Beach cleanup
Volunteers turn out to pick up litter after holiday weekend crowds left behind a mess that shocked residents, officials
FOLLY BEACH — Many of the volunteers who turned out Thursday to help clean up the beach felt a duty to make amends for the way it was treated over the Fourth of July weekend.
"We enjoy the beach all year long, and this is a good way to give something back," Pastor Tom Brown of James Island Baptist Church said as he picked up cigarette butts, cellophane wrappers and other small bits of refuse from the sand.
Wade Spees
The Post and Courier
South Carolina Aquarium staffers Kelly Thorvalson (from front to back), Megan Westmeyer and Emily Preston, pushing 11-month old daughter Maleah, did their monthly cleanup along Folly Beach on Thursday. For the first time, volunteers from the community (background) helped.
Mayor Carl Beckmann Jr. said more than 90 percent of the litter picked up by the city earlier this week was alcohol-related, but he's no longer considering asking City Council to ban alcohol consumption on the beach. He said such a ban wouldn't solve the problem but would hurt the people who live here.
Stricter enforcement of litter and underage drinking laws might be what the city must do, he said.
Folly is the area's only beach that allows alcohol drinking — from cups but not cans or bottles — on the sand. The council meets July 28 but may also hold a council workshop before then to discuss the litter issue, Beckmann said.
Brown was among about 30 people who turned out for the regularly scheduled beach cleanup organized by the South Carolina Aquarium. The aquarium staff mounts a cleanup all year from the 6th Street West beach access. The cleanup was the first in which volunteers from outside the organization were invited to take part, and comes on the heels of an excessive amount of littering on the beach during the holiday weekend.
Chad Kuhar of Folly Beach was among island residents who turned out. "Living here, I want to be part of the solution," he said.
Brown said a church visitor from Indiana, Marsha Kline, inspired him to enlist youths from the church and to come out himself after learning about the litter the city and other volunteers cleaned up early this week.
Beckmann said the beach Sunday was awash in beer cans and bottles, cups, beer packaging, whisky bottles, broken coolers, food wrappers and other debris. So much debris was gathered that trash trucks making their regularly scheduled rounds could not handle it, he said.
Beckmann said the city is grateful for the aquarium's cleanups, adding the city is trying to organize a volunteer brigade of its own to clean and "be the eyes and ears of the city" regarding littering and other problems.
Previous story
Folly weighs ban in wake of beer litter cleanup, published 07/07/09
Among items netted in the cleanup were a discarded skim board, shoes, beer bottles and hundreds of cigarette butts. Aquarium Sustainable Seafood Coordinator Megan Westmeyer said the butts are not biodegradable and can be fatal to fish.
Cleanup organizer Rosanne Runyeon, education programs instructor for the aquarium, said Thursday's turnout "is a dream come true." Keeping the beach clean not only helps people to enjoy the beach but also benefits wildlife, including sea turtles that are nesting this time of year, she said.
Aquarium Marketing and Public Relations Coordinator Elizabeth Bender said the cleanup illustrates that the aquarium not only teaches wildlife protection and conservation, but practices it.
Reach Edward C. Fennell at efennell@postandcourier.com or 937-5560.
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