Talking Trash on Tybee By Alaina Loughridge - Photos by Mac McLellan
Living on Tybee is a blessing and for those of us lucky enough to live here,
we treasure our little piece of happy paradise with a fierce pride. However,
one of the fallbacks of living here is our influx of visitors that, during the
summer, can be truly overwhelming at times. Lots of visitors come here to
enjoy what we call home, and with that comes humanity and a never-ending
ability to pick up one’s trash and leave nothing but one’s footprints. Everyone
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is to blame for this… whether you drop your cigarette butt in the sand, leave
a dirty diaper on the sidewalk and/or watch any of it happening without
speaking up. Fortunately for Tybee, we have Tybee Clean Beach and these
people refuse to take this trash lying down and are front and center to help
educate and promote anti-litter and to grab their sticks and buckets and get
out there to do something about it.
I had an opportunity to sit down with Tim Arnold, the mastermind behind
Tybee Clean Beach, and get the trash talk about Tybee. But first, I participated
in my first beach sweep on a June Sunday afternoon. I am ashamed to admit
that I have never taken my time to do this before, so armed with my own
pick-up stick and bucket, I set out with Mac McLellan and a determination
to do my part. Twenty minutes later I realized I shouldn’t be holding that
stick and bucket because I wanted to start swinging! I know… but once
you get out there and pick up dirty diapers, glass bottles, a million and four
cigarette butts, and an astonishing variety of just yuck, you start to get mad.
What saved me from running screaming were the all the other volunteers
that were there. From Mom, Dad and the kids, to a Vietnam Vet, beach bums,
surfers, and random tourists, they were all a variety of random humanity
with one intent. That one weekend involved 29 volunteers from the Cub