ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — A sweep of New Jersey beaches last year turned up the usual seashells, sandcastles and seaweed. But, plenty of not-so-typical beach items popped up, too, including a keg, birth control pills and a rubber brain.
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — A sweep of New Jersey beaches last year turned up the usual seashells, sandcastles and seaweed. But, plenty of not-so-typical beach items popped up, too, including a keg, birth control pills and a rubber brain.
And if it sounds as though everything but the kitchen sink was in the sand or surf, a sink was found, too. Toilet bowls, rolls of toilet paper, a rug, a mattress, a vacuum cleaner, and a single size-13 sneaker were also found on beaches.
The Clean Ocean Action environmental group conducts volunteer beach sweeps twice each year and tallies the trashy toll to educate — and sometimes nauseate — people about just how careless some folks can be. The trash was either left behind by beachgoers, floated ashore after being tossed overboard from boats, or wound up on the beach after sewer system overflows during heavy storms.
The list of finds included some head-scratchers, including a full bottle of wine, a beer keg, a bikini, socks, several pieces of underwear, and a container of birth control pills.
Volunteers also picked up a half of a torn dollar bill, a pacifier, a pair of baby shoes, as well as a rubber brain. Also found was a stuffed goose head toy animal; a pickle jar, an industrial fan, a sleeping bag stuffed with rags, and a vintage Coke bottle.
“You can’t make this stuff up: the bizarre, the disgusting stuff we’ve found over the years,” said Cindy Zipf, the group’s executive director. “But what is truly disgusting is that many of these are single-use items that are used once and tossed away, and that’s totally unacceptable.”
The volunteers along the state’s entire 127-mile coastline picked up more than 332,000 pieces of debris, from small bits of plastic to 46 whole tires.