Big crowds bring litter, city cleans up - WMBFNews.com, Myrtle Beach/Florence SC, Weather

Big crowds bring litter, city cleans up

MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WMBF) – A busy Memorial Day Weekend brought in big crowds to Myrtle Beach, but when those crowds left, they left behind a lot of litter. Now The City of Myrtle Beach is set to clean it up.

Bottles, beer cans, and other trash can be found on most of the streets in downtown Myrtle Beach. Workers with Parks and Recreation have begun the cleanup effort, moving from street-to-street picking up and disposing of whatever litter they can find. They begin their day at six o'clock in the morning and don't stop until ten at night.

But even with the city's efforts to clean up the streets, visitors to the Grand Strand are taking notice of the high levels of litter. Isaac and Kylie Montoya, visiting from New Mexico, noticed the trash in the streets from their hotel balcony.

"There was a lot of stuff in the street," says Kylie. "It was flying around and blowing in the wind. It was gross."

Some people point the finger for all the litter at the massive crowds that crowded Ocean Boulevard for all the Memorial Day events. Others say the trash comes from the bikers cruising through town for Atlantic Beach Bike Fest. But some bikers claim that isn't the case.

"Most bikers are clean and controlled," says Andre Barlow, who traveled from Maryland to participate in Bikefest. "There are a lot of high school and college kids who don't have bikes here. They're usually the litterbugs."

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