Folly Beach incensed over trashy Fourth drinkers

Folly Beach — Alcoholic beverage litter left by July Fourth weekend visitors has city officials thinking of trashing laws that permit drinking on the beach.

Folly is the area's only beach that allows alcohol consumption — in cups but not in cans or bottles — on the sand. But Mayor Carl Beckmann Jr. said today he and other city officials and residents were shocked at the massive amount of beer-related trash left on the beach, and beside roads and in people's yards, over the weekend. He estimated 40,000 people visited the beach.

City Council members are being made aware of the litter, and banning alcohol on the beach seems certain to be considered at a future council meeting, Beckmann said. "I think the discussion is going to come up," Beckmann said.

Folly residents, officials and volunteers from the Surf Rider Foundation today carried mounds of beer cans, bottles, cups, packaging, abandoned coolers, towels and more to trash receptacles and trash pickup trucks that were quickly overwhelmed, Beckmann said.

Surf Rider Foundation member Bubber Hutto helped with the cleanup and said 99 percent of the trash was alcohol containers. He called the litter "disgusting and embarrassing," and said he's no longer an avid supporter of allowing drinking on the beach.

Read more in tomorrow's editions of The Post and Courier.