Our Daily Ocean: Day 213

When I came across this piece of plastic at Wrightsville Beach, I thought it was just a stray piece of plastic.  Then I went to grab it and found that I couldn't pull it without it tearing.

So my kids and I started digging.  As we dug, we learned that we were digging out a "Food Lion" plastic bag that someone filled with sand and buried.  (Unfortunately, I don't have more photos because each time we thought we had removed enough sand to pull the bag the bag it would tear.  The last thing I wanted was for shreds of a plastic bag to blow away.)  Thankfully after digging around the bag enough we were able to get the whole thing!

Did you know that approximately 380 billion single-use plastic bags are used in the US every year?  That's more than 1,200 bags per US resident, per year.  Even if 99% were recycled, that'd still leave 3,800,000,000 plastic bags littered or in a landfill EVERY SINGLE YEAR.  But we're not even close to a 99% recycling rate with plastic bags.  The recycling rate for plastic bags is around 1 to 3%.

Not even close.

 There are some things that are easy to live without and plastic bags are definitely one of them...  do your part and refuse single-use plastic bags by bringing your own or going without.

P.S... If you're in Greensboro, NC, my friend Teresa aka Green Bag Lady will be handing out fabric bags Friday and Saturday!  More info here-- Green Bag Lady: Off to North Carolina

20 minutes on October 27, 2013 at Access 20

Litter by weight: 10.9 oz
Cigarette butts: 36

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 213 days: 

56,529

Our Daily Ocean: Day 178

Lately, the weather has been completely wacky.  Some days it will be cold (you know the way it's supposed to be during winter) and then other days it will be so warm and beautiful that I kick off my flip flops, roll up my jeans and tie my jacket around my waist.

Tuesday was that kind of day.  Flip flops off, feet in the water!

Each beach clean up I do is different.  While there are definitely always similarities... for various (and sometimes not so obvious) reasons they are all unique.  Sometimes I find things that I've never found before... like this little piece of plastic from a Nike shoe.  Umm...why in the world did Nike glue a piece of plastic onto shoes?? Hmmm....  Speaking of Nike, I'm a bit obsessed with this song.

My friend Sara just put up her last post on her blog The Daily Ocean.  She's moving over to her new website www.dailyocean.org. <-- go check it out!  Having completed 365 non-consecutive beach clean ups, she's now headed off the sand and on the road for her speaking tour.  Be sure to check out her website and sign up to receive updates here.

20 minutes on January 29, 2013 at Access 16

Litter by weight: 9.7 oz

Cigarette butts: 119

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 178 days:

54,334

Our Daily Ocean: Day 157

This past Saturday was Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup day!  If you're unfamiliar with ICC, it's the worlds largest volunteer effort for ocean health.   With our locally scheduled event being a couple of weeks away, I decided to do my own cleanup at Wrightsville Beach.

When it comes to ICC, one of the main things that happens is that EVERYTHING is counted and tallied.  Volunteers tallying trash from the shores of lakes, rivers, streams and the ocean has the ability to show us the BIG picture of the major trash problems found all over the world.    

One thing that I always try to reiterate here is that Wrightsville Beach is a beautiful beach and the litter problems here are not just a Wrightsville Beach problem.  With every beach clean up we do at our local beach, it only paints a small picture to what is a global problem.  But, here's the thing that is important to remember about the "small local" picture:  Solutions to global problems start at the local level.  If we want to begin to change a global problem, we first have to start locally.

And when we start locally, we first have to look at ourselves and our own personal habits.  Take a look at the TOP TEN ITEMS FOUND chart (above).  When I first started doing beach cleanups, I asked myself:  "What things do I use on this list?  How can I begin to help change this?"  

Repeat after me.

Change starts with me... 

I am part of the solution... 

I am the difference.

20 minutes on September 15, 2012 at Access 16

Litter by weight: 6.7 oz
Cigarette butts: 131

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 157 days:

50,260

Our Daily Ocean: Day 89

On Tuesday, Wrightsville Beach was bustling with activity.  UNCW was having their annual "Beach Blast" and the Weather Channel was hanging out at Johnnie Mercer's Pier... and we were doing our 89th beach clean up! ;)  AND... just look how gorgeous it was!!!

I was told by my friend Michelle that the (above) photo is deceiving.  Why??  Because no one would ever guess the amount of litter that we remove from the beach in just 20 minutes based on that photograph.  I never thought about it before, but it's been something that I've been doing from the moment I started these clean ups.  Trying to convey the beauty of the beach with the juxtaposition of the litter.  Hoping that people understand that even what seem to be small problems are inherently bigger than we realize.  The fact of the matter is: Most people wouldn't even notice the majority of litter that we pick up.  

I know that I probably beat this whole cigarette butt litter thing to a pulp... BUT... I can't seem to stop myself!  When my kids are wading through a tidal pool (like the beautiful/clean/pristine top photo) and they come running to me with cigarette butts... I get sick to my stomach.  I've seen what a cigarette butt in water does.  It doesn't just look gross... it's toxic.  THIS is reality... over 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are littered EVERY single year.... how many of those littered cigarette butts come in contact with water????  ummm.... We live on the blue planet. (just sayin')

20 minutes on August 23, 2011 at Access 18

Litter by weight: 1 lb 11.2 oz

Cigarette butts: 240

Total amount of cigarette butts removed from Wrightsville Beach, NC in 89 days: 

27,235