Clean sweep

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Annual Beach Sweep River Sweep

Annual Beach Sweep-River Sweep activities on James Island and Folly Beach.

FOLLY BEACH -- Tiffany Pretlow expected to find cigarette butts, plastic cups and other detritus when she volunteered to help clean this island town's beaches. But she was still amazed by the junk that some people left behind.

"There's all sorts of stuff -- cans, a bakery box, a sign," the Trident Technical College student said, pulling a financial company's plastic placard from her garbage bag. "There was even a toilet back there, but it was too heavy to pick up."

Pretlow was among some 7,300 volunteers across the state who took part in the 21st annual Beach Sweep-River Sweep to clear trash from beaches, rivers, lakes, marshes and swamps. About 5,800 of those volunteers worked along the coast. The event, planned by the South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium with the state Department of Natural Resources, is the largest one-day, volunteer litter cleanup of its kind. In all, groups were expected to remove at least 60 tons of trash.

"We always have real strong support in the Charleston area," said Susan Ferris Hill, the consortium's communications director and coastal co-coordinator of the sweep. "They are very committed people."

Though the weather cooperated, the tides were quite high, leaving little shore to work with on the beaches. But the tides seemed to aid those working in the rivers and marshes, washing in all sorts of stuff.

Pam Ferguson paddled for trash under the James Island connector while her husband Brad worked amid the muck and skittering crabs on the river bank. Her best find was a plastic dinosaur head, while he found enough fast-food foam containers to open his own franchise.

"Someone working on that bridge must have been eating a whole lot of Chick-fil-A," he said.

Some 200 volunteers showed up at Folly Beach, where trash talk has been a hot topic since revelers left mounds of garbage on its shores over the Fourth of July holiday. That debris has long since been carted off, but volunteers found more than enough to occupy themselves.

Teacher Carmelina Livingston was among a group from St. Andrews School of Math and Science who collected trash on the beach near the fishing pier. Her group picked up about 1,000 cigarette butts working in just a 5-foot radius, she said.

"We love this beach," said St. Andrews parent Lynn Cash, who attended the event with her 9-year-old daughter, Taylor. "But people need to know if they don't take care of the beach they won't be able to come out here someday."

Charleston Waterkeeper Cyrus Buffum said loose butts definitely topped the list of popular disposables. But people also found buckets, coat hangers, motor oil, fireworks and other items.

Ashley Hall teacher Stephanie Christensen found an interesting insect cocoon as she poked through piles of dried seaweed further on up the beach. Most of her finds, however, were of the man-made variety, such as the rusty corkscrew she retrieved that still held a plastic stopper from a cheap bottle of wine.

"It's sad," said Christy Reves, who joined the Ashley Hall team on the pick-up. "You come out here to enjoy nature and you find other people's trash."

Patti Newman, a member of Trident Tech's group, was having trouble just getting to the beach. She and her crew were too busy removing the ample trash they found on the roadway just outside the strand.

"There's so much right here," she said, holding up a bag of plastic cups and other debris. "If someone drives by and sees all this, they'll continue on to the beach and use that as a dumping ground too."

Reach Glenn Smith at 937-5556 or gsmith@postandcourier.com.