A Plan

Back in June of 2008, we cancelled our trash service.  It wasn't something that we did over night... in fact, we used to fill up a 95-gallon trash can most every week.  Then as time went on and we made changes-- through reducing, reusing, recycling and composting-- we found that we were barely filling up our 95-gallon trash can... and only took it down to the curb every other week (and even then it'd only be half full).  Once we made the decision to cancel our service, we found that we were only filling up a 34-gallon trash can once a month (it's even less than that now).  

Of course, I'm always looking at my trash.   Ever since we cancelled our trash service, I keep wanting to eliminate MORE of our trash.  I'd really like to only have my husband take our trash can to his business dumpster a few one time a year... how AWESOME would that be??

We've definitely made a lot of changes... BUT... I know that I can do more.  And... where I can make the most impact is in the kitchen.  The trash that we do produce is plastic... and it's plastic from packaged food.  Cereal bags, pretzels, pastas, tofu, Gardein, tempeh, seitan, cheeses...

For the past couple of weeks, I've had this idea brewing... I said to my husband, "I think that I want to try to buy NO foods in plastic for one week."  His response:  Cool.  That won't be too hard.  (He either has no idea or he is a pure optimist ;) )


BUT... I've thought about it... and thought about it... and the thought keeps getting larger and it's not going anywhere...

SO... here's my plan:

The week of September 26, I am going to purchase no food in plastic.  No paper milk cartons or ice cream (they're lined with plastic), no pasta boxes with the little plastic window... if it comes in plastic... I won't be purchasing it.  I've already started talking to farmers/vendors at my Farmers Market and tomorrow I'm calling the couple of stores in town to find out what all I can buy in bulk.  With 3 kids, I have to be prepared. ;)   (Note:  One thing that I will be purchasing is local milk.  It comes in glass bottles that I return to be reused, and the only plastic is the cap.) 

The week before I challenge our family to a week of no foods in plastic... I'll be collecting all of the plastic that I do use and sharing it on the Fake Plastic Fish "Show Your Plastic Challenge".  I want everyone to see that we have waste... that we didn't start from zero....

OK... so now I'm going to throw it out there.  Join me!  

Here's what you can do:

Collect all of your plastic that you normally generate for the week of September 19- 25.  (This week collect ALL plastics that would be trashed or recycled and even plastics that you'd keep to reuse.)  Share  what you collect with Fake Plastic Fish "Show Us Your Plastic Challenge".

Then... the week of September 26- October 2, don't buy any foods packaged in plastics OR make a conscious effort to avoid food packaged in plastic.  (Once again keep all your plastic and share it on Fake Plastic Fish).  Shoot, if you want to share it all here... I'd love to post it. :)

Need tips or advice??  Feel free to email me and definitely check out the Plastic-free Guide and Recipes on Fake Plastic Fish.

Thinking that you want to do the challenge with me... post a comment and let me know!!

Sea Turtles

This morning I woke to the most AWESOME email.... I was so excited by what I read that I almost called my mom at 6:15 (she's CST and I'm EST).... instead, I decided to let my mom sleep and hold in my excitement for another hour.... when I finally called her, I'm not sure that I even said "good morning" when she answered her phone.  Instead, I said, "We're going to a sea turtle release today!!!!!"

The sea turtle releases were held at Topsail Beach, NC by the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center.  I am beyond grateful for that email I received this morning... because I have ALWAYS wanted to witness sea turtles be released... 

Seeing those turtles flapping their flippers... in obvious excitement to go home... it's like the ocean was calling them and they were waving, "Here we come."

I LOVE sea turtles...and they're only one of the millions of reasons that I LOVE the ocean... and one of the reasons that we should all work to clean, restore and protect our oceans... 

Want to help sea turtles???  There are easy things that we can ALL do and it has to do with plastics.

The plastic in our oceans is killing thousands of sea turtles and marine mammals each year. Help decrease the amount of plastic that is put in our oceans by adopting habits that exclude plastics. 

#1.  Realize that "disposable" does NOT mean "goes away."  Everything that we create, especially things that are made of plastic, stay on this Earth FOREVER.

#2.  Say "NO thank you" to plastic bags.  Plastic bags BLOW!!  If you don't take one... it never has a chance to reach the ocean.  (Yes, this matters even if you live in Iowa ;) )

#3.  Reduce the amount of plastic that we use.  Buy in bulk, bring containers (don't take plastic bags!), stop purchasing single serve products, ditch straws...

