10 Tons Of Trash Collected On Beach After Memorial Day ‘Floatopia’ Event
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (CBS Local) — Ten tons of trash was left behind Monday morning on the shore of Virginia Beach after a Memorial Day event known as “Floatopia.”
The Chesapeake Bay Beach, commonly know as Chic’s Beach, hosted the event on Sunday where beach-goers celebrate the holiday by bringing floats to the beach. On Monday, locals discovered beer cans, plastic bags, man-made rafts and other trash piled up on the shore.
“Total disrespect for our bay, our animals, beach and our private property,” said George Marino of Virginia Beach.
Drew Lankford, with Virginia Beach Public Works, said 10 tons of trash were removed by cleaning crews, who started work around 4 a.m.
“All kinds of garbage, trash, bottles, towels, pieces of clothing, mats, cans,” Lankford told WAVY.
Longtime Virginia Beach resident Melissa Noel documented the scene on video and shared it on Facebook.
“Stay classy Virginia Beach,” she is heard to say as she viewed cups, wrappers and other trash strewn along the shore.
“I had never seen the beach look like that before and I had originally just posted it to my Facebook page and my friend asked me to make it shareable and then all of a sudden it really got big,” Noel said.
Virginia Beach City Council member Michael Berlucchi also took to social media to share his disapproval.
“I was disappointed to wake up this morning to see images of trash all over our beautiful Chesapeake Bay beach after Sunday’s festivities. We can do better than this! Let’s work together to keep our City beautiful and clean,” the councilman said.