In a yearend report, International Coastal Cleanup records their weirdest finds in shores around the world. Some items are specific to a certain country and some are quite universal. Here are the Top 10 unexpected things you would find in a sea shore.
#10 260 Tea Cups
In the shores of India, volunteers have picked up many different types of tea cups.
#9 435 Toothbrushes
Disposable plastic toothbrushes are a huge culprit in ocean pollution. Toothbrushes need to be replaced every 3 months for good oral hygiene. Which mean in a lifetime, an average person will replace throw away toothbrushes 300x. When it is made of plastic, it goes to the ocean and washes up on the shore. If it were a bamboo brush, it would decompose naturally before it gets the chance to reach our oceans.
#8 23 Cell phones
#7 149 Shopping Carts
#6 28 Refrigerators
#5 101 Boat Anchors
#4 97 Televisions
#3 54 Bicycles
#2 87 Mattresses
#1 39 Toilets
All these items are things that we don't usually expect to find in shores of beaches. They find their way to oceans from the waterways found in our cities. They float in the ocean for some time and eventually some of them end up in sea shores. It's only a fraction of what is really in the ocean.
Another item found in great amounts were disposable plastic straws. The total global straws collected when laid end to end could extend down to the deepest point on Earth, the Mariana Trench, and back to sea level three times.
Sometimes our plastic waste problem may seem too big of a thing to tackle on our own. But by joining Coastal Clean ups, you get to be surrounded by other people who also want to do something about it. Join a Coastal Clean up whenever possible. You may find even weirder things!