#4.  NEVER (under any circumstances) release balloons.  Sure it looks cool when the balloons float up into the sky... it looks like they'll float to space.  BUT... they don't.  They always fall back to land... and balloons look like a sea turtle's favorite food:  jellyfish.  (Be sure to check out the link for some pics of a sea turtle that ingested balloons)   The awesome volunteers of WB Sea Turtle Project have some great ideas for celebrating (or honoring a memory) without the releasing of balloons.  Check it out here:  WB Sea Turtle Project blog 

#5.  If you see a piece of litter pick it up.  Never expect that someone else will get it... you are that someone else.  Pick it up and put it where it belongs.  Oh yeah, don't litter either ;)

Our Daily Ocean: Day 9

After yoga and a quick lunch, the family and I headed over to Wrightsville Beach to meet a reporter from Lumina News.  Our destination:

Access 37 is on the South side of Oceanic.

One thing that I don't think that I have ever mentioned--in these Our Daily Ocean posts-- is that I don't live at the beach.  In fact, it takes me about 20 minutes to get to Wrightsville Beach and that's if I don't get stuck at the 12 stoplights on the drive there.  BUT, you know... it doesn't really matter whether or not we live at the beach.  We go to the beach to be in the ocean... play in the sand... bask in the sun... there's certainly no reason why we (or anyone else) shouldn't want to head out to the beach and make a difference in a place we LOVE so much.

So.... I totally forgot my camera (Access photo taken with my cell phone) and I spent nearly all of 20 minutes talking to Jenny from Lumina News.    Good thing my husband came along with our 3 kids (which it turns out that 2 of them are pretty darn sick... kids will do amazing things to go to the beach!!).  So here's what we got:

This is my husband's bucket... he picked up litter for 20 minutes.

This is my bucket... I picked up for about 5 minutes :(

When we got home I decided since I didn't get any photos on the beach... that I should spread out what we cleaned up from Wrightsville Beach and take a "group" photo (I think I'll do this more often).  When I dumped out the buckets onto my front walkway, I was really surprised at how much there was.

THIS... is what was in our buckets:

Want to take a guess??  How many cigarette butts do YOU think are there??

20 minutes... that's all the time it took to pick up all that litter.  20 minutes makes a HUGE difference.  We all have 20 minutes...especially if we're just hanging out at the beach.  Just think if we all took 20 minutes... So I ask... why not??  Why not take 20 minutes???

WHY NOT join The Community Collection at The Daily Ocean?!?  

But hey, we all know that upstream impacts downstream... so you don't have to live by an ocean to have an impact on it... take 20 minutes wherever you are!!  You clean it... I'll post it.  20 minutes... that's it. 

20 minutes on September 10, 2010


Litter picked up by weight:  11.6 oz


Cigarette Butts:  646  (yes, this is the most... and I'm at a loss for words.)

Total amount of cigarette butts picked up off of Wrightsville Beach, NC in 9 days: 

2,937

Adjusted!

Years ago, during the summer months I used to keep our air conditioning set on 75° F  during the day and 71° F at night for sleeping  (70° when I was pregnant!!! ;) ).   The past few years, I have been adjusting our thermostat and don't keep our house quite so cold.

So the other day when my son said to me, "Why do you have to keep it so cold in here????"  I was, obviously, completely caught off guard... laughed a bit and said (as I felt his head for a fever), "Are you serious??  It's 77° in here."

But with that, I decided that I should check the thermostat... and while I was there I thought about my son's comment.  Maybe it was time for another adjustment....

Lovely picture, I know ;)  I just felt that proof was necessary ;)

Yup... I did it... I bumped our AC up one degree up to 78°!!  AND... when I changed our daytime temperature... I was surprised to see that we have the A/C set at 76° for the night!!!  

Ok... so what does this mean??

By adjusting my thermostat by one degree it saves us about 10% on our energy bill!!  (Over the past few years, we've adjusted our thermostat by 3 degrees during the day and 6 degrees at night!!!)  Saving energy AND $$!!  Also, I read that by adjusting the temperature by just 2 degrees all year, we save about 2,000 pounds of C02 a year.  YAY!!!

