Museum of Litter

BEACH RESORT DRAWS LINE IN SAND: The Butt Stops Here

Way to go Windjammer Resort and Beach Club! They've initiated a cute campaign to prevent cigarette butt litter at the gorgeous, palm-lined beach at their Lauderdale by the Sea resort.

The Butt Stops Here initiative was created by Windjammer General Manger, John Boutin. The gracious host realized guests had no way to dispose of discarded cigarette butts and partnered with 9Muses Art Center of the Mental Health Association of Broward County to create a solution. 9Muses members paint adorable beach themes on small metal buckets.The decorative buckets are then partially filled with sand and distributed to Windjammer guests who smoke, to be used as ashtrays at the beach and poolside. “The response has been great,” says Boutin, “our guests are very pleased to use them.”

Boutin's efforts are much needed and appreciated. Here's a picture of the 450 butts I collected from behind the Windjammer last night within 55 minutes.
Boutin will not only be keeping his beach clean, he's encouraging other hoteliers and the entire town of Lauderdale by the Sea, FL to join this initiative. This program will help eliminate the number one source of litter pollution on the planet; support 9Muses, a nonprofit, charitable organization that gives artistic opportunities to persons affected by mental illness; and provide a pristine beach for tourist and locals.

Windjammer is publicly announcing the start of this initiative on Friday July 29, 2011 on the South deck of the Windjammer Resort, 4244 El Mar Drive, Lauderdale by the Sea, FL 33308 at 10AM. The public and media are invited.

Green congrats, Windjammer. The Museum of Litter applauds your efforts.

 

Longboat Key, FL Litter pickup July 17, 2011

 
Not much litter for a Sunday morning after a Saturday beach day. That's a good thing! Had help this morning. A nice couple from Tampa met up with me and asked if they could give me the litter they picked up. Wish I'd thought to ask their name and take their picture to post here. If you're reading this, thanks again for caring and being involved. Part of their collection was a Fourth of July balloon with ribbon and styrofoam. They said tomorrow they are planning to bring their own bag. Way to go! Together we can keep our beautiful environment clean.

Blue Heron: This litter pickup is for you!

Longboat Key, FL Litter Pickup July 16, 2011

This is the amount of litter picked up in about 1/3 mile of shoreline along Florida's West coast.

GOOD NEWS: not a lot of litter.

BAD NEWS: most of the litter was small pieces of plastic that are almost invisible to us but look like food to fish, birds and turtles which they ingest but cannot digest and die.

Grey Heron: This litter pickup was for you: 

 
The larger pieces of litter found were a plastic water bottle, plastic from fast-food snacks, plastic bottle caps, a balloon and ribbon,  netting, a fake plastic leaf, the visor portion of a sunvisor and some duct tape. But no cigarette butts -- yeah! 

I'm happy to say this is a small amount of litter compared to pickups on Florida's East Coast. Not sure if the difference in the quantities of litter collected between the east and west coast is due to population, environmental consciousness, geography or a combination. What do you think?

Longboat Key, FL Litter pickup July 15, 2011

This is the amount of litter picked up along about 1/3 mile of shoreline.

The West Coast of Florida always has significantly less litter than the East Coast.

Why is that?

 

 

 

 

Sometimes it's hard to tell the shells from the styrofoam litter. At first I thought this shell was litter:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I thought this styrofoam litter was a shell:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not a lot of litter picked up today, but I know every little bit helps.