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The environmental nonprofit group Clean Ocean Action (COA) released its 2023 Annual Beach Sweeps Report on Thursday, Apr. 4. The report shows data about the litter found on the Garden State's beaches by COA's 3,664 volunteers.
COA noted that there were about 60 percent fewer volunteers during the 2023 sweeps due to bad weather. To make it consistent with previous years, 2023 data was also shown as an estimate of items removed per volunteer.
The group's spring and fall sweeps cleaned up 176,206 pieces of debris from 75 beach sites. Plastic and foam plastic made up 79.16 percent of the debris.
2023 was the first year COA reported plastic debris was below 80 percent since 2015. New Jersey's "Get Past Plastic" law went into effect in 2022, banning plastic bags and foam food containers, as well as only allowing businesses to give customers plastic straws if they're requested.
Fewer plastic shopping bags continue to be found on beaches. COA's data said they've decreased by 37 percent since 2021 and avoided the report's "dirty dozen" list for the first time since 2007.
On a per-volunteer basis, fewer plastic bags were picked up in 2023 than in 2022, but more foam plastic containers and plastic straws were collected.
"Although we're not publishing any trends from the 2022 to 2023 data, the numbers have remained low," COA policy attorney Erika Bosack said during a news conference.
The "dirty dozen" list is comprised of the 12 most common types of debris. Plastic bottle caps and lids were the most commonly found, with volunteers picking up 23,788.
Other items on the "dirty dozen" list included food or candy wrappers and bags, cigarette filters, straws, plastic bottles, and glass pieces.
"Another "dirty dozen" item to spotlight is metal beverage cans," said Kira Cruz, COA's debris-free sea coordinator. "They appear on the list at number 10 for 2023 after seeing a consistent track record at number 16 over the last few years. The last time that metal beverage cans were on this list was back in 2008."
The beach sweeps report also showcases the weirdest pieces of trash found in the "Roster of the Ridiculous". This list ranges from environmentally destructive items like vehicle parts with chemicals to some absurd objects.
Here are just some of the strangest finds on the "Roster of the Ridiculous":
- 2017 Brigantine beach tag
- "A whole outfit"
- Car battery
- Christmas wreath with a bow
- Computer router
- Couch
- "Danger High Voltage" metal sign
- Dictionary
- Fifty-pound bag of rice
- Food fryer
- Half-dozen of pineapples
- House gutter
- Judo mat
- Notre Dame football
- Ortley Avenue street sign
- Philadelphia Eagles banner
- Pregnancy test
- Toy dinosaur from the 1960s
- Voodoo doll
- Weekwacker engine
- Whoopie cushion
Executive director Cindy Zipf said the annual beach cleanups, which started in 1985, improve the shoreline's quality and help COA advocate for ways to protect New Jersey's coast.
"It's a great way for folks to give back to the ocean that brings them so much joy and, of course, to give those beaches a nice clean sweep," said Zipf. "In doing so, [we] collect valuable data that we can then use to drive public policies and actions that can reduce the sources of that terrible litter that's not only ugly but is also lethal and very harmful to marine life."
COA will hold its 2024 beach sweeps on Saturday, Apr. 13 and Saturday, Oct. 19.
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