Trash Fouls World's Beaches

One day of beach cleanup last year netted 6 million pounds of trash worldwide, an environmental group says. Volunteers in 76 countries collected an average of 182 pounds per mile of beach; the US weighed in at 390 pounds per mile, the AP reports. "We're the bad guys," said the head of the Ocean Conservancy. "Trash doesn't fall from the sky."

The 378,000 volunteers found that about a third of the discarded items came from smokers—2.3 million cigarette butts, filters, and cigars. In all, the report due out tomorrow says, 57% of trash came from beachfront recreational activity; 2% was from dumping; less than 1% was generated by medical or personal-hygiene waste. (More beach stories.)