Four Beach Tips for the Fourth of July!

According to data from last year’s International Coastal Cleanup, the item fond most often littering our beaches is cigarette butts! They are made of a type of acetate, a form of plastic that never breaks down. NEVER!! Filters have been found in the stomachs of fish, birds, whales, and other marine like who mistake them for food. Billions are littered across the planet every year, and if they never go away.... you do the math! 

Come on, smokers- throw your butts in the garbage and stop littering our beaches and harming wildlife!!  

Food-related plastic items held seven spots in the top ten items found during last years clean-up, with glass bottles, paper bags, and beverage cans rounding out the list. Remember, plastic never degrades, it just breaks apart into smaller and smaller pieces.  Many species of animals mistake plastic fragments for food, and eating it can cause serious injury. Plastic in the oceans act like a sponge, soaking up toxic ocean pollutants like DDT, PCBs, and mercury, to name a few. When animals eat the plastic, the poison could be going into the fish and traveling up the food chain to species like bass, fluke, tuna or swordfish. Think about it, as plastic moves up the food chain… who do you think the ultimate consumer of the plastic eating marine life is?

All this debris and litter is mostly due to a personal choice to litter. Wait, what?? We are choosing to spew trash around our beautiful blue planet? For the most part,yes, although many items do wash ashore after days to years at sea, from ocean dumping, runoff, and litterers of yesteryear. 

So what can you do to help?  

Here are four tips the Fourth of July to help keep our beaches clean!

1) DON’T LITTER.

2) Get a reusable water bottle – and use it!  Get a cool thermos or funky cup for your beverages. You WILL save money and help the planet!

Plastic beverage bottles were the third most common item found on our beaches. Did you know that Americans use 50 billion plastic water bottles end up in U.S. landfills each year, which is 1500 every second!  People spend from 240 to over 10,000 times more per gallon for bottled water than for tap water. You think your bottled water is safer to drink than tap water? Think again! Click here for details.

3) Do a mini- beach clean-up every time you visit. Try to leave the beach a little cleaner than you found it. If the trashcans are overflowing, (which is a common occurrence in our beautiful town, and in many others...), find another one, or better yet, take the trash home with you.

4) RECYCLE!!  Even though the Town of East Hampton does not offer recycling at public places, recreational areas, beaches, parks, streets... (do not get me started…), it doesn’t mean you can’t do your part. Take recyclable stuff home with you and recycle it.

Reduce

Reuse

Recycle

Repeat

Happy Fourth of July!