Returning beachgoers left 13,000 pounds of trash on Florida's Cocoa Beach, prompting crackdown

Tyler Vazquez, Florida Today
USA TODAYMay 9, 2020, 7:58 PM EDT

As coronavirus restrictions begin to ease, people and their trash have been inundating Brevard's beaches.

Over 13,000 pounds of trash picked up at Cocoa Beach last weekend - less than a month after it reopened on April 21. As a result, officials are cracking down on littering, increasing fines and enforcement.

Littering in Cocoa Beach can now fetch offenders a $250 fine.

"As restrictions are becoming more relaxed during this pandemic, the City of Cocoa Beach is beginning to see an influx of day-trippers to our beaches, along with piles of unlawfully discarded trash in their wake," Cocoa Beach Police Department wrote in a notice.

"This will not be tolerated."

Keep Brevard Beautiful was out early Saturday emptying trash cans near Minutemen Causeway. KBB is running double shifts in some beachside areas to keep up with the litter and trash. Police and beach rangers are stepping up their litter monitoring.

Keep Brevard Beautiful was out early Saturday emptying trash cans near Minutemen Causeway. KBB is running double shifts in some beachside areas to keep up with the litter and trash. Police and beach rangers are stepping up their litter monitoring.

According to Cocoa Beach police, officers must witness a littering offense first hand to issue a citation. Anyone who wants to report littering is still encouraged to call police at 321-868-3251.

"Our community works very hard to be stewards of environmental sustainability. If I need to reallocate critical resources during our peak season to combat litterers, we are no longer asking our visitors to comply with our litter laws, we expect it, and there will be consequences for offenders," said Chief Scott Rosenfeld in a statement.

Keep Brevard Beautiful, a volunteer organization that organizes trash pickups around the county, has recorded a large increase in trash on the beaches compared to other years.

According to KBB deputy director Bryan Bobbitt, last weekend saw a heavy influx of trash on the beaches.

Volunteers with Keep Brevard Beautiful picked up 33 bags of trash from Friday beachgoers, 122 bags for Saturday and 142 for Sunday.

That overshadows an average of fewer than 10 bags for a given day while beach access was restricted due to coronavirus.

"Normally there is an uptick but what we've seen this past weekend is way above normal," Bobbitt said. "It's equivalent to Fourth of July and Memorial Day weekend."

"People need to understand if they leave trash on the ground a bird, fish or sea turtle could be killed by it. It's not just a blight issue it's an environmental issue all around," he said.

Bobbitt said people who want to be even more helpful can take their trash and recyclables with them to prevent bins on the beach from overflowing.

"We encourage everyone to come and enjoy the beaches but pick up after yourself."

Contact Vazquez at tvazquez@floridatoday.com, 321-917-7491 or on Twitter @tyler_vazquez. Support his work by subscribing to FloridaToday.com.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Coronavirus reopenings: Cocoa Beach, Florida, cracks down on litter


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Dora Hates You

Dang, that's so whack....

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It's not."

-Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

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This is why we surf the light

add that to what the cruise ships are dumping, and what doo you get?

10 bags of trash from paradise to the crown yesterday morning. Whats up??? Never seen it soo bad. I get it people use the beach... but jeez pick up your f%$#kin trash.

The cleanest parks, and other natural areas that I have been to do not provide any trash receptacles, instead making it abundantly clear to users that they must hold and take their trash with them. I think most visitors do not intentionally litter. When you offer a tool for pollution prevention, that tool turns into a source of pollution. There's even empirical evidence proving this on Brevard County's beaches, when the dumpsters were generally removed (at least in Cocoa Beach) from beach accesses, vastly improving the pollution situation - litter, water, and air quality. Take every trash can away from every beach access, replacing it with signs: requiring users to pack out their trash; advising of littering law penalties; and encouraging users to document and turn in violators. At least do a 12 month pilot project, and see what happens. Why on earth the municpalities are so spineless, openly adopting policies that they will only take action on littering in the unlikely event that a sworn officer witnesses the littering, is insane. That't not how enforcement of all other pollution prevention laws works.

CB beach patrol is as impotent as the current DOJ.

green


+1

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So if you are a surfer I wish you the prosperity that allows you more time to pursue the salt water dream, and the true happiness that comes from warm water, clean waves and the companionship of your fellow surfers. If you are an internet troll just spewing bs then f off.

Don't agree with this approach at all. Packing out of a camp ground very different than a beach. Been involved with beach clean ups, participating and organizing for many years. Most but not all littering is done by the young. Some litter washes up on the beach. When there are trash receptacles present some community minded people pick the litter up and put it in.



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Replace turf grass with native plants that don't need irrigation and synthetic fertilizers or chemicals that can go into our waterways and ocean

^^^ agree and it is some-ones job to empty those cans...don't want anyone else to loose their job right now..

And what planet is that on , again?

I still wonder why it was soon bad this past weekend???? National throw your trash on the beach day???? Glad it rained all day Sunday. Most of the trash was party material. Cups, cans, clothes. Plenty of food wrappings. I have lived here for 25 years and never seen our beach that bad. Guess folks forgot how to go to the beach.

Air BNB's, VBRO, etc. on the rise in your neighborhood's is part of the issue, what was once a family home or yearly rental has become a party houses with visitors who have no stake in the beach as they are only around for a few days...There's a ton of new families at our beach, new faces, where did they come from? Why don't they pick up their trash? Oh Yeah, they all return to the illegal short term rentals, trash the beach...then a new group arrives...repeat

Edited: 05/12/2020 at 08:05 AM by SurferMic

Folks are pent up. Wait til things really get goin!

the trash strewn along a1a in south brevard is a sign that the people doing this are low iq garbage. who the hell wrecks their own ecosystem?

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Peace, Love and SOUL!

dont even ask about the eau gallie river in my neighborhood my God the amount of trash is unbelievable.

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Peace, Love and SOUL!

During the shutdown the police were understanding enough to let beachgoers mainly surfers park along A1A. Soon to my dismay the garbage started appearing. Daily I grabbed my extension litter grabber and picked up fastfood containers, plastic water bottles etc and toted it to the trash container at spanny or carted it home if I was elsewhere. It's sad. I'm glad it wasn't the straw that got the police to crackdown.



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Replace turf grass with native plants that don't need irrigation and synthetic fertilizers or chemicals that can go into our waterways and ocean

Nat'l parks and other communities around the world have been taking the "remove trash receptacles" or "pack it out approach" for years, reporting that with outreach, signage, education, and some time to adjust, it did result in a cleaner environment, lessening litter, eliminating smelly rodent infested trash receptacles, and making users accountable and more aware of their actions and trash. Why should government have a duty to provide trash receptacles on the beach or at beach accesses. The site of the army of trash cans actually on the beach at minuteman is absurd. It is a true paradox. Heck - why not stage an outhouse at every beach access, or even stick it at the high tide line - god forbid a visitor in inconvenienced. At least in CB, every beach access is littered with a disgusting, smelly trash receptacle, sometimes overflowing, and always smelling, poisining the air and environment, in what should be a pristine place. Point about it encouraging beach users to collect trash from the beach is valid, but I think most of the good citizens doing that are local residents walking to the beach, and would take it home to their own container. You know a private or public entity is truly broken and dysfunctional when they have a problem, but keep throwing the same solutions at the problem, despite evidence showing that their solution is not working. CB should be embarrassed to make national news about their trash on the beach problem. Hopefully, a year from now the headline will read - FL beach town forces users to pack out their trash.