Partygoers leave 10 tons of trash on Virginia beach after Memorial Day bash, residents horrified
The residents of a Virginia beach are fuming at visitors who left piles of garbage on the shore during the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
As per reports, city crews on the beach were faced with a major cleanup Monday morning after at least 10 tons of trash was left behind.
Video footage shot by resident Melissa Noel quickly went viral after she posted it on Facebook, drawing furious reactions from locals and elected officials alike. “It’s a big party. It gets bigger every year,” said Chris Kane, a Chic’s Beach resident, of the Floatopia event.
Floatopia is an annual beach bash that celebrates the unofficial beginning of summer.
Kane said it’s taken place at Chic’s Beach the last few years. “Wall-to-wall people, wall-to-wall fun, lots of music, lots of dancing,” Kane said.
The viral video clip shows the sand littered with garbage.
“All kinds of garbage... Trash, bottles, towels, pieces of clothing, mats, cans, food wrappers, plastic rafts, everything,” said Drew Lankford who works with the City of Virginia Beach Public Works Department. “You know, it’s not a whole lot of effort to clean up after yourself,” Lankford said.
"It was almost like they saw a tornado coming and everybody just got up and ran for safety and left everything there," Lankford added.
"I was disappointed to wake up this morning to see images trash all over our beautiful Chesapeake Bay beach after Sunday’s festivities," city councilman Michael F. Berlucchi wrote on Twitter. "We can do better than this! Let’s work together to keep our City beautiful," he said.
According to WAVY, the city released a statement Tuesday morning saying it was "disappointed" to see the condition of the beach following Floatopia.
The statement further stated, "However, thanks to the swift and thorough work of our Beach Operations crew, the beach is once again clean, and more than 10 tons of trash and debris has been cleared away. Our sincere thanks goes out to those citizens who helped pitch in to clean up as well."
The city hopes beachgoers will take note for the future.
City officials are additionally reminding beachgoers to leave the beach how they found it.
“First impressions do a lot for tourism,” Lankford said. “We get letters a lot from people saying they’re just amazed at how the place looks when they get here, and we also know that people, if they see something they don’t like, there’s a good chance they’re not coming back.”
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