Posted on: Monday, August 16, 2004

HAWAI'I'S ENVIRONMENT
Much of our beach trash not from sea

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Columnist

Nearly half of the junk found on Hawai'i beaches doesn't drift in on the sea, but is brought there by local beachgoers or washes down storm drains.

Forty-five percent of Hawai'i's beach trash comes from Hawai'i rather than elsewhere, a little better than the national average of 56 percent, according to the 2003 International Coastal Cleanup report produced by The Ocean Conservancy.

The report said 2,453 volunteers scoured 98 miles of Hawai'i's shorelines and stream sides last year, and picked up 125,080 pounds of debris. A stunning 38 percent of the 112,586 individual pieces of trash were smoking-related, in the form of cigarette filters, cigar tips and cigarette packages. Volunteers picked up more than 40,000 of them.

Presumably a lot of these are from folks who feel it is appropriate to stub out their butts in the beach sand and leave them there, regardless of fact that someone else's baby will be playing in that sand in a few hours or days.

Some of the other popular bits of trash: bottle caps, glass and plastic bottles, cans, bags, food wrappers and containers, and cups, plates and forks.

In Hawai'i, as elsewhere, "the highest number of items found ... consisted of packaging waste from consumable goods," the report said.

Again, a lot of that stuff is being brought to the beach by people who use the beach for recreation, and who then leave their trash behind.

Another concern is debris that can entangle or injure wildlife, like seals, turtles and birds. In the Islands, nearly 18,000 such items were found. They include plastic bags, balloons, fishing line and net, plastic sheeting and tarps, rope, six-pack beverage holders, strapping material and syringes.

That stuff represented 16 percent of all the debris found in Hawai'i.

More than half the trash drifted in from the sea, and a lot of that was identified as being associated with ocean activities like fishing and commercial shipping. There were bait containers, buoys and floats, fishing light sticks, pallets, rope and nets.

And a fair amount of stuff was also delivered to the beach by people unwilling to use government or private trash disposal facilities. The Hawai'i beach cleanups found 10 55-gallon drums, 50 assorted appliances like washers and refrigerators, 235 tires and 447 batteries.

If you have a question or concern about the Hawaiian environment, drop a note to Jan TenBruggencate at P.O. Box 524, Lihu'e, HI 96766, e-mail jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or call (808) 245-3074.