): 249
January 2013: beach cleanups 172-178 (7 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 6 lbs 8.8oz
Cigarette butts: 879 Average per cleanup: 126
February 2013: beach cleanup 179 (1 cleanup) New signage installed: No Smoking
Litter by weight: 1 lb 3.9 oz
Cigarette butts: 81 Average per cleanup: 81
March 2013: cleanups 180-181 (2 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 3 lbs 1.4 oz
Cigarette butts: 349 Average per cleanup: 175
April 2013: cleanups 182-184 (3 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 3 lbs 7.7 oz
Cigarette butts: 148 Average per cleanup: 49
May 2013: cleanups 185-188 (4 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 14 lbs .7 oz
Cigarette butts: 187 Average per cleanup: 47
June 2013: cleanups 189-190 (2 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 4 lbs 7.7 oz
Cigarette butts: 53 Average per cleanup: 27
July 2013: cleanups 191-193 (3 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 2 lb 3.6 oz
Cigarette butts: 203 Average per cleanup: 68
August 2013: cleanups 194- 199 (6 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 7 lbs 14.9oz
Cigarette butts: 413 Average per cleanup: 69
September 2013: cleanups 200- 204 (5 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 1 lb 6.3 oz
Cigarette butts: 315 Average per cleanup: 63
October 2013: cleanups 205- 213 (9 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 7 lbs .2 oz
Cigarette butts: 540 Average per cleanup: 60
November 2013: cleanups 214- 218 (5 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 1 lb 6.2 oz
Cigarette butts: 319 Average per cleanup: 64
December 2013: cleanups 219- 227 (9 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 3 lbs 15.5 oz
Cigarette butts: 521 Average per cleanup: 58
Average cigarette butts removed per cleanup January- December 2013 (56 cleanups): 72
January 2014: cleanups 228- 230 (3 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 14.1 oz
Cigarette butts: 263 Average per cleanup: 88
February 2014: cleanups 231- 236 (6 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 4 lbs 12.9 oz
Cigarette butts: 110 Average per cleanup: 18
March 2014: cleanups 237- 240 (4 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 4 lbs 9.8 oz
Cigarette butts: 105 Average per cleanup: 26
April 2014: cleanups 241 (1 cleanup)
April 2014: cleanups 241 (1 cleanup)
Litter by weight: 1 lb 1.8 oz
Cigarette butts: 11 Average per cleanup: 11
May 2014: cleanups 242- 247 (6 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 5 lbs .9 oz
Cigarette butts: 107 Average per cleanup: 18
June 2014: cleanups 248- 249 (2 cleanups)
July 2014: cleanups 250- (4 cleanups)
June 2014: cleanups 248- 249 (2 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 11.5 oz
Cigarette butts: 5 Average per cleanup: 3
July 2014: cleanups 250- (4 cleanups)
Litter by weight: 5 lbs 15.8 oz
Cigarette butts: 209 Average per cleanup: 52
Average cigarette butts removed per cleanup January- July 2014 (26 cleanups): 31
Average cigarette butts removed per cleanup January- July 2014 (26 cleanups): 31
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