Daytona Beach is a well-known city in Florida famous for its boardwalk, long stretch of white, sandy beaches, and international speedway for car races. However, our community cleanup team, along with the help of pro-football player, Josh Rosen, chose this location for an entirely different reason: for its known history of marine debris.
Why Daytona Beach?
Daytona is a popular tourist destination, especially during the spring break season and summer months. Unfortunately, more people on the beach means there is more trash left behind on the beach. Even during the "slower" months Daytona Beach still experiences an influx of visitors for a variety of reasons.
Cleaning up with pro footballer Josh Rosen
At our Daytona cleanup, we were joined by professional football player, Josh Rosen. Josh is a steward of the ocean and considers himself an environmentalist. During the 2018 season, he wore upcycled plastic cleats made from recovered ocean plastic. He has used his platform to bring awareness to the growing problem of marine debris and wishes to help tackle ocean plastic by doing his part - which is exactly what he did at the cleanup!
However, he did not do it alone! He was joined by over 600 participants who came out, despite the unusually chilly Florida weather.
The most common single-use plastic we find at our Community Cleanups
Cigarette butts. A whopping 5,325 of them were found at Daytona Beach alone. These are the most common and most profligate single-use item we find at every single one of our beach cleanups. Did you know that almost all cigarettes contain a filter made of non-biodegradable cellulose acetate, better known as plastic? Because of this little-known fact, cigarettes are actually considered single-use plastic and are the top item found at beach cleanups around the world. However, cigarette butts are not the only item we found an abundance of...
We also collected:
- 834 plastic bottle caps
- 453 plastic straws
- 415 plastic bags
- 277 plastic bottles
- 152 plastic and styrofoam cups
- 73 plastic utensils
How can we work together to make a difference?
We understand that one person cannot save the entire ocean on their own. That's why we're encouraging everyone to come together to reduce their consumption of single-use plastic, repurpose and recycle whatever plastic you already have, and recover plastic that has reached the shorelines before it can enter the ocean.
Make sure you follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to stay up on all things 4ocean. Also, make sure to join the conversation on our new Discover 4ocean Facebook Group to see where we are doing our next beach cleanup at 4ocean Events. We have some really amazing things lined up for this year so make sure to check back often!
