Tuesday, July 6, 2010

The Advantage of Beach Pick-UP at Low Tide

One day I was multi-tasking at the beach, the West side of the pier in Long Beach Harbor, Long Beach, MS. Beach multi-tasking includes: sand/wade walking, with deep knee bends as I pick up litter along the way. I strap on a fanny pack with my cell phone, camera, and wrap a trash bag around it and carry a few store grocery bags in it. I learned to also carry pen and paper or business cards as I nearly always wander into an interesting conversation with someone.

So, it was low tide--which is actually the best time for Beach litter pick-up. It is easy to spot items that might hurt unsuspecting, vulnerable feet. I spotted a bottle partially sticking up out of the sand-muck. After extracting it I found it was a bottle of perfume. I put it in my bag and continued along my way.

Arriving home, I carefully washed the bottle and discovered it was a bottle of Chloe. The cap seems to have glued itself firmly to the bottle after who knows how long in the sand and water. I do not want to break it, so I haven't opened it.

It is easy to look at the bottle and get my imagination going (as if I needed any help:-) ). Did a woman drop it from her bag while on a boat trip? Did the bottle survive the destruction of Hurricane Katrina? Was it perhaps mixed in with the debris from destroyed homes and stores. Who knows? It is like a message in a bottle without the message.

I  told the story at perfume specialty site and received interesting responses. I am thinking of putting it on ebay a ridiculous price of maybe: $5,000.00 . If it sells I will use 10 to 25% to buy Pro-Litter Pick-up items such as buttons, arm bands and visors with messages like: "Be a PAL. Pick-Up and maybe use a logo with a trash receptacle and someone using it properly. I would then give them away on my litter pick-up adventures.



I believe that there will be less litter if folks have visual reminders. Many people don't seem to see the sand colored receptacles on our beach. They do notice when I am picking up, though. Many people have walked up to me to "thank me". I do not really need or seek appreciation, I just want other people to pick-up, too--but first and foremost "Leave No Trace" themselves.

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