70K cars and 50K pounds of trash: Hilton Head Memorial Day weekend by the numbers
Mild weather and high tides brought thousands of beachgoers to Hilton Head Island for Memorial Day weekend.
Left in their wake: around 50,000 pounds of trash, which was removed from the beaches throughout the three-day weekend.
The weekend was another sign of what tourism will look like on Hilton Head as the world begins to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic. Restrictions, including mask mandates, have lifted, and short-term rental and hotel occupancy has rebounded for a summer likely to be characterized by pent-up demand.
Memorial Day weekend 2021 left little to the imagination: The flood gates are open.
Reservations poured in from out of state and the region, beaches filled early and stayed crowded, restaurants ran hours-long wait times, and waterways and boat landings were packed with boat trailers and watercraft rentals.
1,663 bags of trash
The people on the beach didn’t necessarily “leave no trace.”
Lifeguards from Shore Beach Service removed 1,663 bags of trash from the beach throughout the holiday weekend, according to Town of Hilton Head Island Communications Director Carolyn Grant.
The bags were collected from trash bins and through volunteer litter-cleaning missions on the beach.
If each bag weighs around 30 pounds, 1,663 bags of trash means about 49,890 pounds generated by beachgoers over the weekend.
The trash haul was similar to that of Memorial Day weekend last year, when South Carolina’s beaches opened to swarms of beachgoers for the first time after closing for public safety during the coronavirus pandemic. Last year, lifeguards removed 1,670 bags of trash.
On an average summer weekend, Shore Beach Service removes about 1,000 bags of trash from the beach, Mike Wagner of Shore Beach Service said last year.
Overflowing trashcans weren’t a problem just on beaches.
In the Facebook group Lowcountry Trash Heroes, residents posted photos of beach parking lots littered with plastic bags and soda bottles.
Beach crowds and traffic
Crowds sprawled on the beach Saturday morning, and periods of clouds kept the heat in check.
“The biggest challenge on the beaches over Memorial Day was the crowd,” Grant said.
She said people packed the beaches up to the dunes fencing at Coligny Beach, as well as the beach between Driessen and Folly Field beach access points.
On Saturday, a single lane accepting cash at the Cross Island Parkway toll booth backed up westbound traffic to the bridge over Broad Creek.
According to traffic counters from the S.C. Department of Transportation, the busiest day on the Hilton Head bridges was Friday, when 70,954 cars traveled in both directions on U.S. 278.
Here were the peak traffic times:
- Friday: 4 p.m.
- Saturday: 10 a.m.
- Sunday: 3 p.m.
- Monday: 3 p.m.
This story was originally published June 2, 2021 at 10:42 AM.
