THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 26, 1996 TAG: 9605240186
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ERIC FEBER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 83 lines
When members of the Chesapeake Environmental Improvements Council say ``Keep Your Butts Off the Beach,'' they're talking about cigarette butts.
Cigarette butts are the most common type of litter found in local waters during the council's ``Clean the Bay Day.'' The annual clean-up project will take place from 9 a.m. to noon June 8.
``People don't think Chesapeake has any waterways or beaches to clean, but it does,'' said Gail McClure Bradshaw who heads the city's Special Programs Office, which oversees environmental improvement council projects and activities. ``We may not have beaches like in Norfolk or Virginia Beach, but we do have waterways and areas by the water that need to be cleaned up. And we do have a lot of canals here.''
Registration to participate in ``Clean the Bay Day'' is June 1. Organizers encourage boaters, business owners, individuals and groups to join up.
Bradshaw said the campaign is not aimed only at cleaning up. The project will attempt to influence people's attitudes about littering and polluting waterways and to collect data on the types and sources of waterway debris.
Based on what has been collected from past projects, this year's campaign will use as its theme ``Keep Your Butts off the Beach.''
``From information we've collected over the years, the No. 1 trash found on our waterways has been cigarette butts,'' she said. ``You'd be surprised, but many people don't even think of cigarette butts as trash. I had one person think they're biodegradable like food. But the situation of cigarette butt pollution is getting worse and worse with our population increases.''
Because of that fact the campaign will be distributing, courtesy of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., pocket ashtrays, small, foil-lined pouches boaters and swimmers can use as a portable pocket ash tray.
In the meantime, volunteers in boats will be using long-handled fishing nets to police Chesapeake's waters for floating trash, litter and debris. Neighbors or friends can band together in small boat groups of two and three or, like the Deep Creek Ruritan Club, organize an entire flotilla to do the job.
``The Deep Creek Ruritan Club has been getting better and better each year,'' Bradshaw said. ``They get a lot of boaters involved, and they make it fun.''
Other groups will be picking up litter in areas such as Great Bridge Locks Park, Deep Creek Locks Park and the Elizabeth River Park and Boat Ramp in South Norfolk, Bradshaw said. Children and adult volunteers are also needed to help clean up areas in the Northwest River park. MEMO: More information about ``Clean the Bay Day'' June 8 is available
by calling the Special Programs office at 547-6411.
TRASH EVERYWHERE
Each year when the Chesapeake Environmental Improvement Council
sponsors the Clean the Bay Day campaign and other cleanup efforts,
organizers pay close attention to what is collected.
After several years of collecting data, the CEIC has a list of the
most common types of trash that pollutes local waters.
Here is council's ``Dirty Dozen'':
1. Cigarette butts
2. Plastic pieces
3. Paper pieces
4. Styrofoam pieces
5. Plastic food bags
6. Glass pieces
7. Metal cans
8. Glass bottles
9. Plastic straws
10. Lumber
11. Plastic caps and lids
12. Styrofoam cups
The main culprits are nasty cigarette butts that smokers
absent-mindedly flick onto streets and into waterways.
Once, during the recent GLAD-Bag-A-Thon citywide cleanup campaign,
one volunteer worker filled an entire large trash bag full of butts
collected along a one block stretch between Eden Way and Volvo Parkway.
``It's cigarette butts and many other things,'' said Gail McClure
Bardshaw with the city's Special Programs office. ``You'd be surprised
at what people throw into our waters. Our volunteers have found
bicycles, a stove, a toilet and once, in a very isolated area, an entire
car chassis.''
Areas near spots popular with fishermen and crabbers contained empty
drink cans, bottles, fast food containers, fishing lines and crab pots.
Commercial fishing areas were littered with tires, ropes, auto parts,
buckets and building materials. by CNB