Six million pounds of trash were picked up in a one-day global beach cleanup last September, according to a new report from the Ocean Conservancy. In one day, beachcombers covering 33,000 miles of shoreline in 76 countries found an average 182 pounds of trash per mile. That was comprised of 7.2 million items of garbage — food wrappers, bottles, fishing lines, plastic bags, and more. A full one-third of the trash items were cigarette butts, filters, cigar tips, and other smoking-related paraphernalia. The conservancy also tallied the impact of using the great outdoors as a waste bin: Volunteers came across 235 animals that had become entangled in debris.