Now the real question you're probably wondering is.... "is my house uncomfortably warm??"  Of course it isn't.  I've come to the conclusion that I want to be comfortable in my house... and by comfortable I mean that I don't want to have to change what I'm wearing when I come inside from the heat.  If it's hot outside, I don't want to have to put on a jacket, get a blanket, or wear socks (what are those again?? ;) ) to feel comfortable!  

SO... take off your socks....kick off the blankets on your bed... and head on over to your thermostat and get adjusting!!

Roam Free

The other day while talking to my grandmother (who lives 1000 miles away from me), she said, "Were you affected by that egg recall??"  My response, "Ummm... Grandma... I don't buy my eggs from a grocery store."  I quickly reminded her that I get my eggs from my own backyard or locally from my Farmers' Market.

We've had our backyard chickens since the Spring of 2008.  Ok... maybe you're thinking that we live on a farm... nope... we actually live in a neighborhood and a nice one at that.

Deciding to get chickens was, admittedly,  NOT my idea.  In fact, I resisted the whole thought of having chickens in our backyard.  I had this horrible vision of what our backyard would look like with chickens.

It doesn't look bad... it's actually kind of cool ;)

 So.... the decision and convincing to get hens came from my husband.  Ever since our oldest son could talk, he wanted to be a farmer.  My husband thought that it would be a good idea to get some chickens and support my son's passion for farming.  I, of course, didn't really think that was a good enough reason (I mean what would we do if he wanted to drive Monster trucks??).   But somewhere along the way, my husband convinced me (yes, he threw out the environmental aspect) that it was a good idea.... 

Making the decision to get chickens has been one of the best things we have ever done.  I love knowing where my eggs come from.... and that it's not places like these:

"Free-Range"... isn't so FREE.

It's no wonder that a half a billion eggs have been recalled.  The conditions in which those poor birds live isn't natural... isn't even close to sanitary... and isn't even the slightest bit humane.  Our birds roam free** in our backyard... when our garden is in limbo they have free range to pick at all the plants left over from the growing season, the compost bin is one of their favorite places as well as the wooded area around our yard. 

Also, having chickens is one of those things that was part of what pushed me to stop eating meat.  My husband and I talk about how much we've learned from having chickens... they're so sweet, curious, mischievous, smart... have individual personalities... AND they've become part of our family...

We don't didn't have a rooster when "Big Momma" became broody...so once she sat on some eggs for a few weeks... we felt it was our responsibility to make sure she experienced motherhood.  Nope, those babies didn't hatch from her eggs... but she LOVED, taught and protected them.  It was one of the most amazing things to see.... EVER.

And... I just got caught up in how much we love our chickens that I almost forgot to mention that the eggs we get from our chickens are AMAZING!!!  The first time I cracked one open I was in awe of the color (ok... no lie... I still am).  Before we had backyard hens, I always bought organic (no ifs, ands, or buts)... but organic does not mean humane.  Eggs from truly happy chickens that have a varied diet are almost orange in color and have so much flavor.  I would NEVER buy eggs from a grocery store again... even if it was my only choice.

Thinking about getting some backyard chickens??  They're super easy to care for... check out this website for more information:  Backyard Chickens

Not ready for backyard chickens?  Start buying local eggs.  Search for farmers in your area at Local Harvest

**Our chickens have a pen area that is netted for their protection when we're not outside with them.  If you're interested in the "why"... you can read about that here.

Our Daily Ocean: Day 8

After dinner on Monday (Labor Day), my husband, three children and I headed over to Wrightsville Beach.  AND... guess what?!?  We-- FINALLY-- made it to the North end of the beach!!  

It was high tide and there was a really nice wind.  I was a little bummed to see it was high tide and windy... it means that the ocean (more than likely) swept away some of the litter left from the holiday beach goers and the wind buried more.  BUT... the ocean and wind didn't get everything.  Access 3 had the 3rd most amount of litter  that we've picked up since we've started this... (spots one and two both go to Access 36-- good news... our family has adopted Access 36!!).  Better news... Access 3 had the least amount of butts!!  

