Returning beachgoers left 13,000 pounds of trash on Florida's Cocoa Beach, prompting crackdown
By: Tyler Vazquez
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
As coronavirus restrictions begin to ease, people and their trash have been inundating Brevard's beaches.
© Craig Bailey/FLORIDA TODAY People enjoy the sun and sand at Lori Wilson Park in Cocoa Beach Saturday, May 2, 2020 after the park reopened to visitors.Mandatory Credit: Craig Bailey/FLORIDA TODAY via USA TODAY NETWORK
Over 13,000 pounds of trash picked up at Cocoa Beach last weekend – less than a month after it reopened on April 21 . As a result, officials are cracking down on littering, increasing fines and enforcement.
Littering in Cocoa Beach can now fetch offenders a $250 fine.
"As restrictions are becoming more relaxed during this pandemic, the City of Cocoa Beach is beginning to see an influx of day-trippers to our beaches, along with piles of unlawfully discarded trash in their wake," Cocoa Beach Police Department wrote in a notice.
"This will not be tolerated."
© MALCOLM DENEMARK/FLORIDA TODAY Keep Brevard Beautiful was out early Saturday emptying trash cans near Minutemen Causeway. KBB is running double shifts in some beachside areas to keep up with the litter and trash. Police and beach rangers are stepping up their litter monitoring.
According to Cocoa Beach police, officers must witness a littering offense first hand to issue a citation. Anyone who wants to report littering is still encouraged to call police at 321-868-3251.
“Our community works very hard to be stewards of environmental sustainability. If I need to reallocate critical resources during our peak season to combat litterers, we are no longer asking our visitors to comply with our litter laws, we expect it, and there will be consequences for offenders,” said Chief Scott Rosenfeld in a statement.
Keep Brevard Beautiful, a volunteer organization that organizes trash pickups around the county, has recorded a large increase in trash on the beaches compared to other years.
According to KBB deputy director Bryan Bobbitt, last weekend saw a heavy influx of trash on the beaches.
Volunteers with Keep Brevard Beautiful picked up 33 bags of trash from Friday beachgoers, 122 bags for Saturday and 142 for Sunday.
That overshadows an average of fewer than 10 bags for a given day while beach access was restricted due to coronavirus.
“Normally there is an uptick but what we’ve seen this past weekend is way above normal," Bobbitt said. "It’s equivalent to Fourth of July and Memorial Day weekend.”
"People need to understand if they leave trash on the ground a bird, fish or sea turtle could be killed by it. It’s not just a blight issue it’s an environmental issue all around," he said.
Bobbitt said people who want to be even more helpful can take their trash and recyclables with them to prevent bins on the beach from overflowing.
"We encourage everyone to come and enjoy the beaches but pick up after yourself."
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People can be selfish assholes.
They have some filthy disgusting people in Florida.
Yeah - they're called "visitors" who don't GAF.
This is Broward County, located in South Florida. Maybe you don't realize South Florida is predominately Democrat, including Broward County because many of those that live there moved from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania and brought their flawed liberalism with them.
Broward County is also one of 2 counties in south Florida, the other Palm Beach, where their election supervisors were essentially caught cheating during the 2018 governor's race.
You're right...there are some filthy disgusting people in Florida. They just mostly reside south of Orlando.
Alright guys, it is not just beaches in Florida. I think it is happening in a lot of places.
I imagine it is going to happen in parks as well.
Actually, it's Brevard County, home of NASA and the 45th Space Wing at Patrick AFB. Worked there for 10 years and one of my favorite restaurants on the beach was "Coconuts" - best damn crab sandwiches you could sink your teeth into.
But, I can guarantee you that it ain't the locals making the mess. It's the friggin' visitors who, after getting their Ron Jon Surf Shop crap, toss all the wrappers and paper and burger foils on the beach.
Yup
I'd almost say leave the trash on the beach and let the beach users deal with it....almost
The same idiots probably won't be coming back for a while. I bet if they did they would be quick to complain about how dirty it was, while leaving more trash.
WTF, what complete bunch of assholes.
Really. I mean how much crap does one need to haul to the beach.
I have witnessed people here that leave trash on the beach, even when there is a trashcan a couple of yards away. Makes me want to smack them upside the head.
I have also read several articles where sea turtles were having a really good nesting year with all the closed beach traffic. Now with people stomping all over the place again, that will be short lived.
Same here. Even when the wife and I go fishing, any trash we have goes straight into our carrier we use to wheel our gear around.
As far as turtles, the ones around our pond have been doing just as well since the neighborhood kids have not been around in a few months. My neighbor walked around to the back of the pond where he has a big pepper bush going and disturbed a turtle laying eggs.
He said he apologized to her.
Yeah, when we go out on the boat we pick up trash floating in the river.
I wonder how much of that 13,000 pounds was actually picked up from the ground and how much of it was picked up from trash receptacles around the beach.
I understand littering was highlighted in the article and people need to be held accountable for that, but to insinuate the entire 13,000 pounds was picked from the ground is disingenuous.
Probably not the whole 13K but according to the article, the number of bags of trash that volunteers picked up is well beyond the norm according to their records.
One would think that anyone with half a brain would pick up after themselves or if the trash bin is overflowing take your damn trash with you.
Yea I agree with you on this.
It probably feels new that the beaches are open again so it just attracted far more people than a normal weekend.
When Jax beach opened, there were far more people the first day than a "normal" day, then dwindled to about half that the next.
I have seen people leave broken lawn chairs.
Can't stand people that just flick cigarette butts, or just stick them in the sand.
I am a smoker and this pisses me off.
It's really not that hard to pick up your trash and pack it out. If you value going to the beach, I don't know why you would leave it looking worse than when you found it.
As the old sayin' goes Tacos - don't leave anything but your footprints.
I'm guessing the litter bugs figure they don't need to throw out trash because "we have people for that."
This is why we can't have nice things.