- November 18, 2024
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Flagler Beach locals donned gloves and trash bags Sunday, June 8 on the south side of the Flagler Beach pier. The impromptu beach cleanup spurred from a family walk on the pier. As A.J. and Megan Neste walked down the pier with their children, they watched as fishermen caught fish and the pelicans tried to stake their claim, but what they saw on their walk back stopped A.J. Neste in his tracks.
“I just could not believe the amount of trash that was blatantly left on the beach,” he said. “I was actually speechless and my daughter, she made me laugh because she just goes ‘dada, look at all the trash, let’s pick it up.’”
And so they did.
But that wasn’t enough for them. Families who live beachside regularly clean up the beach by their block; but holding an organized cleanup in the middle of the afternoon on a Sunday provides a little more exposure.
“I grew up here and never seen (the trash) this bad,” Neste said.
But what’s different about the trash being found on Flagler Beach is that it’s not washing up on an island. Slurpees with straws still in them are sitting in the sand next to an imprint of a beach towel. A dirty diaper was even picked up during the Sunday cleanup.
“This is blatant pollution,” Neste said. “People are coming here, spending a great day on the beach and then they are getting up and walking away. I just don’t understand that.”
Traveling the world for surf photography, Neste saw how people on different islands treated their beach; as if it were their home.
“If someone polluted on their beach they’d be stopped in their tracks, turned around and told to go pick it up,” he said. “It’s not so much intimidation, it’s just respect.”
That’s the kind of respect Neste hopes that everyone visiting Flagler Beach adopts. The goal is that it’s not just a beach cleanup, but the start of a movement. The slogan; “love our beach.”
“We want to show (visitors) that it’s a common love that we have; be known as a beach that is not just fun waves and beautiful sand, but a beach that its number one priority is taking care of it for its future,” Neste said.
One company who took notice of Neste’s efforts is Flomotion, a Florida clothing company that focuses on the Florida lifestyle. Flomotion donated shirts, hats and the use of its tent for the afternoon because the cleanup coincides with their belief in respecting the land. Rocky's Pizzeria, Pasta Pasta and Giuseppe's NY Pizza also donated pizza to the cleanup.
“We’re not inventing the beach cleanup, let’s be real,” Neste said. “But what we’ve already noticed is that we’ve had a bunch of out-of-towners — that have the whitest skin in the world, from middle-America — that have gloves on and carrying bags. We want to celebrate the fact that we have a beautiful beach and we can keep enjoying it.”
To get involved with the Love our Beach movement, email [email protected].
