Clean Ocean Action volunteers in New Jersey have been preparing for another year of peculiar findings along the state’s beaches. Last year, volunteers collected over 176,000 items ranging from mundane debris to bizarre objects like voodoo dolls, whoopie cushions, zip ties, and denture powder. As beach season approaches, it’s time to be on the lookout for these unusual items that may wash up on New Jersey’s 127-mile coastline.
The Clean Ocean Action environmental group reported that nearly 3,700 volunteers picked up and disposed of a variety of items, including everyday litter like bottle caps, cigarettes, and plastic pieces. However, some of the more unusual discoveries included a 50-pound bag of rice, a Baby Yoda doll, a severed Barbie head, and even a food fryer. The range of items left behind on the beaches is quite varied, from clothing items like boxer shorts and bras to strange items like fake eyelashes, fishnet stockings, and even a pregnancy test with an unknown result.
Cindy Zipf, the executive director of Clean Ocean Action, described the findings as a “guilt list of our region’s worst littering ways.” During beach sweeps at the beginning and end of beach season since 1985, the group has collected nearly 8.5 million items of trash, focusing on recycling what can be reprocessed. The majority of the items found were plastic, with bottle caps and lids making up over 13% of the total haul, along with food and candy wrappers, cigarette butts, and thousands of plastic straws and beverage stirrers.
Some of the more puzzling items left behind on the beaches were auto parts, including an automobile gas tank, car batteries, a bumper, an air compressor, and even 24 tires. In addition to these items, volunteers found personal grooming items like an electric razor, denture cleansing powder, scissors, and a full-length mirror. There were also household items such as a dustpan, a Philadelphia Eagles banner, two crock pots with lids, and a small refrigerator, as well as food leftovers like pineapples, a coconut, a fortune cookie, a can of tuna, and a box of Valentine’s candy.
The sheer variety of items left behind on New Jersey’s beaches highlights the need for continued efforts to keep the coastline clean. Clean Ocean Action and its volunteers work diligently to remove trash and debris from the beaches, recycling what they can to protect the environment and marine life. As beach season approaches, it serves as a reminder to visitors to be mindful of their impact and to properly dispose of their items to keep the beaches clean and beautiful for everyone to enjoy.
