Florida ranks No. 3 for trashiest beaches

Cigarette butts, bottles, pull tabs, syringes, condoms, dead animals, morecigarette butts.No, these are not leftovers from the sleazy neighbor's latest weekendwingding. They are a sampling of lovely stuff collected in a single day fromthe state's beaches.Florida, which trades on its sparkling surf and sand, ranked the thirdtrashiest state in a 2008 coastal cleanup sponsored by the OceanConservancy. The environmental group released the result of its 23rdinternational effort, the largest of its kind, on Tuesday.''The reason we do this and count all the this stuff is to make people awareof the effect of their behavior,'' said Vikki Sprull, president of the OceanConservancy. ``Everything we do on land ends up in the ocean.''Judging by the numbers, what we mostly do is smoke, drink and eat. Burnedout and broken cigarette butts are far and away the most common coastallitter -- 197,389 of them in Florida, 3,216,991 overall in 104 countries and42 states where cleanups took place.Toss in cigars, wrappers and lighters, and smokers alone account for 31percent of the beach debris. This might lead some to conclude that smokers,in addition to being stupid, are slobs. Sprull demurs.''People don't believe it's trash,'' she said. ``They think it is too small,that it decomposes. All of those things are myths.''The dirty details of the group's marine debris index suggest people pursue awide array of activities along the Florida coast -- such as car repair andtarget practice. There were, among the state's 200-plus tons of trash, 1,187car parts, 887 tires and 1,181 shotgun shells.There were some foul items as well -- 1,348 condoms, 780 diapers, 499syringes and 934 women's sanitary napkins. On the plus side, the trends onall four -- and trash overall on Florida's coast -- were actually down fromthe previous year.California had the messiest coast by far, roughly tripling Florida's totals.North Carolina ranked second.© 2009 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.