On New Year’s Day, Hampton’s Main Beach was a sea of white. Overcast and rain clouds covered the sky as dozens of white repurposed cleanup bags made their way around the beach carried by enthusiastic volunteers.
The First Day Beach Clean-up was held in conjunction with NH Parks & Recreation’s First Day Hike; an annual, fan-favorite event held in rotating parks across the state. Over 275 people attended Hampton Beach on January 1st for a walk along the sea.
Over 200 of these folks joined us to canvas the beach and collect all debris in sight. Rain didn’t stop these dedicated folks from ringing in the new year with a cleanup!
Rainy weather meant we couldn’t collect data on the beach using paper cards or the Marine Debris Tracker mobile app. Volunteers filled cleanup bags with marine debris and brought it back to the Seashell stage where it was emptied, sorted, and tallied.
The Results
Volunteers removed over 10,500 pieces of debris from Hampton’s Main Beach between the hours of 12 noon and 3 pm.
Total Weight: 210 pounds
Total Count: 10,500 debris items
Cleanup Participants: 200 adults & children
Cleanup Time: 3 hours
The haul included 2029 cigarette butts, 4450 pieces of plastic-lined cardboard from fireworks the night before, 273 plastic wrappers, and 42 metal beverage cans. We also found the following random and obscure items.
A used toothbrush
3 golf balls & a golf tee
A fleece sweatshirt
Many band aids
Several rubber bands
Children’s sand toys
A book
A tape measure
A sock
Lots of plastic confetti
Thank You
Thanks to everyone who joined us for this fun, impactful event! It warmed our hearts to see so many volunteers grab a cleanup bag and trudge through the rain to collect debris. Every piece makes a difference!
Join Us
Blue Ocean Society has the tools to help you with a beach cleanup. Check out our Digital Cleanup Kit, a guide to holding your own beach cleanup for yourself or your family and friends.
We can lead a beach cleanup for you! We will bring our supplies and beach cleanup knowledge, clean the beach with you, and take care of the trash for you afterwards. Book a private beach cleanup for your friends, community, or company outing here.
Want to help the ocean year-round? Adopt a beach! We provide you with the supplies and the know-how, and you clean the beach once a month on your schedule for a calendar year. Beaches in Great Bay and Maine need adopters! Fill out an Adopt-A-Beach application.
Join us in the fight for a clean ocean! Our monthly public cleanups are on pause for the time being. Sign up for our email list for a notification when those cleanups restart.
My first Beach cleanup day.
Thank you for the work your group does!
I got to see parts of Hampton I had never seen.
Do you do a cleanup at Seabrook?
Judy,
Thanks so much for joining us! We have sites at Seabrook that people can adopt through our Adopt-a-Beach program (First Unitarian Universalist Society of Exeter and Phillips Exeter Academy clean a portion of Seabrook Beach regularly). We also occasionally do small group cleanups there. We don’t have public cleanups at Seabrook because parking isn’t readily available. If you’d like more information, feel free to contact us via email at info(at)blueoceansociety.org!