Holiday Weekends mean more litter at beaches

WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH, NC (WWAY) — Memorial Day weekend is in many ways the start of summer, and at our beaches the start of tourism season. But, with more people at the beaches – there’s also more litter.

At Wrightsville Beach, town crews bring out extra trash bins onto the sands for weekends like this. But still, not all trash makes it into the can. Locals say that tourists come in and tend to not respect the beach, leaving their trash on the sand. But the bags, wrappers, and cigarettes don’t just stay in the sand.

“I’m disappointed. It makes me really wonder what people think happens to it,” says longtime Wrightsville Beach surfer Jennifer Butler. “You know, it doesn’t just sit in the sand and go away. It finds its way into a bird or the ocean, into a sea turtle.”

The town of Wrightsville Beach raised the fines for littering on the beach to $250 when it voted down a potential smoking ban this month, but residents and council members agree that the littering ordinance is not well enforced.