Did you know that the California bill (AB 1998) to ban plastic carry-out bags failed in the California Senate??  I was bummed by this because I was so excited for the ripple effect that it could've had across our country.  Plastic bags are everywhere.... and Plastic bags BLOW!  (literally and figuratively)

Want to do something about plastic bags??  First and foremost,  ALWAYS say "No Thank You" to a plastic bag... even if it means carrying your groceries out in your hands or putting them back in your cart to push out to your ride.  AND... take a moment to read Beth Terry's post on Fake Plastic Fish about all the things we can do to support banning plastic bags!!!

Speaking of "Fake Plastic Fish"...  here's a little tidbit that I learned from that blog:  Gum is made from PLASTIC!!  Yup.  So when I saw this piece of gum (and several others)... I just couldn't leave it on the beach.

One thing that we found A LOT of at Access 3 was balloons.  It's such a bummer to see balloons as litter.  Just like plastic bags, sea turtles often mistake them for one of their favorite foods.  

It's been a few years now since I started saying "No Thank You" to balloons.  My kids would beg for them at my local grocery store... but it took my son visiting the Sea Turtle Hospital during SurfCamp for him to understand "why" we don't take (or accept) balloons.  Sometimes my youngest will ask for a balloon, but like many things I tell my kids:  "If we take one, they make one."

My husband saw a little crab dragging this piece of plastic into its hole.

                                    

20 minutes on September 6, 2010

Litter picked up by weight:  2 lbs 7 oz

Cigarette Butts: 120 (Sidenote:  we found lots of little nicotine pouches... seems a lot of people at Access 3 are trying to quit ;) )

Total amount of cigarette butts picked up off of Wrightsville Beach, NC in 8 days:

 2, 291

I take a good amount of pictures while we're out on the beach.  If you'd like to see more, check out my album on Facebook:  Our Daily Ocean

Box-Free Pancakes

We're a family that loves a good weekend breakfast.  When it comes to pancakes, as a kid my mom used Bisquick and then up until 2004, I did too.  It wasn't until I learned of trans-fats that I finally stopped purchasing the pancake mix.  (Read more about my commitment here)

Have you ever looked at the ingredient list on a box of Bisquick??  Here's the product and nutrition information taken directly from their site:

Sure there's a heart healthy version... but come on... they still use enriched bleached flour!!  For the past 6 years (YAY!!), I've been making my own pancakes... box-free means more than just knowing what I put in my food... there's no plastic bag to throw away and no box to recycle... here's the recipe for pancakes that I use:

Buttermilk Pancakes

2 cups wheat flour with germ*  (bought in bulk)
2 TBSP unrefined organic sugar (bought in bulk)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 large organic free-range* egg (*my eggs ONLY come from my backyard or from the Farmers Market)
3 TBSP organic unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 cups local buttermilk  (if you can't find local, use organic)

Whisk together dry ingredients in a large bowl.  In a separate bowl, whisk the egg, butter and buttermilk.  Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add wet ingredients to flour mixture.  Gently whisk until the buttermilk mixture is just incorporated (a few lumps remaining is good ;) ).

Heat your griddle or skillet and get cooking some homemade pancakes!!  It takes about 2 minutes on the first side... as usual, wait for those little bubbles then flip.  Second side will take about 1 1/2 minutes.  When they're done either serve right away or put them in a 200 degree oven on a wire rack while the others cook.  Serve with real maple syrup.

Tip:  When I make pancakes (or waffles or french toast), I always purposefully make too much... then I store the leftovers in my freezer to be reheated for breakfast later in the week (or the next week)!  ;)

Variations:  

Blueberry, Banana or Chocolate Chip (or anything else you can think of) pancakes:  Pour the batter onto the griddle, then add your fruit of choice... on birthdays my kids ALWAYS ask for chocolate chips ;)  When the bubbles appear, flip as usual.

Whole-Wheat Pancakes:  Replace 1 cup of flour with 1 cup of whole-wheat flour.  (I, personally, really like Spelt flour)

It Starts With Us: Contact a Restaurant

Yesterday, I was talking to Ginger of The Wrightsville Beach Sea Turtle Project and through talking with her, I remembered that after picking up so much restaurant litter at Access 36 I had made the decision to contact the oceanfront restaurant Oceanic (and had forgotten to post about it!! ooops!)

