Collection Report June 20-23, 2011

My first collection report of Year 2!

Bay View beach. Saco, Maine. Monday, June 20. 8:10AM

Low 60s and bright sun

A day of the beautiful:

A world in bloom

And ugly:

Balloons that go up come down, like
this one, floated in on rockweed

And typical:

A very common brand at Bay View

As Al the Trashpaddler in Massachusetts says to this company that packs almost everything in plastic and styrofoam (or indeed both at the same time), "What Are You Thinkin'?"

So what would grace the shores on this first week of a new collection year? Zone N:

194 finds:

• Building materials: 0
• Foam/Styrofoam: 49
• Fishing misc.: 21 (5 rope, 5 rope twine, 7 claw bands, trap tag, trap clamp, 2 shotgun shell waddings)
• Food-related plastics: 20 (bottle cap, 2 cups, 12 wrappers, 3 straws, 2 chewing gum)
• Food-related metal/glass: 4 (2 bottle caps, 2 foil wrappers)
• Non-food/unknown plastics: 21 (5 bag scraps, 4 balloons, 3 strappings, silly band, backpack cinch, 7 scraps <1", 2 scraps >1")
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 63 (57 filters, 2 plastic tips, 3 cigar protectors, cig pack)
• Paper/wood: 13 (7 wrappers, 6 scraps/napkins)
• Misc./unique: 1 (rubber offcut)

A pretty big, very summer-y haul. The cigarettes, food plastics, and styrofoam are all mostly local, recent drops. But plenty is still washing in. Not likely that a beachgoer brought these:

The fishing gear

or these:

Shredded & tortured

On June 23, I returned to finish up the week, visiting Zone S. Here's what I uncovered there:

113 finds:

• Building materials: 2 (wooden slats/blocks)
• Foam/Styrofoam: 44
• Fishing misc.: 18 (9 rope bits, 3 rope twine, 2 trap tags, 3 claw bands, 1 tiny buoy fragment)
• Food-related plastics: 8 (bottle cap, 5 wrappers, brittle milk jug handle, six-pack ring)
• Food related metal/glass: 4 (sea glass)
• Non-food/unknown plastics: 13 (2 bags/scraps, balloon, tampon applicator, toy google eye, 2 scraps >1", 6 scraps <1")
• Cigarette filters/plastics: 21 (20 filters, 1 bit of packaging)
• Paper/wood: 3
• Misc./unique: 0

Another good bit of fishing gear, including my first 2011 trap tag. (Dark gray this year.) A whole mess of styrofoam bits (most likely blown down from Zone N and points north). And oh joy:

Another tampon applicator

That brings my total of those this year to "officially too many." As with all the others, it probably entered the Bay from a river after being flushed down a toilet.

What happens in a drain, or a gutter, doesn't stay there. It's all heading to the ocean. One way or another.