Please Do Not Trash the Beach!

Photos by Maria Lamb

| Left overnight – for the second time in one week – the raccoons and rats picked open all the plastic bags and had a feast! Trash was not picked up till 7:45 AM the next morning.

By Staff

Photos by Maria Lamb

| The City’s Winterberry trash cans with open lids are NOT wildlife proof!

By Staff

Photos by Maria Lamb

| Open lid trash cans on the beach are an invitation for wildlife easy pickings both day and night! Suggest using weighted lid trash cans on the beach.

By Staff

Photos by Maria Lamb

| Thanks to beachgoers like Tom, who tries to pick up as much as he can!

By Staff

Photo by Brittany Piersma | Latest trend at Sand Dollar Island – leave your tent and trash!

By Staff

Photos by Maria Lamb

| Trash at Tigertail on Memorial Day morning. The trash was left overnight.

By Staff

Photos by Maria Lamb

| Trash at South Beach on Memorial Day morning. Officials from Collier County assured the author that trash pickup is scheduled for mornings and late afternoons. (I don’t think the evening pick-up is happening.)

By Staff

Photos by Maria Lamb

| Winterberry Beach Access on Memorial Day morning. This trash was left overnight.

By Staff

Posted Wednesday, June 2, 2021 8:03 pm

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By Staff

We have a beautiful beach and residents enjoy going to the beach everyday – it is part of their quality of life. Unfortunately, some people visiting the beach leave their trash and depend on others to pick these up for them! Sometimes there is so much trash on the beach that I wonder how it ever got this way. In a typical monthly two-hour beach clean-up, volunteers collect 60 to 100 pounds of trash…in just two hours! Some types of trash end up in the ocean and potentially eaten by marine animals and shorebirds. The beach and the ocean is home for many wildlife such as fish, sea turtles and birds; the birds and sea turtles depend on a clean beach to nest and to rest. They were all here before us but we, as visitors, sometimes have a very poor sense of stewardship since we are often the polluters.

Many people travel to Marco to visit this little strip of six-mile beach and sad to say, that once the sun goes down, there are heaps of trash left on the beach for others to pick up! Is this fair?

Join a Beach Clean-Up and make a Difference: June 6, 2021, at South Beach from 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM, sponsored by BACR and Chamber of Commerce. Please come and make a difference.