PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — Local organizations are really pushing a message to beach-goers about how important it is to pick up trash.
This comes after clean up crews collected more trash after this Memorial Day weekend compared to years before.
"Sometimes it really gets to you. I do beach clean ups every second Saturday and they are just typical beach clean-ups, but I just wasn't prepared for this holiday weekend and what I saw," said Carrie Auerbach, who volunteers with an organization called Treasure Island Adopt-A-Beach.
Auerbach said this Memorial Day weekend, her volunteers were shocked.
"How about dirty diapers? Lots of lots of food containers because people bring their own food, and rotisserie chickens. One of my volunteers found a whole rotisserie chicken still in its container sitting there on the beach," said Auerbach.
It's something even the locals noticed.
"There was like cups, we had Dorito bags, and bags of chips, cups, those Publix bags," said Joey Perez, who lives near Treasure Island.
Auerbach said her organization collected more trash after Memorial Day weekend than they ever have in previous years.
From plastic bottles to overflowing trashcans, Auerbach said the beach was covered and said a big reason is because more people are visiting the area.
"A stay-cation is a good idea in this economy, so people travel a couple hours or across state," said Auerbach.
It's now turtle nesting season and organizations are really encouraging people to clean up after themselves.
"It's birds, turtles, all those animals, so it's very important to keep everything clean and pick up after yourselves," said Brandy Lee, who was also visiting Treasure Island.
Now Treasure Island Adopt-A-Beach is rolling out a new group of volunteers to patrol the beach.
"They can choose to talk to people they can choose to educate people, but we are going to be out here showing that we are a community with a culture of a clean beach," said Auerbach.
Local residents support the effort and recommend that visitors take responsibility.
"Well just like there's no lifeguard, there's not going to be anybody here to pick up your stuff. So if you're coming to the beach, and you know you're going to be thirsty, drinking, eating, just pack a couple extra bags," said Lee.
The organization expects to have the new beach patrols monitoring the area by the next big holiday: The Fourth of July.
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