Our Daily Ocean: Day 76

For some unknown reason, I've been completely slacking when it comes to posting.  We hit the beach, clean it up... and count the mess... but the post just lags behind.  Hmmm...  Must be something about summer.  :)   Having not been out to Wrightsville Beach as much as I would've liked during the month of June, I'm making the commitment to get out to WB a lot more this month.

My mom and sister have been staying with us... so, on Friday, I asked them which access they wanted to go to.  My mom's response, "I want to go see how bad it is at the pier."  Wish granted.  We, along with my mom and sister, met my friend Tracy at Johnnie Mercer's Pier-- aka Access 16. 

My mom, my sister, and Tracy.

Since it was the start of the Fourth of July weekend, I had prepared myself for a disaster.  BUT... strange thing happened.  There was plenty of parking, the trashcans weren't overflowing and while the beach was definitely littered... it wasn't anywhere close to what we've seen in the past.  Thank goodness!

From the very start of this litter project, I've always been adamant about the fact that I am "never expecting perfect, I just want to get to better."  When I go to the wrack line and can pick up a handful of cigarette butts and plastics in less than a minute... I can honestly state: It's not better. (yet)  Wrightsville Beach is working on the cigarette butt issue.  From what I understand, they're passing out pocket ashtrays.  Not sure how to gauge whether or not it's working because we're still picking up a large amount of cigarette butts.  Hmmm...

Aside from counting cigarette butts, I also count other things including straws.  Friday we picked up a record number of straws:  64 in 20 minutes!  WHOA!  I'm sending my tallies to the WB-- Keep It Clean blog... and since May together we've removed 557 straws from WB!!!  YIKES!!  Please, please, please... when ordering your drink say, "I don't need a straw."  If you like to use straws... how about getting a reusable straw to carry with you??  I have some from Glass Dharma and I absolutely LOVE them!!   Another thing, skip the juice boxes.... take a reusable container and fill it with juice.  No straw or plastic straw wrapper to be littered is a good thing for the beach!! :)

20 minutes on July 1, 2011 at Access 16

Litter by weight: 8 lbs 3.6 oz  

Cigarette butts: 703

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 76 days:

23,117

Kure Beach with the SandSweepers

On Saturday morning, my family and I took a 45 minute drive south to Kure Beach.  We met up with Liz who writes the blog Litter Sucks to help with a 30 minute beach clean up with the SandSweepers at the Kure Beach Pier.  Our family collected 140 cigarette butts and the grand total of butts was a whopping 998!!!

Check out Liz's blogpost here: SandSweepers Kick butt at Kure Pier

Kure Beach has a lot of different signage than Wrightsville Beach... lots of things are prohibited... including littering... hmmm....

My kids were really interested in the signs that have pictures of various pieces of litter stating how long they will last in our environment.  BUT... one thing we talked about is that the sign makes cigarette butts and plastics seem not that bad... what the sign doesn't relay is the harmful effects of plastics in our oceans/environment and the negative effects they have on wildlife.



















Here's a photo of the litter we removed from Kure Beach in 30 minutes....different beach... same story...

Our Daily Ocean: Day 30

From Wednesday to Friday, we spent our time filming for the short film that has been inspired by my project... which I realized has turned out to be about "me."  Hmmm...  I'm always talking about what the power of one person can do... but even for me it's hard to wrap my head around all of this... I just do what I do... I don't think that I've done anything special... or amazing. I've only chosen to share my voice (thank you to everyone who chooses to listen)...and that's something that we can ALL do... no matter who we are, who we know, or where we're from....

On Friday, we went to Wrightsville Beach access 4 for a Paddle of Support... it was a nice way to end the week... at the beach with some old friends and new friends.  The Paddle of Support was organized by Kevin of Ocean Cure.  (Ocean Cure is up for a Pepsi Refresh Grant... please take the time to vote for them and share what they're doing). 

Now that the film crew Destin, Brett and Ron are gone... so are the cameras... so is the media... and life is back to "normal".....

On Sunday, my husband decided that he wanted to go to Wrightsville Beach to go surfing.  So while he was in the water our kids played in the sand and I did a 20 minute clean up at Access 36-- just me and my two hands.

I've seen my fair share of disposable coffee cups lately... it's cold... people want something hot to drink... I get it.  What I don't get is how people just throw their trash on the ground.