On August 24, I wrote Oceanic Restaurant on Wrightiville Beach about the restaurant litter and employee smoking area under the pier.  This is what I wrote:

"Hi,  My name is Danielle and over the past several years I have participated in many beach sweeps at Wrightsville Beach.  Most recently, I have started doing 20 minute litter clean-ups at WB to help get smoking banned on the beach strand.  During 2 of my clean-ups, I ended up at access 36.  Cleaning up from access 36 towards the Oceanic pier it is evident that besides cigarette butts and other litter... there is a lot of litter from your restaurant (as well as what appears to be an employee smoking area under the pier close to the restaurant).  As a restaurant on the beach, Oceanic has an opportunity to "do things different"... why not clean up around your restaurant?  The grasses are littered with restaurant trash blown from the pier.  Or why not get rid of straws, plastic wrappers and such for dining on the pier?  or better yet... all together because I can't tell you how many of the clear with blue plastic candy wrappers that I picked up.  Here are the 2 posts that I did from access 36 to your pier...:
http://itstartswithme-danielle.blogspot.com/2010/08/our-daily-ocean-day-2.html 
http://itstartswithme-danielle.blogspot.com/2010/08/our-daily-ocean-day-4.html


Thank you for your time on this issue of environmental responsibility."

These grasses (and litter) are on the North side of Oceanic and the litter is only a fraction of what comes from the restaurant.  

SO... I ask... do YOU live in the Wilmington/ WB area?  Go to access 36... see it for yourself.  Then contact Oceanic and let them know your thoughts.

But, hey... if you don't live locally in my community...  contact a restaurant (or other business) in your community that you see could make some changes to better the environment... they'll never know it's important to us unless we tell them! ;)

"We cannot do everything at once, but we can do SOMETHING at once."  

~Calvin Coolidge

Our Daily Ocean: Day 7

I really wanted to get out to the beach today... two reasons:  1.  We've been cooped up at home for 2 days because my son was sick (boo!) and 2.  Hurricane Earl.  The hurricane is just off our coast and we usually go looking for seashells and such... but I was really interested in what Earl was stirring up and what he would be unveiling at the beach.

SO... we made a (long) stop at the library then made our way to the beach access that we've been going to for the past 11 years:

I know, I know... I really haven't made much of an effort to go to the North end of Wrightsville Beach... but what can I say?  I'm a South end kind of girl ;)  Kidding... I really didn't feel like paying for parking today... so I parked at our friend's house :D

Usually, Access 39 isn't too bad... we tend to go there whenever we participate in organized beach clean-ups and can walk a good way without finding too much.  BUT... today... was different.  (As I knew it would be.)  Whether a hurricane comes ashore or not doesn't really change the fact that the ocean is churning... and it ALWAYS spits stuff out....

When I found this thick foam-like plastic I immediately thought of The Plastic Ocean.  There was life growing all over it.... makes me wonder how long it was in the ocean.   Oh yeah... the cigarette butts are there, too... with little bits of styrofoam scattered about.

Off-shore storms change the beach... digging and reshaping... and when they do.... so much is uncovered that has been buried under the sand..

The cigarette butts were everywhere.  Just moving all of the natural debris that was piled up and we easily found between 10-20 cigarette butts underneath it all (and that would just be one pile).  And to my (senses) surprise...the butts weren't old... as disgusting as it is... the majority still had their nasty smell.  

Another thing that we kept finding today was plastic bottle caps... have YOU made the switch to a reusable water bottle??  I've talked about my commitment here, here, here, and here.  (yes... there are more) And if you haven't watched "The Story of Bottled Water"... you can find it here.

Walking South from Access 39, we saw this....

 

When I saw the orange tape from a distance... I got super excited.  Sea Turtles!!!  YAY!!  I had been bummed awhile ago when I went to the Wrightsville Beach Sea Turtle Project's website and read that there were no sea turtle nests on WB for 2010... so you can imagine my excitement today when I saw this!!  AWESOME!

But then I looked and saw the tide line.... and thought about everything that we pick up off of the beach and the Sargasso Sea... and how a sea turtle's chance of surviving to adulthood is 1 in 10,000.  Then I thought about how sea turtles come back to the same beach they hatched on... and that there must not be many sea turtle nests because they're not making it to adulthood to come back (bummer).... and maybe... it has something to do with all of this:

Washed in with a wave... rubber sole.  We also found a pieces of shingles this way.

When flipped over... the inside was covered in barnacles.

