Get your Butts off the Beach. Please.

More litter is showing up at New Hampshire’s public beaches. The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (DES) and the Portsmouth based Blue Ocean Society for Marine Protection are continuing their combined efforts to remove garbage from coastal NH beaches. Twelve of the sixteen beaches currently monitored for bacterial swimming standards by the DES Beach program are adopted by volunteers coordinated through the efforts of the Blue Ocean Society. Volunteers schedule monthly clean up events year round and track the amount and type of litter collected.

Cigarette butts, by far, are the common item of trash left by beachgoers. If it is not common knowledge, it should be known that cigarettes are not biodegradable. In addition, the toxic chemicals that the filter traps serve as a hazard to wildlife and a pollutant to our water and soils. Cigarette butts can be mistaken as food by birds, fish and other marine creatures. DES needs your help to eliminate cigarette butt pollution from our beaches. Smoking and littering do not need to be one and the same action. The chart below provides some statistics on items collected from the annual beach cleanups in New Hampshire, including the 85,875 cigarette butts in 2008

Year Cigarette butts Bottle Caps-Plastic Rope Metal Beverage Cans Plastic Beverage Bottles Straws
2008 85,875 6,694 6,522 4,491 3,629 3,035
2007 73,128 6,938 9,324 5,571 3,691 3,444
Table 1 Clean up summary for some of the top items. Information compiled from Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation, Marine Debris Monitoring and Education Program Final Report.

Our beaches should not be used as an ash tray. What can you do? Here are some simple suggestions:

1. Dispose of all trash properly. Depending on the available resources please either carry in/carry out or make use of a cigarette butt receptacle.
2. Pass along this message to your friends and family – smokers and non-smokers alike.
3. Take an active role in the clean up and become a volunteer. Visit the DES website at http://des.nh.gov and enter in the search term “beaches” or visit http://www.blueoceansociety.org.

Questions or comments for the NH DES beach inspection program may be directed to beaches@des.nh.gov. During the swim season please follow our twitter feed at http://twitter.com/NHDES_Beaches or visit http://www2.des.state.nh.us/Advisories/Beaches/ for high bacteria beach advisories.

GREENWorks
Ideas for a Cleaner Environment
A publication of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, Concord, NH (603) 271-3710