Plastic bags tangled in the mangroves in Dania Beach, FL. (Photo courtesy Catherine Uden)
Beach and ocean pollution is a major issue, with plastic bags and polystyrene cited as two of the biggest culprits. Now though, cities and residents are finding ways to fight back.
It was mid-March when Lisa Miceli and her husband walked onto the beach to take sunrise photos. As they strolled behind the Ocean Sky Resort on Fort Lauderdale Beach and set up the tripod, Miceli noticed a big pile.
“Look what the Spring Breakers did!” she cried, pointing at tarps, beer cans, food containers, broken glass and plastic bags.
The owner of dive gear line Stoked on Salt and founder of SOS Ocean Clean Up spent the next six hours with three volunteers and collected almost 900 pounds of trash.
“The debris on the beach, it’s a problem for tourists, residents, sea life and corals,” Miceli says. “Something needs to be changed.”
