August was a unique month. It was hot and the beaches were packed. Somehow 10 days of data was missing, whether I forgot to hit Save or it got lost in a dead zone. The final numbers for the 21 days of data show about 251 pieces of trash picked up per day. The reason why the daily average is much lower than usual, is because there is so much stuff, I tend to pile it on the beach and leave it. I don’t have room in my wagon (or time) to pick up every piece of trash. 
What it doesn’t show, is how many wet towels and textiles and shoes, which are very heavy!
As you can see, the majority of beach trash is composed of plastic. In fact a minimum of 3860 items were plastic or had plastic parts. 73% of all beach trash picked up was plastic. That doesn’t count the fishing gear which is a type of plastic and some the of the ‘Other Trash’ which includes plastic. The other issue is 3913 items are recyclable. That means 74% of all trash could have been recycled or donated.
How much less trash would there be if the laws were enforced? We have a no smoking, no drinking, no glass on the beach laws. 714 items are against the law. That is about 14%. If bans on styrofoam, straws and balloons were implemented that is 1796 items, that is 34% percent of beach trash would be gone.
Income
What I am doing is spending almost every penny I make on washing the textiles ($50.00) Buying items to re-make some beach trash towels into something.. Anything I can do to keep items out of the landfill. I get so many shoes, that at the beach trash sale, I am selling for $.25. While I have sold toys, it is never enough to get rid of them completely. Towels…. are a completely different story. I have a running inventory of 150+ towels.. most of them are the white Hotel Towels (Hyatt, Sheraton, Omni, Marriott) Many of them are stained in someway, which is why I started the tie-dye project. I am hoping to do a whole tie-dye story and maybe will be able to sell for more than $1.00 apiece.
To top it off, I have left numerous textiles, toys, recyclables on the beach for others. I hate to do it, but I have found, that someone does pick it up, as they are gone by the next day.
That said:
Spent $50.00 in washing clothing and towels.
Spent $30.00 for dyes and miscellaneous sewing stuff.
Made $268 between recycling, beach trash find sales and selling some children’s clothes to a children’s resale store.
My expenses were numerous: $583 for the stitched up leg, $140 for dentist, $100 for guest and other parties attended, plus internet, cell phone, utilities, car insurance.. Nowhere close to making a living!
Donations and or gave away
450 Toys donated or given away. This is a different number than collected as some of the information is gone. In July I donated 660 beach toys.
98 Shoes Donated. In July I donated 182 shoes.
155 Items of clothing donated. In July I donated 242 textile items.
30 Reusable bottles donated.
14 Towels and blankets to the Human Society
2 Lamps-Gave away
30 Miscellaneous electronics: Recycled
1 BBQ gave to a friend for an art project.
3 Beach Chairs gave away to my brother
$20 donated to a friend to aid her group in a beach clean project. (I know, but it was the $20 I picked up on the beach )
Returned to owners
- Credit cards, cell phones, boogie boards, keys and 1 wallet.
Ripped Off
- 1 blanket
- 2 Towels
- 200 assorted recyclables
- Miscellaneous other items
School has started and we will see if the beach trash gets better or worse. The students are back and will most likely find the pot and better and hopefully resalable clothes.
Have plenty of projects, between chairs and some art projects. Trying to get motivated to get it done!!!! The good news, others have been inspired to pick up beach trash, always a good thing.
The bad news.. the police are still not monitoring the beach. Drinking and the their leftover trash and illegal fires are pervasive and form an inherent safety issue.
Stay tuned for Septembers update!
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