Last month during a discussion of an expansion of the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group (MASSPIRG) bottle bill that provides for redemption centers around the commonwealth, Oak Bluffs selectmen half-jokingly suggested lobbying the state to include in the bill what are known as nips, a particularly popular denomination of hard alcohol on the Island. Empty nip bottles increasingly line street curbs and thickets of Vineyard dune grass. To Vineyard Conservation Society executive director Brendan O’Neill the bottles are a familiar if nettlesome presence during the annual Islandwide Earth Day beach cleanup.
This Saturday marks the 19th such beach cleanup, an effort spearheaded two decades ago by VCS member Penny Uhlendorf, and Mr. O’Neill says he expects more of the plastic pick-me-ups sold in most liquor stores.
“Absolutely,” he said. “We see trash coming both from the water side but also from the landward side where people go to beaches and dump trash.”
Beyond the ubiquitous and immortal “plastic, plastic, plastic” flotsam is the more unusual jetsam of television sets or antique lawnmowers.
“In some cases we’ve seen strange, very old wheeled objects,” said Mr. O’Neill cryptically. Perhaps the most amusing story to emerge from the 19 years of trash collecting on Vineyard beaches is one of the letter-in-a-bottle variety. During a north shore cleanup one Earth Day do-gooder stumbled upon a beached missive from a Vineyard class studying ocean currents.
“When we responded to the address we learned that the bottle had been released more than 20 years prior and the student that released the bottle was Penny Uhlendorf’s son,” he said.
That bottle had been tossed off a ferry into Nantucket Sound by the students. Other boat-tossed objects uncovered in the beach cleanups have had less sentimental appeal.
“One year our Gay Head team cleaning up the Aquinnah beaches found a number of large cylindrical objects which turned out to be fishing boat oil filters,” said Mr. O’Neill. “So that told us something that was diagnostic in a sense; it told us about the practices of some of the members of our fishing fleet.”
As the amount of oceanic trash grows (a patch of garbage twice the size of Texas floats in the Pacific, according to National Geographic), so too has the Vineyard beach cleanup effort. More than 20 beaches in all six Island towns are participating this year.
“There has been an expansion in the number of beaches involved but also an increase in the number of community organizations like the banks and the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts; it’s been really gratifying,” Mr. O’Neill said. “The DPWs from each of the towns have also volunteered to make trucks available and to haul away the trash.”
Islanders who participate in the beach cleanups tend to have their favorite spots; for his part, Mr. O’Neill usually tidies up Eastville Beach. For those interested in finding a beach to clean this Saturday that suits them, he suggests going to the VCS Web site (vineyardconservation.org) or calling the conservation society office at 508-693-9588.
The beach cleanup lasts from 10 a.m. to noon; bags and gloves are supplied. A free lunch party follows at SBS.
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