Once again, single use drinking straws topped the list as one of the most common items picked up during a beach cleanup at the April and May Beach Cleanup on South Beach.
Photos by Maria Lamb
Thanks to the Marco Island Area Association of Realtors for sponsoring the May two hour beach cleanup from South Beach. Volunteers picked up over 120 pounds of trash.
Photos by Maria Lamb
Marco Island Academy Key Club volunteers keeping Marco’s Beach pristine and clean.
On May 11, 2024, the Marco Island Area Association of Realtors along with volunteers from the Marco Island Academy Key Club and Marco residents gathered at South Beach for a beach cleanup. After two hours, volunteers removed up to 120 pounds of trash from the beach and a bucket filled with drinking straws!
During the April beach cleanup, straws led the list and volunteers from the Beach & Coastal Resources Advisory (BACR) are keeping a tally. For the second month, single use drinking straws topped the list as one of the most common items picked up during a beach cleanup.
Who can forget the video of a plastic drinking straw lodged up a sea turtle’s nostril that went viral on social media in 2015? It is an image you cannot “un-see” once you’ve seen it and this sparked the anti-plastic-straw movement worldwide.
In 2015 researchers observed what they initially thought to be a tube worm but discovered that it was a plastic drinking straw.
Did you know that on March 5, 2018, Marco Island City Council unanimously voted to “prohibit the use of plastic straws by those businesses located directly adjacent to the City beaches?”
Drinking straws that are made from plastic or compostable/corn based are showing up in noticeable quantities during the two-hour beach cleanups. Luckily, many of these straws are being intercepted by volunteers before washing up in the ocean before they cause harm to sea turtles and other marine life.
Save a Sea Turtle - say no to straws!
Keywords
beach cleaning,
drinking straw,
earth sciences,
hydrography,
oceanography,
physical geography,
physical oceanography,
natural environment,
coastal geography,
coastal and oceanic landforms,
sea turtle,
oceans,
beach,
water,
environmental science,
ecology,
hydrology,
aquatic ecology,
sea,
natural resources,
fisheries science,
bodies of water,
environmental engineering,
beaches,
environmental issues,
environmental conservation,
environmental protection,
plastics,
tourism geography,
lacustrine landforms,
straw,
economy and the environment,
applied and interdisciplinary physics,
systems ecology,
refrigerants,
liquid dielectrics,
lubricants,
erosion landforms,
marine life,
marco island,
florida,
transparent materials,
geographical areas,
hydroxides,
marine biology,
waste,
turtle,
biodegradation,
ocean,
marine conservation,
amorphous solids,
fluvial landforms,
nature conservation,
tourist attractions,
turtles,
nature,
pollution,
human impact on the environment,
waste management,
biogeography,
reptiles,
plastics applications,
disposable products,
sea turtles,
plastic,
solvents,
environment,
landscape,
sustainable development,
social media,
aquatic biomes,
consumerism,
organic polymers,
geomorphology,
cocktail garnishes,
marine reptiles,
building materials,
sauropsida,
materials,
food and drink decorations,
organisms,
packaging,
chelonioidea,
bartending equipment,
herpetology,
sustainability and environmental management,
turtle taxonomy,
global natural environment,
natural sciences,
eating utensils,
societal collapse,
water pollution,
topography,
tableware,
cryptodira,
animals,
zoology,
kitchenware,
marine vertebrates,
packaging materials,
morphology,
serving and dining,
environmental social science,
ecoregions,
south beach,
mixed drinks,
environments,
drinks,
domestic implements,
biology,
article maintenance,
food watchlist articles,
biodegradable materials,
home,
maize,
symbiosis,
biological oceanography,
interdisciplinary subfields,
water and the environment,
erosion,
water chemistry,
geography,
global issues,
industries (economics),
artificial materials,
endangered animals,
environmental issues with water,
marine animals,
seas,
environmental technology,
marine organisms,
extant mesozoic first appearances,
drinking,
testudines,
key club,
extant albian first appearances,
civil engineering,
worm,
aquatic organisms,
largest things,
recreation,
aquatic vertebrates,
chemical compounds,
biomes,
determinants of health,
coolants,
endangered species,
testudinata,
liquids,
longest things,
dielectrics,
biodiversity,
albian first appearances,
environment of the united states,
resources,
extant early cretaceous first appearances,
systems biology,
plastics and the environment,
conservation biology,
aquatic reptiles,
vertebrate zoology,
geological processes,
united states,
water supply,
soft matter,
biomass,
geology,
biogeographic realms,
manufacturing,
reptiles and humans,
extant cretaceous first appearances,
habitats,
physiographic divisions,
solutions,
collier news,
swfl,
collier county,
marco news,
marco island,
marco island florida,
coastal breeze news,
naples area,
naples
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here