Wounded Nature-Working Veterans Clean Up Drum Island’s Western Coastline

Most of the trash on this island has accumulated at the high tide line where it starts to break down in the elements. Exposure to the sun and salt water causes the plastic and foam to start breaking KHB_6514off into smaller pieces and arsenic and creosote leech from the treated wood. Once a tidal surge or coastal flood occurs, all of these chemicals and small pieces of edible plastics move into the seafood nurseries located around this island. There are oyster beds, shrimp, flounder, crab, and many coastal fish species living in this area. This uninhabited island also contains an abundance of wildlife including a large population of deer and is used as a nesting area for many species of birds.

With all of the resources utilized below, we were only able to clean up less than one mile of the island’s coastline. But for this stretch of coastline that had never been cleaned before, our volunteers made a big difference.

Resources for the cleanup:

121 Volunteers = 605 volunteer hours
7 Recreational Boats
2 Government-Owned Boats
1 Commercial Transport Boat

Sponsors who made the cleanup possible:

Adventure Harbor Tours
All Around Tires
Barefoot Wine
Charleston Resort Marina
Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation
Liquid Culture
Republic Services

Participating companies:

Boeing
Cummins Inc.

Participating Government Agencies:

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
South Carolina DNR

Results of the cleanup:

Amount of trash and debris collected:
Volume: 34 cubic yards in the dumpster
12 tires equaling another 2 cubic yards taken by a tire retail store for disposal
Weight:  Dumpster – net weight 6,200 pounds
Tires – 440 pounds

We left several piles of collected trash on the island.  Once we return to the island and remove those piles, we will update these totals.

Contents of trash collected:

Some teams did a great job of recording what was taken off the island.  Some teams were a little challenged when it came to providing a detailed count.  I believe the count below is a fair summary of what we removed from the island on 3-15-2014.  Removing everything that did not belong there was our goal.  We had a well-balanced mix of volunteers.  Some teams concentrated on the tedious job of picking up and counting the hundreds of small items like soda bottles and pieces of foam while others were removing large and heavy pieces of debris.

Trash and Debris Inventory:

7 pairs pants 2 shirts 21 shoes and flip flops
1 towel 10 rags/pieces of cloth 2 pieces of fishing line
7 fishing bobbers 3 nets 12 rope
7 fishing related items 521 pieces of foam 265 glass containers
18 bulbs (most  unbroken) 72 metal  containers 2 sand fencing wire strands
37 paper/cardboard items 10 balloons 1,173 plastic bottles
143 detached bottle caps 289  wrappers/containers 52 straws
6 plastic utensils 1 plastic baby doll 22 cigarette lighters
3 plastic tarps/sheets 37 plastic items 15 balls
100 feet of rubber hose 28 rubber other than tires 531 wood items
1 bicycle 1 car muffler 1 fire extinguisher
2 notes in a bottle