Beach gear recycling program launches on Hilton Head. Where to get free boogie boards
There’s a new way for Hilton Head Island visitors to recycle their used boogie boards and beach chairs.
A University of South Carolina Beaufort student is now running a program at Driessen Beach Park where people can drop off their beach gear for others to use in the future.
The goal is to get plastic and other materials off the beach, where they are frequently left behind as visitors depart the island, said USCB senior Bethany McDonald.
The program, called Finnegan’s Sharing SHACK, also helps guests of Hilton Head, McDonald said.
When people leave their boogie boards and beach umbrellas at the program’s tent near the Driessen parking lot, McDonald sanitizes them and then offers them to other beachgoers.
People can use the recycled items for free, either temporarily or permanently. Visitors can avoid buying, and later ditching, new items after flying into Hilton Head for vacation, McDonald said.
The program launched this past weekend and will run through the end of September, she said. The tent will be staffed on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“It has already been so much fun,” said McDonald, 21, a hospitality management major who’s running the program as part of a USCB internship.
A class McDonald took during the spring semester sparked her idea for the new initiative.
Guest speakers, including Sally Krebs, the town’s sustainable practices coordinator, discussed Hilton Head’s various recycling programs with USCB students, and McDonald figured that more could be done to help Hilton Head deal with beach trash.
Angie Stone, assistant town manager, said officials let McDonald use space at Driessen after learning more about her idea.
McDonald’s program is similar to a beach toy recycling box at Islanders Beach Park, which the town, Sea Turtle Patrol and Turtle Trackers group set up earlier this year.
Finnegan’s Sharing SHACK has already handed out more than 30 chairs, 20 boogie boards, three umbrellas and nine beach toys, McDonald said.
She added that the new program could help protect sea turtles from wayward plastic on the beach.
Sea turtle season runs from May 1 through Oct. 31 on Hilton Head.
Mother sea turtles come ashore at nighttime, lay their eggs in nests and return to the ocean. After incubating for between 45 and 60 days, eggs begin to hatch, and tiny sea turtles eventually make their way to the sea.
“We’re really happy that it’s working out,” Stone said of Finnegan’s Sharing SHACK.
This story was originally published August 3, 2021 at 2:28 PM.
