Brick Beach Sweeps Set for Saturday
What are the most common items left on the sand?
A beach sweep will take place at Brick Beach III this Saturday.
The Brick event is part of an annual, coast-wide beach sweep weekend sponsored by Clean Ocean Action, a Sandy Hook-based environmental group.
The beach sweeps will be held from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., rain or shine.
Last year, the beach sweeps got 452,698 pieces of debris off the state's beaches, including 205,126 various plastic objects, 33,633 cigarette filters, 21,834 plastic foam pieces and 17,981 drink bottles.
Trends from last year's sweeps included a decline in the number of discarded cigarette filters found on the oceanfront, the long-time leader of refuse discarded on the beach.
"The overall decline of smoking items may be a result of more smoking bans on beaches, more appropriate disposal and awareness, and an overall societal decrease in smokers," said a report from Clean Ocean Action.
The same report said cigarette filters are "some of the most toxic items found in the marine environment."
The number of discarded plastics left on the beach, however, was up, according to the report.
lifelonginbrick
7:22 am on Friday, April 20, 2012
Cigarette butts are the worst. They are too small to be collected by the rakes and will stay there forever. For this reason alone smoking really needs to be banned on beaches. I will never understand why smokers - who would not normally pollute - seem to think it's ok to flick their butts on the street or beach. Don't even get me started on the creeps that empty their ashtrays into the steet at red lights.
joe
2:02 pm on Friday, April 20, 2012
Absolutely!! No smoking on the beaches or boardwalks.
Hope Van Sickle
7:37 am on Friday, April 20, 2012
I agree.. its discusting. If you want to smoke take it somewhere there are no non-smokers and clean up after yourself. The last thing I want to see when I take my girls to the beach is dirty cigarette butts.
Betty Ann Fuller
8:03 am on Friday, April 20, 2012
Hope VC: you are so right. Heaven forbid we prevent people from drinking from cans and bottles on the beach (like Bay Head). Stepping on broken glass is not fun. Guess it is too difficult to walk to the nearest garbage can.
KC
11:43 pm on Saturday, April 21, 2012
Smokers are generally speaking - selfish arrogant people who don't care whom or what they pollute.
Betty Ann Fuller
7:46 am on Friday, April 20, 2012
Sorry to say, that people still bring their dogs on the beach, and don't pick up the poop. I thought there was a Twp wide ordinance for "no dogs allowed on the beach" at any time of the year. Wait until the rakes dig into this. I applaud out rec department, Donovan and his team for the never ending task of keeping the beach clean every day during the summer beach season.
check out bay beach garbage cans...... every day around 5pm there come many out of town venicles filled with children and adults who come and play. Then, they take garbage bags out of the cars/vans and place them in any of the various containers along the gazebo area. Local people do the same thing. Drive up, dump garbage in the cans and leave. The parking fees are from April 1-October 1. I rarely see any enforcement people driving into the parking areas to verify if parking was paid. Children play in the sand on the beach and bay park areas. It is sad that residents as well as nonresidents trash these beautiful areas. If there is a way that local residents who live near all the bay beach areas can help twp officials with this. I would be willing to help.
Hope Van Sickle
8:43 am on Friday, April 20, 2012
Betty Ann.. you would think people would be courteous to everyone regarding all debris. However smokers seem to think once they flick the butts they magically disappear. As far as glass and cans and such.. people should take off what they bring on PERIOD!!
Kathie Bottazzi
10:08 am on Friday, April 20, 2012
@ Glen
My wish is that "citizens" like you who feed on chaos and misery; and
enjoy hearing their own Whistle as it blows through their closed minds, would also come with closed mouths ..Just sayin
Anthony
4:10 pm on Friday, April 20, 2012
Incase you're wondering, Jersey beach whistles and Harlem whitefish are tampon applicators and used condoms
lifelonginbrick
4:17 pm on Friday, April 20, 2012
Ohhhh...ewwww. I've never heard that before. I've learned something new! Happy 420 day everyone.
Glenn
1:41 am on Saturday, April 21, 2012
Did any of you confront a poluter in the past year?
Betty Ann Fuller
9:24 am on Saturday, April 21, 2012
Glenn:yes we do and isn't pretty. They get in your face and threaten to find where yoi live
Gilligan
1:04 am on Sunday, April 22, 2012
I don't know if Mr. Howell has noticed, but we don't see nearly as many plastic tampon applicators as we used to. I imagine it must be quite the task to put them in without that nifty little tool.
Gilligan
1:06 am on Sunday, April 22, 2012
Why would a woman throw her tools in the bay, or ocean?