 But here's an idea... what if we didn't have to create trash?? (we don't)  It's so simple to take a reusable coffee mug/cup/thermos to your favorite coffee shop.  I've been telling everyone I know about our favorite insulated water bottle by Kleen Kanteen that can double as a coffee/tea/hot chocolate mug by adding the café cap. Seriously, it's AWESOME because it keeps things super hot... or super cold... and best of all it's not going to be littered ;)

It had been raining since Saturday morning... the skies were dark and dreary... but as usual at Wrightsville Beach... they were.... hmmm.... yeah... more than amazing....

Check out this balloon that I found on Wrightsville Beach.  Balloons may be fun, but (unfortunately) balloons are meant to fly.  But just because they are meant to fly doesn't mean that they'll fly forever.  Nope.  They eventually fall to land... or sea... and are serious threat to wildlife-- through ingestion and entanglement. :(  Whether released accidentally or purposefully... a released balloon is a littered balloon. (Here's a video about a pygmy sperm whale that was rescued 17 years ago... her cause of illness is one that we can all control.)

Everything we do (or don't do) impacts the world we live in... 

it's that simple.

20 minutes on December 12, 2010

Litter by weight: 1 pound

Cigarette butts: 103

Total amount of cigarette butts picked up off of Wrightsville Beach, NC in 30 days: 

11,667

Our Daily Ocean: Day 29

Hmmmm... where to start???  The past two days have been unlike any other days that I have ever had... or will ever have.  Who would've ever guessed that picking up after other people would make all of this happen... but here I am... here we are...

Ron, Destin, (me), and Brett with my 3 kids... can you tell we're all freezing?!?!
(Thanks to my amazingly supportive husband for taking the photo!!)

I spent my morning doing interviews and showing off my over 11,000 cigarette butts for the short film that is being made because my project was voted as a winner in the Brita FilterForGood Film Project.  I'm extremely grateful for this opportunity... and can't even begin to put into words what the experience really means to me... hmmmm.... something like this:

"As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over. So in a series of kindness there is, at last, one which makes the heart run over." ~ James Boswell 

My heart is running over :)

As usual, Wrightsville Beach was absolutely beautiful... the sky was so stunning.  I wish I had more pictures... BUT...with everything going on... picture reality TV crew or paparazzi...  I forgot my camera in my car. :(  Oh well... the whole thing was filmed...YAY!!.... and that's even better than me taking photos of countless bits of litter and cigarette butts.

Brett took this photo of a littered balloon for me... Thanks Brett!! :)

Oh... and completely have to say how cold it was at Wrightsville Beach.  Could it have been worse??  Definitely, but still 39˚ is too cold for this girl!!  (My feet are missing my Rainbows!!)  So.... when we walked onto the beach, I made the joke that we should just pick up for about 10 minutes and leave.  But, of course, we didn't.  There was surprisingly too much to pick up (and my kids were having so much fun being filmed).  With it being so cold... even at Access 16...I had this thought that it wasn't going to be that bad...that we weren't going to find much to pick up...

I guess I was wrong.

20 minutes on December 8, 2010
Litter by weight: 12.8oz
Cigarette Butts: 262

Total amount of cigarette butts picked up off of Wrightsville Beach, NC in 29 days: 

11,594

Taking More Than Pictures....

Because people leave more than footprints.

Our Daily Ocean: Day 26

You ever read something it it completely strikes a chord with you??  I've been updating The Plastic Ocean Project blog and have been staying current with the happenings of the Sea Dragon crew in the South Atlantic Ocean.  I can't stop thinking about the other day when I was reading 5 gyres blog and my heart felt heavy and my eyes filled with tears:

"Slowly but surely, we're showing the world that it's crazy to think you can clean this up, that gyre cleanup starts on land...

And here's the pill I swallow every day when I wake up, go on deck and look at ocean - plastic particles, just below the surface, cover 75% of the surface of the earth. Yes, they're dispersed, but we're 1700 miles from land and everywhere we look, we find it. Everytime. Without exception. And the good companies we buy it from sponsor conferences and say that's okay. Well, it's not okay. It's not okay that convenience can break the entire ocean."  

Read the entire blog post here. 

