Our Daily Ocean: Day 84

Today we spent about 4 hours at Wrightsville Beach.  It was plenty of time to play in the waves, build some drip castles, get a sunburn (yeah... I missed a couple of spots... oops!), and do a 20 minute beach clean up.

Normally we do our beach clean ups in the evening, but since we were at the beach to play it only made sense to spend 20 minutes picking up litter.  One thing I learned about picking up litter at 2 in the afternoon is that the sand is crazy HOT!!  Not wearing shoes, I tried my best to stay at the wrack line, but some plastic bags and food wrappers up in the dune grasses caught my attention... so I braved the burning hot sand!!!  Completely unrelated to beach clean ups: I may have a future in walking on hot coals! ;)

While my feet were on fire, I picked up several sandwich bags/ziplocks.  Here's the thing with plastics (especially bags and food wrappers):  They blow.  Even a person with the best of intentions to not litter, will end up littering... completely unintentional... it happens.  But, it doesn't have to happen.  All it takes is rethinking simple things and coming up with alternate solutions to things we commonly use.

Did you hear? Three of the largest plastic bag manufacturers are suing ChicoBag, a reusable bag company for "irreparably harming" their business. I, personally, think the lawsuit is completely ridiculous.  And to be completely real about it.... if anyone deserves to be sued, it's those plastic bag manufacturers.  Yes, I said it.  ChicoBag isn't "irreparably harming" our environment and choking/suffocating/killing animals... the only thing ChicoBag has ever done was try to help create a solution to one of the most ridiculously wasteful products ever created... the plastic bag.  Please take a moment to show your support for ChicoBag. 

Support ChicoBag and Help Defend Small Business

After I grabbed the (above) Harris Teeter plastic bag, my feet were on fire... so I ran to the ocean to cool my feet down.  Perfect timing... 5 cigarette butts were being washed around in the incoming tide... :( 

20 minutes on August 7, 2011 at Access 38

Litter by weight: 10.4 oz

Cigarette butts: 242

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 84 days:

25,422

Our Daily Ocean: Day 55

Sunday we went to one of our least visited accesses:  Access 33.  We hadn't been there since our 17th clean up on November 1, 2010 and at that time it held the record (at 85) for the least amount of cigarette butts picked up in 20 minutes.  BUT....no records were made on Sunday.  Cigarette butts were everywhere.  Our beach clean up went a bit like this:  Step, lean, pick... step kneel, scooch, pick.....

 Fun fact:  Yesterday was the 100th day of the year.   Fun Fact #2:  I looooooove finding sea glass.  I feel like it's a gift of sorts from the ocean....

Have you heard about the campaign "Boycott the Baggie"??  It's a small step to stop using one disposable product a day.  It's a commitment that I made years ago... more years than I remember.  I'm wondering if my kids even know what they are... hmmm... they definitely know what they look like...

Just like baggies are useless trash... so are single-use cups.  Seriously.  Get used to carrying a cup... it's not hard to grab a mug when you walk out the door... it just takes remembering.

My tip for being forgetful:  If you forget.  Go without.  

Trust me... go without enough and that whole remembering thing will catch on. ;)

As I'm thinking about it... nearly everything we pick up at the beach is a single use disposable product.  Cigarettes, baggies, cups, plastic utensils, lids, individually wrapped foods, straws... the list goes on and on.  What will you REFUSE today??  May I make a suggestion... how about saying no thank you to a straw in your drink?? (please and thank you)

One of 12 straws that we removed from WB on Sunday.

Sooo.... just after I took the "group" photo of all the litter we removed from Wrightsville Beach... my husband and I watched a man fiddle around with his fishing line.  It was a complete tangled mess.  Such a mess that he got out his pocket knife and cut it free.... immediately dropped it to the ground and never once looked back....

I know not what the future holds, but I know who holds the future.

20 minutes on April 10, 2011

Litter by weight: 6.5 oz

Cigarette butts: 241

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 55 days: 

15,969

Our Daily Ocean: Day 32

In an effort to "spice up" our 20 minute clean ups, I'm really trying to go to accesses that we haven't been to before.  Of course, I still want to hit up the regulars like accesses 16 and 36... but I'm thinking it'll be interesting-- if not fun-- to visit every access.  Sooo.... after the dentist and lunch, my kids and I parked at access 16 and walked under Johnnie Mercer's Pier to....

It was one of those days that I always refer to as a "deceiving day"... beautiful blue skies... looks like a perfect summer day... then you go outside and are reminded that it's winter.  Based on how cold it was... I was really surprised by how many cars were in the parking lot and even more surprised to see many groups of people on the beach. (some looked like they were going to have a picnic!! and yes, they had loads of plastic grocery bags :( )  I suppose people are in town visiting for the holidays... and you can't visit our area without going to the beach.  ;)

Unlike people from out of town... we can go to the beach anytime we choose. :)  Today, wasn't a day that I would normally choose to go to the beach...besides being cold... there was a northerly wind that just cut right through us.  Because of the wind, my kids were done after about 10 minutes.  They found a plastic sand shovel and began to play....eventually making their way back under the pier...they got sidetracked... forgot about the cold and came running to me with straws and 2 beer bottles.

I also found a plastic fork under the pier and it got me thinking.  There are all of these products made to make our lives more "convenient," but I wonder... how convenient do they really make our lives??  Is it really that big of a deal to wash a fork??  I don't get it. 

We're using all these disposable products... because we've been convinced that we need them... that somehow our lives will be easier.  But the truth is... we're filling up our land with trash... littering our beaches, waterways, roadways, streets, sidewalks, parks.... oceans.... polluting our air and water... poisoning ourselves (and the animals we share this Earth with)...    All for convenience of making our already busy lives easier or being able to "not have to deal" with cleaning something.  But it seems to me-- and this is my opinion-- that this mess created for convenience doesn't really make our lives easier because in the end we're just putting off what we should have done today... and this mess of "convenience" is a lot harder to clean up.... 

Disposable products don't fit in an indisposable world.

20 minutes on December 23, 2010

Litter by weight: 1 lb 9.2 oz

Cigarette butts: 69 (and the numbers keep dropping!!!)

Total amount of cigarette butts picked up off of Wrightsville Beach, NC in 32 days:

11,813