500 tons of trash, recycling collected on Hilton Head beaches during pandemic
Eighty-five African elephants, 1,191 American alligators and almost four blue whales.
What do they all have in common?
Each group weighs as much as the trash and recycling materials collected on Hilton Head Island’s beaches from June to the end of October.
Code enforcement officers and beach patrols gathered 595.69 tons of garbage and recycling during the five-month span, according to assistant town manager Josh Gruber.
For context: Over Memorial Day weekend, Shore Beach Service collected about 50,100 pounds of trash on Hilton Head beaches. That’s a little more than 25 tons.
Gruber in an email Friday wrote this is the first year Hilton Head has asked its beach patrols to officially track how much garbage they collect.
“This information will help us know where to focus our educational efforts,” Gruber wrote.
The town’s beach access points were closed in mid-March as the coronavirus spread across South Carolina, but later began to reopen in early May.
Beach patrols and code enforcement officers have since found 17,000 tents, chairs, umbrellas, towels, toys and other abandoned items that people left behind.
Nearly 6,000 chairs were collected in total.
The patrols and officers also spoke with 13,700 beachgoers about their behavior, beach rules, alcohol laws, turning off their lights, digging holes, “using wrong shovels” and being in the dunes, among other things, Gruber wrote.
The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette previously reported that the typical October off season on Hilton Head was busier than usual, with people being able to travel because of remote work and school during the pandemic.
Trash collection will continue throughout the winter, Gruber wrote Friday.
This story was originally published November 14, 2020 at 3:41 PM with the headline "500 tons of trash, recycling collected on Hilton Head beaches during pandemic."