So I read it AND then I felt empowered.  Yes!  What we're doing *IS* making a difference.  There is no way to just clean up the mess in the ocean, BUT we can clean up the land and teach others to be conscious of the problem of litter and plastics in our environment.  We can come together as a family, a neighborhood, a community, a city, a state, a country...  a WORLD... and WE can begin to clean up the idea that there is an "away" because now we know... there is no such thing as "away."

We can begin to sacrifice "personal freedoms" for the betterment of our world.  

Sacrifice what we consider "rights" for something more important:  the right to clean air and water. (Everything and everyone IS connected.)

One cigarette butt in each jar containing 2 cups of water.  This photo was taken about 10 minutes after I added tap water to the butts. 

Yesterday, we went to Access 26 and my husband was visiting my friend Sara in Santa Monica.  Together they did a 20 minute clean up for Sara's The Daily Ocean blog.  So when I saw my kids jump into this hole... 

I was immediately taken back to when we did our first 20 minute clean up with Sara in Santa Monica...

Photo taken on July 16, 2010 in Santa Monica, CA

Speaking of Sara.. she was recently recognized in the Yahoo! 2010 Year in Review as an  "Inspiring Act."  YAY!!!  Sara as an "inspiration" is no surprise to me... the girl has started a beach clean-up revolution... and I'm absolutely thrilled to be a major part of that.  I'm also completely grateful to have been included in the article under "the ripple"... because most certainly that's what I'm all about ;) 

Sara is also taking the beach clean ups that she does a step further as she joins the Sea Dragon crew in the spring to sail across the South Pacific with 5 Gyres.  Can YOU "Spare $5 to send Sara on 5 Gyres"??   

20 minutes on December 3, 2010

Litter by weight: 5.7 oz

198 cigarette butts

Total amount of cigarette butts picked up off of Wrightsville Beach, NC in 26 days:

10,640

Coast to Coast for 350.org

When I learned of 350.org's global work party on 10-10-10, I knew that I just had to get involved.  Being on vacation with my Mom and Aunts, I thought it was a perfect opportunity to get them involved in their first beach clean-up... my Aunts live in Iowa, and my Mom lives in Missouri.

While we went to Oceanside,  CA....my husband and three children made it back to Access 36-- our adopted access.  Of course, they played... boogie boarded... and dug in the sand.  BUT... they also took time to do a short clean-up.  They focused primarily around the pier of Oceanic Restaurant.

As we've found in our 20 minute clean-ups (and when we participated in the International Coastal Clean-up), there is unfortunately A LOT of restaurant litter AND an employee break area (the table and chairs under the pier is one of two) that is also used by smokers.

My husband and kids had a great time at the beach.  They ended up seeing Kevin Millard and his family.  Kevin has been taking our family pictures since my oldest son was one year old!!  My husband told Kevin why they were cleaning up litter for 10-10-10, and Kevin--AWESOME that he is-- joined in with  his family.  Oh, but it doesn't end there!  My husband also started talking to some people (who happened to be smoking)... AND their young son started helping pick up litter.  Working together they picked up all of this litter off of Wrightsville Beach.

And a pile of 317 cigarette butts...

While my husband and kids were at Wrightsville Beach, I-- along with my Mom and three Aunts-- made it to Oceanside, CA!!  Not being from California, I'm not exactly up to date on California politics.  BUT, it didn't mean that I couldn't help.  I made a sign that read "NO on 23" and my family and I sported bumper stickers on our backs while we did the clean-up.  (Shoot... I even kept the sticker on my back while I traveled through San Diego and Charlotte airports!!)  Check out my Aunt Kay making a poster for the beach clean-up and the back of my Aunt Kathie's shirt!!

We really had a great time participating in 350.org's global work party in Oceanside.  We met some really AWESOME people, had FUN  and helped clean-up the beach.

These two young children were inspired to help pick up litter!  They ran to this fellow volunteer and me several times carrying handfuls of litter!  Kids ROCK!!

Overall, the litter at Oceanside is similar to the litter that we find at Wrightsville Beach.  LOTS of plastics.  Have you ever seen Chris Jordan's photography?  His photos at Midway Island are a disturbing account of our plastic consumption and irresponsible disposal.  Could you ever fathom that an albatross could swallow a lighter??  They do.