Of course, I can't stop thinking about how the California bill (AB 1998) to ban plastic carry out bags got voted down in the California Senate... I had such high hopes for the ripple effect that bill could've created in our country. 

 Did you know that plastic bags look like one of a sea turtles favorite foods??... jellyfish.  

I'm disappointed for so many reasons....

On that note...this isn't trash (per say).... it's a rice cake.  Thing is, I went to pick it up because from a distance I thought that it was styrofoam.  

How does an animal figure out if it's food or plastic?  Oh yeah... they do a taste test.

20 minutes on September 2, 2010

Litter picked up by weight:  1 lb 11 oz

Cigarette Butts: 427

Total amount of cigarette butts picked up off of Wrightsville Beach, NC in 7 days:

2,171*

*I had to add this several times... because it's just too hard to believe... we pick them up and we count them... I have them in containers in my garage... and I still can't wrap my head around it all...now I'm all teary eyed :(  

Our Daily Ocean: Day 6

Over the weekend, we were going to do a 20 minute clean-up, but after a 4 year old meltdown... we decided against it.  Luckily... on Monday... everyone was in good spirits... so we headed over to Wrightsville Beach.  Access 24 was looking great as we walked from our parking spot... not much litter on the street... but when we stepped onto the beach my kids were quick to notice that someone made it ALL the way to the trash can and didn't throw their trash away!  Seriously!?  How do people do that?!?

SO... I've got to thinking about the details of "why" I'm doing this whole thing-- going to the beach and counting cigarette butts for 20 minutes and keeping a tally of how many I collect.  Sure cigarette butts look trashy, but it's about more than just what it looks like... the trashy part is the obvious part... it's about the impacts that aren't visible to the naked eye...

My kids always head to the ocean to dip their feet in the water before we start our 20 minutes.

Did you know that there are over 165 chemicals found in cigarettes and that those toxins wash from the butts into our water??  And those toxins from cigarettes also collect on the filter and are then washed out into our waterways and the ocean... where birds and marine animals often ingest the butts, thinking that they're food.  In fact, plastic pieces have been found in the stomachs of fish, birds, whales, and other marine-life that mistakes them as food... 

And... lets be real.. cigarette butt litter isn't just a major problem at our beaches and in the ocean.  Every time I leave the beach from doing a clean-up... I ALWAYS manage to get right behind someone that throws their cigarette butt out their car window.  Grrr.  On Monday, it was the driver and the passenger. :( 

SO... switching gears... and onto an AWESOME moment!!  I, personally, don't feel the most comfortable picking up litter right next to people.  WELL... not my daughter!!  While I was picking up some butts, I turned around to see my daughter in the middle of a couple's "area".  She was on her knees picking up butts at a smoking couples feet and in between their two chairs!  They thought she was collecting sea shells and were quick to say they had a trash bag for their butts.  Hmmm...  (Speaking of seashells... I have a vision of a PSA in my head... wanna hear it?!)  

Every 20 minute clean-up we do... I weigh the litter that we pick up and my friend Sara adds it to The Daily Ocean Community Collection count.  Wanna join the beach clean-up REVOLUTION!?  I'm with Sara and everyone involved in the Community Collection Count on The Daily Ocean blog!!! :D  Over the past 6 days, I've picked up a little over 9 pounds of litter off of WB.  And by all accounts the trash wasn't too bad at Access 24.  All in all we collected mostly lots of little bits...mostly plastics... still a little bit... is still too much...

I find these little Silica Gel packets... I have yet to figure out what they come in that would be brought to the beach.  Insight anyone?!

Alcohol is banned on Wrightsville Beach... but it obviously doesn't mean that people don't do it.

At the end of nearly all the clean-ups that we do, our kids are somehow rewarded for their efforts... and rightfully so....usually in the form of found toys, beach towels, or high fives amongst other things ;)  This time as we were finishing up our 20 minutes, my daughter came running and said, "Henri found money!"  He came to me and said, "What do I do with this??"  I told him that he could keep it... it was REAL.  Yes, he was confused and so proud all at the same time.  He ended up carrying his one dollar bill around with him for the rest of the day :D  

20 Minutes on August 30, 2010

Litter picked up by weight:  15.1 oz

Cigarette Butts:  342

Total amount of cigarette butts picked up off of Wrightsville Beach, NC in 6 days:

1,744