Everybody knows there’s trash on the world’s beaches. But just how much?
Ocean Conservancy has a pretty good idea. Last year, during the group's international coastal cleanup, nearly 400,000 volunteers removed seven million pounds of trash from the planet’s oceans, lakes, rivers and waterways.
The most ubiquitous item: cigarette butts, to the tune of 3,216,991, or 28 percent of the items they found.
Next in line were plastic bags: 1,377,141, or 12 percent.
The rest in the top ten: food wrappers/containers, caps and lids, plastic beverage bottles, paper bags, straws, utensils, glass beverage bottles and beverage cans. Another oft-found item: diapers. Used.
Earlier today, the conservancy released a report about the findings: A Rising Tide of Ocean Debris and What We Can Do About It. The document makes for grim reading.
The report focuses a lot on the effects to wildlife, which can become entangled in plastic or eat it and choke or suffer other harm, the conservancy said. During last year’s clean-up, volunters found 443 animals entangled or trapped; of those, 268 were still alive and were released.
Another thing: The conservancy emphasized that trash is a problem caused by humans, and one that can be stopped by humans. “Trash doesn’t fall from the sky; it falls from our hands,” said Vikki Spruill, the group’s president and CEO, in a prepared statement.
The report lists statistics by country and, in the U.S., by state.
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Now if we could just make the water warm. and the beaches free.— FJG JR- The caribbean beaches are clean, free and warm year 'round. Try the Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico. Jersey beaches are beat, cold water ugly fat women!!
- I'm not a tree hugger, but the one thing I can't stand is dirty beaches / ocean water.— bobbyd24
Comment removed.- Comment removed.
- Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you got till its gone, you pave paradise and put up a parking lot! Joni Mitchell— hejira33312
I think life in prison for tossing cigarette butts would be appropriate. You addicts who do this are disgusting. How about shoving 'em where the sun don't shine if you can't find an ashtray.— COskier- I walked along the A.C. "beach" last weekend, and it had more than plastic and cigarette butts, it was filled witha all kinds of trash. Maybe this stuff is coming from illegal ocean dumping..............................— Liberty4All
- Yeah that's right COskier! And let murderers go free. Come to think of it that's what we do.— jks
- Repeal the 8th amendment. Since kids aren't raised right anymore, there are too many adults making dumb decisions. All we'd need is a generation of fear and people would act better. Hitler may have been a monster, but after two years living in Germany, I know those people are more responsible than we are.— spd017
- disregard last. idiot friend went online when I was in the kitchen.— spd017
- Comment removed.
- I see lots of people just leaving their garbage behind. Not only on the beach, but at the park, by the bus stop, anywhere. I don't get it. Why can't people take an extra 5 steps to go to the garbage can to throw their trash. How can someone not be bothered by trash around them?? To Gregneff "The caribbean beaches are clean, free and warm year 'round." The only reason they are clean is that the staff needs to keep them clean if they want more visitors coming... would you spend 1500$ and spend a week on a dirty beach... best baby monitor— angelawalschee
- I spent a lot of time last year volunteering to help clean up beaches, and it's truly disgusting what people throw away. After all the cigarette butts I must have collected, I'd even like to see smoking outright illegal. Maybe it should be mandatory, like math and science, for kids to learn about clean living. Adults can take online degree programs to catch up as well. We all need to do our part. - Janet (HTML deleted)— janetwercobli
GreenSpace - her column about how to reduce your carbon footprint in everyday life - appears every other Monday in Health & Science.
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