In Oceanside (and I'm assuming most... if not all... of California) there are burn pits right on the beach.  Something that we definitely don't have here in NC on Wrightsville Beach.  Around the burn pits is where we found a good majority of litter.  And just like restaurant litter that we find near Oceanic at WB, there was an apparent theme around the burn pits.  Picnic, cookout, barbecue... wherever you're from... whatever you call it... the litter left behind is always the same. 

My personal (no brainer) tip for going disposable-free during picnics, bbq's, and/or cookouts:  Bring your own reusable utensils, cups, plates... throw them in a bag (or empty cooler) when your done and pop them in the dishwasher when you get home.  ;)

Another popular theme... butts and straws.  Speaking of butts... Have you voted for my project "Our Daily Ocean:  A Story of Butts" in the Brita FilterForGood Film Project competition?  Help me get my project made into a short film by voting daily until October 29!! ;) 

If you smoke please be a responsible smoker and dispose of the filter properly.  No disposal receptacle near-by?  Put it out and put it in your pocket.  (My friend's husband uses that method as well as many responsible smokers that I've met at the beach during our 20 minute clean-ups).  NOW...  I hope by now you know how I feel about straws... ;)  "No thank you" are 3 easy words and I use them often.

10-10-10 was an awesome day. I got my Mom and three of my aunts involved in a beach clean-up... AND... they had FUN and were INSPIRED!!  YAY!!  Thanks to Dominique for organizing the 350.org O-Side event!!!

Ty, Dominique, my Mom, me, my Aunt Karon, Aunt Kathie, Aunt Kay... there were some more volunteers not pictured.

Our Daily Ocean: Day 12

Friday evening, as we were heading to the beach we decided to go to Sweet and Savory for dinner.  

Before we started doing beach clean-ups on a regular basis, we were hit or miss with requesting no straws when we ordered our drinks... but seeing how many straws are littered... it just makes sense to start refusing them 100%. 

 If I take one they make one.  

Now when we order our drinks we say this: "No disposable cups for the kids and no straws."  Suddenly, we've decreased the demand for straws by 5 in just one minute... that's pretty cool.

SO... after our yummy and plastic-free dinner... we went here:

It's 2,619 miles from Wrightsville Beach, NC to Santa Monica Beach, CA where my friend Sara who writes The Daily Ocean is picking up litter on her local beach for 365 non-consectutive days.  A few weeks ago, a reporter from the LA Times called me to talk about Sara and how I came to be inspired by her to start my own Daily Ocean on the opposite side of the country.  Read the AWESOME article that Tony Barboza wrote about Sara and her crusade here.


While picking up cigarette butts my husband and I always talk about our observations.  I think that I should share a few.

* Cigarette butts are well camouflaged.  They're so well camouflaged because their colors-- browns, tans, and whites--match the sand and shells.

The above picture was taken on my knees and zoomed in.  Here's what it looks like just walking by:

 * Cigarette butts have a fear of being alone.  It's true.  It's rare to find a butt all by itself... we find them in groups, pairs, trios and even trails...

* Back to the whole camouflaged thing... so many people don't see the butts on the beach because they blend so well with their surroundings.  We're thinking, "What would the beach look like if cigarette butts were hot pink??"  I'll tell you this much... no one would ever question the fact that there IS a cigarette butt litter problem... on our beaches, in our parks, on our streets, in parking lots, in front of businesses...

Over 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are littered worldwide EVERY YEAR... that's a HUGE problem... not just on Wrightsville Beach.  In a couple of weeks, I'm going to visit Sara and her friend Mark.  Mark is doing something that I'm a huge fan of... creating a solution to the cigarette butt litter problem-- The Bait Tank. 

20 minutes on September 24, 2010

Litter picked up by weight:  14. 8 oz

Cigarette Butts: 951

In this pile are 13 straws.... start refusing straws.  Supply works on demand. ;)

 Total amount of cigarette butts picked up off of Wrightsville Beach, NC in 12 days: 

6,346

September 25, 2010

The first beach clean-up that I ever participated in was Big Sweep.... Big Sweep is statewide in North Carolina and part of the International Coastal Clean-up that involves approximately 90 countries and 55 states and territories.  The great thing about participating in an organized clean-up is being part of a large community of people who come together for a common purpose:

To clean our beaches and waterways.  

