Trash the size of a mid-size car hauled from local shores

To become a heavyweight champ in coastal cleanups, all it took was five hours, five Manatee County natural resources employees and a waste-magnet of an island.

With that, during a recent weekend, the county department gathered a haul of more than 1,500 pounds of glass and plastic bottles in just one spot.

Suncoast Aqua-ventures’ Reef and Beach Clean-up competition brought out about 20 teams competing for cash and 100 volunteers to eventually collect 1,377 pounds of trash, aside from that collected by the natural resources department.

Altogether, the trash collected from all over Manatee County — whether it was under water by the Sunshine Skyway Bridge or on the shore of Pine Island — weighed about as much as a Toyota Corolla.

The 90-acre, county-owned island named for its plethora of pine trees is only accessible by boat at the mouth of the Braden River and therefore rarely is visited by park rangers, compared to other county properties.

A small mangrove border lines the island; in its roots snarls and tangles years of trash that falls on the street and flows through the storm drains.

“If it doesn’t make it out to the Gulf, that’s a place where it catches,” said natural resources division manager Michael Elswick, adding that the county participated as volunteers and not an official team.

Cash prizes were doled out to the lucky teams who collected the most in each category. In total, competing teams collected 235 pounds of fishing line and tackle; 40 pounds of metal recyclables; and a whopping 702 pounds of non-metal recyclables.

Although Suncoast Aqua-ventures hasn’t settled a final donation number, proceeds from the event will be evenly divided between the sea turtle rehabilitation programs at Mote Marine and Clearwater Aquarium. Cheryl Huntsinger, a coordinator of the event, said next year they’re likely to continue the tradition of donating to environmentally-minded organizations.

“Everybody had a very positive attitude toward the event,” Huntsinger said. “From word of mouth, I think our event is going to be bigger next year.”

This story was originally published November 23, 2016 at 11:39 AM with the headline "Trash the size of a mid-size car hauled from local shores."