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 24

On Sunday, my family and I went to the beach.  It was really a gorgeous day... the sun was shining bright and the sky was as blue as blue could be... BUT... it was a very windy and cold day at the beach...

That's the Oceanic Pier at Access 36.  Access 36 has become a regular spot for us to do our 20 minute clean ups.  It's one of those accesses that even in off-season... litter still abounds.  Liz, who writes the Litter Sucks blog, joined us at Access 36.  Liz does clean ups at Carolina and Kure Beaches... where she often loses track of time while picking up litter.  The butt counts for CB and KB in the Community Butt Count come from her efforts :)  Go Liz!!!

Sorry for the uber dark photo... the sun was strong!!

Whenever we hit Access 36, my husband and I always make a right... heading south to the Oceanic Pier.  It never fails that we find a good portion of our butt count under the pier... especially in the Oceanic Restaurant's employee break area.  I know I bring this up A LOT....BUT... when I... and I alone... am able to pick up 42 fairly "fresh" cigarette butts in one area.... I think that's a problem.  A problem not only because of the obvious... but also because if those people can casually put their butts in the sand under the pier... it means that they're casually putting their butts out everywhere else.  That's a HUGE problem and such a bummer.

Of course, I always take photos of the litter that we find during our 20-minute clean ups... I feel like I'm always taking the same photos... cigarette butt here... plastic something there... with the most beautiful backdrop.  Over the weekend I took some of the photos that I've taken during our 20 minute cleanups and made this video....

20 minutes on November 28, 2010

Litter by weight: 13.5 oz

Cigarette Butts: 434

Total amount of cigarette butts picked up off of Wrightsville Beach, NC in 24 days:

10,398

Our Daily Ocean Community: Julie

On Saturday, November 20... while we were out of town... my friend Julie and her two young children went to Johnnie Mercer's Pier (Access 16) at Wrightsville Beach. 

Here's what she sent me:

"Yesterday, we went to the beach with the intention of picking up butts for just 20 minutes, but I couldn't get the kids to stop. They wanted to beat our last week's number (339). And it's nearly impossible to stop, because we always see just one or two more butts... Thank you for inspiring us. I never knew just how MANY butts there were, until we started picking them up. It's disheartening and disgusting...We hope that our small effort will help your big one... on that beautiful beach.

Here is our bucket. I didn't realize 'til after I took the photo, the "Thank You" label in the trash. The irony...

Johnnie Mercer's Pier: 436 butts"

I've been adding the amount of butts that my friends pick up off of Wrightsville Beach to the Community Butt Count on the sidebar.  Liz who writes the Litter Sucks blog has been sending me lots of butt counts.  She's been picking up litter and counting the butts she finds on Carolina and Kure Beaches.  On the same day that Julie was at Wrightsville Beach, Liz and a couple of people picked up 1,135 cigarette butts off of Carolina Beach, NC in just 30 minutes!!!  

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."~Anne Frank