What Washes Up After July 4th At Minnesota's Beaches

We have all learned (hopefully) to clean up after ourselves. You do it whenever you go to someone's house for a visit, you, hopefully, clean up your own home and don't leave things all over the place. And you are encouraged to make sure that you throw things away in the correct receptacle for garbage and recycling.

So, when you are enjoying a long holiday weekend out on the water, or alongside the water on a beach, you need to remember to do that in this case too. Clean up after yourself!

Obviously, there are things that happen that are an accident. Like dropping your phone and/or charger into the lake. Oops! Probably not going to find that thing again. But dumping aluminum cans or some glass bottles into the lake is not a great idea.

The 4th of July long holiday weekend was just this past weekend. And right after the festivities are over, there is a cleaning crew that goes out in the water and tries to clean up what the "partiers" have left behind.

GARBAGE AND STUFF UNCOVERED IN LAKE MINNETONKA

Apparently this year, not nearly as bad as it has been in some other years. The divers who go each year to do some clean up said "the best thing would be for us to find absolutely nothing out there". But that never happens, unfortunately.

From CBS:

The crew found a rat resting in peace, then a piece or two of furniture.

"Just a couple of boat cushions if anyone's looking for them," he said. Other items people may be looking for include phone chargers, a bunch of beer cans, mini liquor bottles, sunglasses and the top of a Yeti. But what stood out most was all the good behavior. "We've been seeing less and less garbage on the lake. People are really doing a great job of picking up after themselves."

That is some great news there - obviously it could be better, but this is a step in the right direction.

CLEAN UP AT PARK POINT IN THE DULUTH AREA

This is the Surfrider Foundation's effort to clean up the Park Point beach. There were so many things - garbage found along the beach. It's a little disgusting.

The nonprofit, which focuses on plastic pollution, said Sunday’s priority was firework debris, cigarette butts, and other trash along the shoreline — items that may have been too hot or easy to miss in the immediate aftermath of the holiday.

This almost sounds worse than what they were finding in Lake Minnetonka. This should tell everyone that we all need to do our part when you are celebrating... whatever. But this time it was for the 250th birthday of America. Let's try and keep it clean - it's just a respect thing, in general.