If you live locally in Wilmington check out the flyer and join us!!  If you don't live in my community... you can still participate in the International Coastal Clean-up... you can find an organized clean-up here!!

A Vacation

It's been three weeks now since we packed our bags and then headed out the door for our California vacation. No doubt, traveling is hard on the environment... all the fuel needed to get our family of 5 across the country makes me feel all guilty.   And believe me...as much as I would love to take a different route--like drive in lieu of flying--quite frankly, driving 1000 miles is my maximum right now ;))

Just like I am always thinking and acting on how we can minimize our impact on the environment everyday...  it only makes sense that we do the same while traveling. 

SO... we started off our trip with our 6 (empty) water bottles, two coffee (in my case, tea) mugs and some homemade granola bars for the LONG flight to Los Angeles.

Our water bottles are well traveled and our pockets are well lined because of it. As we visited so many different places along the SoCal coast... we could only imagine the money that we would've spent on bottled water (or flavored drinks) if we hadn't brought our own.  They've been everywhere we've been...

3 different airports, on a ride down the coast from LA to San Diego (and back again), Oceanside, El Cajon, San Diego Wild Animal Park, The Midway, San Diego Maritime Museum, Balboa Park (San Diego), a Bushwalla and Dawn Mitschele show, Legoland (2x!), strawberry picking in Carlsbad, Corona del Mar, Santa Monica (2x!), Disneyland, a couple of beaches and everywhere in between! 

Seriously, anyone who ever says that they can't afford to buy a reusable water bottle hasn't done the math... I'd venture to say that had we not brought our own reusable water bottles that we would have easily spent hundreds of dollars on bottled water. How do I figure? Well, between a family of 5 we easily drink at least 6 (big) bottles of water a day-- if not more-- while we're out and about.  Airports and places of interest charge out the wazoo for bottled water... most I saw were $2.75 each. We were traveling for 11 days...

Really though, we don't choose not to buy bottled water because we're frugal... we don't buy it because it's more than just a waste of money.... bottled water is a waste of resources.  The companies that produce bottled water do so at an environmental cost to the communities that they extract the water from... and as I learned from Sara of The Daily Ocean... "if you fill a plastic bottle about 1/4th of the way up with petroleum... that is approximately how much petroleum needed to make that one plastic bottle."  With the man-made disaster in the Gulf of Mexico... that's a visual that we all need to start thinking about when we see plastic bottles.

Speaking of Sara, we met up with her in Santa Monica to participate in doing a 20 minute beach clean-up.  For 20 minutes, we talked and walked... and as we walked we picked up litter off the beach.  Read about the time we spent with Sara and how much trash we picked up in a very leisurely 20 minutes: http://thedailyocean.blogspot.com/2010/07/day-130-july-16-2010.html

Of course, our litter picking up didn't start or end in Santa Monica with Sara.  (Sure, I know that we were on vacation... but it doesn't take much time to bend over, pick up and put the trash where it belongs.) We picked up litter everywhere we went... Oceanside, Corona del Mar beaches, and ALL of the places we walked.   Unfortunately, we could never get it all... but picking up one piece of litter is better than doing nothing at all.  (Please take that phrase and insert any impact that you have doubt about... like this: " ___________ is better than doing nothing at all."

 Which as I'm typing I realize that I've gone on an unexpected tangent... but here were are.  And now I'm thinking about starfish...

"A young girl was walking along a beach upon which thousands of starfish had been washed up during a terrible storm. When she came to each starfish, she would pick it up, and throw it back into the ocean. People watched her with amusement.

 

She had been doing this for some time when a man approached her and said, “Little girl, why are you doing this? Look at this beach! You can’t possibly save all these starfish. You can’t begin to make a difference!”

 

The girl seemed crushed, suddenly deflated. But after a few moments, she bent down, picked up another starfish, and hurled it as far as she could into the ocean. Then she looked up at the man and replied,

 

“Well, I made a difference to that one!”

 

The old man looked at the girl inquisitively and thought about what she had done and said. Inspired, he joined the little girl in throwing starfish back into the sea. Soon others joined...."

 

Just imagine the possibilities :)

 

Doing SOMETHING is still SOMETHING... 

and it ALL matters.