Strong storms leave mess along Rhode Island’s beaches
By Bianca Buono
@BBuonoABC6
Last weekend’s heavy snow and strong winds left a large amount of debris on Rhode Island’s beaches.
Dozens worked together to clean that up on Sunday around the Sail Newport Sailing Center at Fort Adams State Park.
"Pieces of rope, bottle caps, Styrofoam, broken pieces of plastic, straws,” described volunteer Marie Schappert of Jamestown.
"Cans, drinking bottles of water, those types of things that people use on walks and then just carelessly drop off across the shoreline,” said another volunteer Thomas Freeman of Newport.
These volunteers and more than sixty others worked to clean up the mess along the beach in Newport.
"Birds and fish can ingest plastics, it’s unsightly, it can foul marine gear, your fishing boats,” Freeman said.
"I really just want to raise people’s awareness of things like leaving cigarette butts behind that never break down,” said Schappert.
After just two hours of work, the volunteers collected nearly five hundred pounds of trash. And the recent storms are partly to blame.
"The two storms that came in the last two weeks, it really forced a lot of debris up on the shoreline here,” said Executive Director of Sail Newport Brad Read.
But regardless of how the trash ended up here, the executive director of Sail Newport says coastal areas are prone to pollution.
"Whatever you throw, out your car window, anything you leave along a road or a beach or in your yard, will eventually get to the ocean and you know it’s a problem,” Read said.
Sail Newport and Clean Ocean Access teamed up for this cleanup. They say during the summer, they have to maintain the coastline on a weekly basis to keep up with the amount of trash left behind.
© WLNE-TV 2016
