Kirk, I sure will take some photos if I see any trash in May, but it won’t really be much to photograph on our beach in the west end. But if I find some, I’ll snap a few shots and send them in!

Hey, you guys all know that discussion between the non-smoker vs. smoker…”If you don’t blow smoke on me, I won’t spit on you…” Well, in that context, I say to the littering tourists, “don’t litter our beaches, and we won’t come to your campus and dump our trash!”

Also, are any of us fed up enough with the littering to approach an offender after witnessing it? I think I will now. I didn’t used to be “one to speak up” but I can SO see myself asking someone to pick up what they just dropped on the ground. Maybe I’m just getting grouchy in my old age. Then again, I may get a kick in the chin! At least I’ll have made my point! But that’s just me!

Absolutely correct, The Great Lake State.

I envision, as in Michigan, people would be picking up cans and bottles and turning them in by the shopping cart for the quick cash. The beaches would be scoured clean.

On the flip side my home state can’t seem to pass a “no smoking” in restaurants law…

Moreover, the police, prosecutors and judges are too influenced by the spring break business interests and the politians who are in their pocket. I’ve witnessed it happening in my presense and so say this from personal experience. The trash problem, and others, are happening and spilling over onto public property. Out police must be given the resources and support needed to effectively address it. These costs should be paid for by the businesses who are are responsible for the problem and profiting from the spring breakers.

The TDC must first view this as a quality of life issue and second consider the tourists, vacationers, and snow birders who will not return because of the trash, the spring breaker conduct in general and the eyesores.

If we don’t have enough resources to put into law enforcement for the really bad stuff, do you think they’re ever going to start writing tickets for trash and glass on the beach? The ONLY thing you can do on our beaches today that will surely get a law enforcement officer to make you leave the beach is to have a dog with you. Glass, trash… no enforcement ever.

For you individual property owners, no worries for you. It’s laughable to think they would ever even look at your property. They are very specifically going after Boardwalk, Spinnaker, La Vela, Summit, Sharkey’s and any other place that host the huge crowds. An individual condo or home owner will never get a ticket. An association, perhaps, but no owner.

I’ve been monitoring the trash for 3 years over at KeeptheBeachClean.com. I would love for any of you regular trash picker-uppers to also take your camera and submit photos.

Also, a fun little twist to this bold new stance on litter enforcement: now we get to monitor how well the local leaders keep our PUBLIC beaches clean AT ALL TIMES too! Since they’re keeping the burden off the actual litterbug, and putting it on the stewards of the land… we can hold them accountable for their beaches as well!

It’s encouraging that the BCC is at least “thinking” about the problem, and I’d say way late. But fining the individuals for dropping the trash, not just the property owners. Also, have they considered that beaches are windy so much of the time. Trash may originate several feet to several blocks down the beach and end up right outside your door. When I see trash right outside my back door, I pick it up, but it didn’t come from me. On any given morning, I may find construction tape, pieces of paper cups, any number of items on my patio that weren’t there when I went to bed. And I KNOW there was no party there during the night. The sand crabs surely didn’t bring it in. The wind blew it in. Should I be fined for this? No and I’d fight it tooth and nail if I was. Just like walking a dog on a pet-free/poop-free beach…get caught, get fined. The perps are the ones that should pay, not the property owners. Spring break students, beach wind, tides…those are your culprits, for the most part.