Why Would I Want to Pick Up Someone Else's Trash?... Questions & Answers

Why should we care?

Well, just to name a few reasons... besides the fact that cigarettes on a beach are unsightly, they can actually take 1-5 years to decompose, meaning they'll be around for awhile not only to effect us, but also possibly for marine life to ingest.

Other items such as food wrappers/containers, straws, caps, packaging and other human discards can affect marine life when they are accidentally ingested, or fed by parents (such as sea birds) to their young.  Balloons have been known to be eaten by whales and sea turtles, where they can clog the animal's digestive tracts, making it impossible for them to eat normally.

Fishing line and rope can entangle marine life, and also harm humans (we've often found fishing lures and hooks attached to this line - imagine stepping on this on the beach!).

What can we do?

While debris changes a bit throughout the year, it looks like the biggest problems come from picnickers, smokers and recreational or commercial fishers.  If you're picnicking at a beach or on a boat, make sure you keep control of your trash and don't let it blow around.  It's not fun to have to pick up after others, but try to pick up a few pieces of trash that others have left behind, resulting in a cleaner area for all of us. Maybe someone will see you and get the hint!  

If you know smokers, try to educate them on the amount of cigarette butts that are around and how long it takes butts to biodegrade.  If every smoker threw one less butt on the ground every day, our beaches and sidewalks would be a lot cleaner!

If you fish or boat, be careful with your lines and make sure that if you cut a line, you bring it in with you.  Monofilament line can take 600 years to disintegrate!

How Can I Help?

Beach cleanups are a great way to get involved in protecting the marine environment, and a great way to get exercise!  On our beach cleanups, we spend 1-2 hours collecting trash off a local beach so it doesn't go back into the ocean to harm marine life.  Our cleanups include a short presentation on the National Marine Debris Monitoring program, and some other ways you can help protect the marine environment.  It's a great way for kids to learn, too!  

- We do cleanups every month.  Even if you can't come on one of our scheduled cleanups, we urge you to take a bag with you whenever you go to a beach, and pick up whatever trash you find. 

- We're interested in expanding the amount of beaches we clean regularly - if there's a beach near you that needs help, please let us know.   

Cleaning beaches can help people, animals and our tourism industry!

Past Beach Cleanups: What kinds of trash are we finding?