A 100+ person beach party on Hilton Head left behind heaps of trash. What now?
Spring has sprung, which means beach parties are back on Hilton Head Island.
Police broke up a large party last weekend in the North Forest Beach area. When the people scattered, they left behind a trail of trash strewn about the sand, a police report said.
As spring break takes hold of vacation destinations across the country and tourism season sets in on the island, residents and local officials want groups of visitors who have been pent up for a year due to the coronavirus pandemic to treat the island with respect.
They say new investments in beach infrastructure and rules to protect sea turtles help get the message across, even as visitors notice issues with trash throughout the island.
“Hilton Head is one of my family’s favorite beaches. I was saddened by the number of masks polluting the bike paths, restaurants, parking lots and beaches,”Andrea McKibbin, of Aiken, wrote to The Island Packet after visiting. “I can only imagine the number of masks littered all over the island, as this was just in Sea Pines alone! Such a shame that our beautiful beaches and sea life will pay the price for lazy and inconsiderate vacationers.”
Beach party busted
On April 6, Beaufort County Sheriff’s deputies in the North Forest Beach area heard “ballyhoo” coming from the beach and discovered a group of 100 young adults “creating a rukus” by playing loud music over a speaker and partying.
When the deputies turned on their flashlights, the group fled in different directions, leaving trash strewn about the shore, according to the report.
The deputies said they tracked down a group of people involved in the party who headed toward Coligny Circle.
When they asked for identification in hopes of getting the group to clean up the mess, one person, described as a man between 16 and 20 years old wearing a floral pattern shirt and shorts, ran away.
Other people in the group volunteered to clean up the trash on the beach from the party, according to the report.
The incident represents a key function of beach control in the spring and summer: Damage control.
As more visitors come to the island, law enforcement, wildlife advocates and town leaders spend more time cleaning and educating people about the rules of the island and why Hilton Head takes them so seriously.
That includes volunteer efforts to keep the island clean.
On April 22, The Outside Foundation will hold an Earth Day island-wide litter sweep, according to a Facebook page for the event. The sweep starts at 10 a.m. and goes until 12 p.m.
Hilton Head beach issues
Trash on the beach has been a consistent problem for Hilton Head.
Code enforcement officers and beach patrols gathered more than 595 tons of garbage and recycling between June and October last year, according to assistant town manager Josh Gruber.
That’s equivalent to 85 African elephants, 1,191 American alligators and almost four blue whales.
Over Memorial Day weekend alone, Shore Beach Service collected about 50,100 pounds of trash on the beaches. That’s a little more than 25 tons.
There have been efforts to curb trash on the beach.
In 2018, young students launched a project to create stationary trashcans on the island’s beaches as opposed to plastic bins they said were prone to fall over and scatter garbage.
The Town of Hilton Head Island obliged.
By summer 2019, wooden trash corrals were unveiled as part of a $125,000 plan to put permanent trash cans at every public beach park in hopes of keeping the beach cleaner.
As the island approaches the start of sea turtle nesting season on May 1, wildlife advocates are preparing for nightly beach sweeps to fill in large holes and remove personal property like beach chairs left by beachgoers that trap and deter sea turtles coming to the beach to lay nests.
In 2019, town leaders passed new rules that prohibit holes deeper than one foot or shovels larger than 30 inches on the beach.
The additions to the town’s beach rules also banned items left on the beach from sunset to sunrise. Town staff or other authorized personnel can dispose of tents, chairs, toys or other items left overnight.
This story was originally published April 10, 2021 at 10:35 AM.
