More than 1,100 Face Masks, Gloves Littered NJ Beaches, Parks

NEW JERSEY — Everyone wants to continue to stay protected from COVID. But try not to litter New Jersey's beaches with face masks and other personal protective gear, especially as summer is right around the corner.

That's the message from Clean Ocean Action, which just published the results of their 2020 Beach Sweep, a beach clean-up done along the entire New Jersey coastline in the fall of 2020.

In that clean-up, volunteers picked up 1,113 pieces of PPE littering New Jersey beaches, mostly in the form of face masks, disposable plastic gloves and sanitary wipes.

"The world is facing an environmental health risk caused by littering of personal protective equipment (PPE)," warned Clean Ocean Action in their report. "New Jersey towns and municipalities are witnessing increased dumping and littering of used masks and disposable gloves."

And that's not all. Among some of their most unusual findings this fall, Clean Ocean Action volunteers recovered a bong, a check for $81, a foam tombstone, a religious statue, a New Orleans Saints flag with a pole from a boat, a Trump 2020 flag and a wooden pig head. This is in addition to the bras, bathing suits, a yarmulke, a pregnancy test, a Fitbit, an iPhone, and LG computer monitor, Juul pods and vape cartridges — all picked up on New Jersey beaches.

Here are the cleanup sites:

• Aberdeen
• Allenhurst
• Asbury Park
• Atlantic Highlands
• Avalon
• Avon-by-the-Sea
• Bay Head
• Belmar
• Berkeley
• Bradley Beach
• Brick
• Brigantine
• Cape May
• Deal
• Glen Ridge
• Highlands
• Island Beach State Park
• Keansburg
• Keyport
• Lavallette
• Little Egg Harbor
• Loch Arbour
• Long Beach Island
• Long Branch
• Longport
• Manasquan
• Middlesex County Park System
• Middletown
• Monmouth Beach
• Monmouth County Park System
• Montclair
• Neptune
• Normandy Beach
• North Wildwood
• Ocean Grove
• Ortley Beach
• Palisades Interstate Park Commission
• Point Pleasant Boro
• Point Pleasant Beach
• Red Bank
• Rumson
• Sandy Hook
• Sea Bright
• Sea Girt
• Seaside Heights
• Seaside Park
• Spring Lake
• Stone Harbor
• Toms River
• Union Beach
• Ventnor
• Villas
• Wildwood
• Wildwood Crest

In total, 3,700 volunteers worked this fall to remove 185,000 pieces of trash. The teams worked all fall cleaning up beaches from Aberdeen to Cape May, at 60 beach locations total in New Jersey .

Clean Ocean Action has been doing the beach clean-ups since 1985, when it started with a small group of volunteers at Sandy Hook. It has grown ever since then, and Clean Ocean Action has actually noticed trends in what people litter over the decades: In the 1980s and 90s, the debris included Pogs (remember that game of collectable milk caps?), film canisters, cassette tapes, computer disk and floppy disks.

Some particularly gross items from that time period also included plastic tube crack viles and caps, plus syringes and blood bags. Jersey's beaches have gotten cleaner since then, the group said, but from 2000-2009, items like newspaper vending machines, yo-yos, PEZ dispensers, chewing tobacco cans, iPhones and flash drives were common.

And then from 2010-2020, the group found Juul pods, a Keurig coffee maker, phone charger, cell phones, Croc shoes, a selfie stick, iPod, iPhone, headphones, a Garmin and a Blackberry cell phone on beaches.

Among their most unusual items ever found was an adult-sized Elmo costume, a diamond engagement ring and a deck of nude playing cards.

The items that remain consistently found the most on NJ beaches are cigarette butts, plastic bags and candy/food wrappers. However, the group said it is noticing a reduction in plastic bags as many towns implement plastic bag bans, something Clean Ocean Action said it supports.

“This report is alarming because it shows how much plastic and trash is still polluting our beaches," said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. "Governor Murphy signed a statewide plastic ban last year, but it won’t go into effect for another year."

Clean Ocean Action said it dreams of a world when their Beach Sweeps will no longer be necessary.

"As a people-caused problem, people are the solution. Beach Sweeps has generated evidence that has been used to improve policies to reduce sources as well as a call for us all to become less wasteful," said Clean Ocean Action. "The goal is simple: one day, our beaches will be clean naturally, without cause for Beach Sweeps." Read their whole report here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xnk4...

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