provided by the Container Recycling Institute
f you're headed for the shore, you can expect to encounter
more cigarette butts and beverage containers on the beach than any other
littered item. According to the 1996 annual beach cleanup sponsored by the
Center for Marine Conservation (CMC), the 608,759 cigarette butts collected
make them the most littered item by piece count on U.S. beaches. Beverage
cans and bottles were second at 380,213 containers. Another 261,920 items
associated with beverage containers (e.g., bottle caps, pull tabs, six-pack
rings and glass pieces) were also collected, for a total of 642,133 pieces
of "beverage containers and associated goods."
However, Pat Franklin, Executive Director of
the Container Recycling Institute, maintains that measuring litter by piece
count is deceiving. "Measuring litter by volume provides a more accurate
measure of the visual impact of litter," she said. "A can or bottle
is a heck of a lot bigger than a cigarette butt, and a broken bottle is
lot more treacherous."
Franklin says beverage containers are gaining
ground in the battle for the most littered item on America's shorelines
by piece count, too. According to CRI's analysis of CMC data, cigarette
butts declined 30 percent last year, while beverage containers dropped just
4 percent. "If one butt equals one bottle, then beverage containers
are the Avis of beach litter," Franklin said. "But on a volume
basis, beer and soda cans and bottles hold the number one spot on the litter
charts."
She noted that over 140,667 pieces of glass
were collected during CMC's beach cleanup, most of which were from broken
beverage bottles. "That is the kind of litter that is not only unsightly,
but dangerous," she said.
Franklin maintains that beverage container
litter is a rarer sight in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Maine,
Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Oregon and Vermont. "In those states
beer and soda cans and bottles have a deposit value ranging from 2.5 - 10
cents. The deposit value provides a disincentive to litter," she said.
