Volunteers Clean Up Beach After July 4th Celebration

Dozens of volunteers fanned out from South Beach to Tigertail Beach on Monday morning July 5 to pick up trash left behind from the Fourth of July celebration.

Thanks to JW Marriott and their volunteers from various departments, the members of the Marco Island Ski & Watersports and members of the beach community who came out for one hour for the quarterly beach cleanup. Since September 2020, JW Marriott has been leading the endeavor to make sure the beach remains pristine and clean. For the July 5 morning pick up, JW Marriott volunteers picked up over 70 pounds of trash, mostly plastic.

It is also a tradition for Residents’ Beach and their members to come out and clean the beach every July 5. All volunteers fanned out along the beach looking for litter let behind.  

Also, thank you to the regular beach walkers who were already on the beach as early as 6:30 AM with plastic bags and gloved hands picking up trash. Most of them also brought an extra bag knowing trash will be more than usual.  

Plastic was high on the leader board of trash left behind on the beach this weekend. Most of us can’t walk away from a plastic bag or plastic container left on the beach. We pick them up because we want our beaches to be clean and safe.

For this morning, plastic in all forms - containers of all sizes, lids, snack containers, bags, etc. - glistened in the sun and on the dunes. Eventually the wind will blow them to the surf to be carried offshore. Plastic breaks down into smaller pieces and those small pieces enter the marine food web for sea turtles, birds, and dolphins and they are also consumed by our favorite fish on the dinner menu.  

Many ways that we can help as individuals – we can refuse, reuse, and reduce our plastic waste.  At the grocery store, let’s all make an effort to bring and use our reusable bags – those single use plastic bags are deadly to sea turtles, dolphins, and whales – mistaking them for jelly fish!