Plastic discs are the ultimate beach accessory. Toss one to a girl, to your dog, or your homie with a mustache, and they’ll know exactly what to do. Unfortunately, frisbees aren’t covering New Hampshire and Massachusetts beaches by the millions. After heavy rains on March 6th, somewhere between four and eight million plastic discs from an upstream sewage facility made their way 50 miles down the Merrimack River and straight into the Atlantic Ocean. As I picked them up one by one, I came to the realization that these discs might be the only reason why this event became newsworthy.
The discs, like those pictured here, didn’t come to the beach alone. Rather, they were accompanied by thousands of pounds of sewage. Generally unnoticed, water and sewage plants like this may overflow or malfunction multiple times per year. Without these plastic discs to remind us, this would have been just another disaster unseen.
Thank you to New Hampshire Surfrider Foundation for organizing Saturday’s beach cleanup. In a few hours and on a short stretch of beach, hundreds of the millions were removed from one of our favorite surf spots. For the facts: http://www.newburyportnews.com/breakingnews/x1498150318/Plastic-discs-cause-beach-closure
