Collection Report August 18, 2010

A bit late getting this one up. But at long last!

August 18 greeted me with a few breaking clouds & a coolish breeze, the first reminder that our summer is winding down.

It's that time of year where there's a tension in the air -- an expectation. More people are on the road, trying to squeeze out the last bit of vacation. Folks are getting to the beach earlier, lingering longer. Minds are focused on anything but the return to school, layers, jackets. Which might explain how someone could forget this:

Cushy chair, cold drink, tasty snacks... *POOF* Just walked away. Confession: I did not put this into my bag & record it.

Second confession. I also didn't count everything I did pick up. I took a moment from bagging to dump several dozen jagged remnants of a Bacchanal into the metal trash bin on-site:

Always comforting what people will leave in the sand.

On to the finds. Zone N (which I really thought was going to be small):

It wasn't small. 266 finds:

• Building material: 3 (sawn blocks & part of a plank/clapboard)
• Foam/Styrofoam: 9 (inc. another part of the airplane that I started finding back on July 27)
• Fishing misc.: 2 (claw bands, one fresh & one a bit jagged)
• Food-related plastics: 37 (inc. 5 water/soda bottles plus 3 burned bits of bottle)
• Food-related metal/glass: 13 (inc. a piece of what was just starting to turn into worn-down seaglass)
• Non-food/unknown plastics: 32 (inc. 5 bandaids, balloon, shovel handle, action figure arm, packaging reading "Toys $2.99", orange plastic nozzle)
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 112 (101 fresh, 6 floaters, 5 packaging - including cigar pack with 7 wrapped cigars still inside)
• Paper/wood: 44 (inc. piece from Spanish-language magazine, fireworks packaging (still from July 4th??), business card, pail & shovel label, umbrella tag, bath towel tag)
• Misc./unique: 14 (inc. size XS ripped shorts, sock, 3 wads of gum, several tattered string/rope scraps)

Another colorful, if mostly predictable, collection. A few standouts:

Somebody's ultra-army is a tad sadder now

Four "Huh?"s

Foam from same original objects every week

Moving on to Zone S, which, as usual, was rather subdued:

54 finds:

• Building material: 0
• Foam/Styrofoam: 10
• Fishing misc.: 0
• Food-related plastics: 3 (inc. two burned things)
• Food-related metal/glass: 2
• Non-food/unknown plastics: 5 (inc. very aged/brittle little capsule holder?)
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 31 (27 fresh + 4 floaters)
• Paper/wood: 2
• Misc./unique: 1 (sea glass)

It's funny, sea glass always seems to be a Zone S thing. And as an example of what happens when plastic sits out too long:

Photodegradation, in all its glory!

Big takeaway from this week: People at the beach just can't seem to help burning stuff. And a second takeaway: You can toss that plastic bottle or wrapper into a roaring fire pit, but when the party's over and the embers die, it hasn't gone away.

I'll end this week with a teaser. If you're getting tired of the same old beach trash week to week, you're not alone. (People go to beach and litter, dog bites man.) But I was back there this morning. Yesterday (August 25) it rained all day, with some pretty serious winds too. Here's what I saw at 8:00AM:

A hint: It wasn't just kelp that washed up