South Shore Beach (Little Compton)
Trash Collected: 3.0 lbs.  10.5.09 
South Shore Beach in Little Compton is on Rhode Island Sound– a long stretch of sand with smooth rocks.  It’s high tide at around 10am, the waves breaking hard.  It’s a sunny morning and two families with young children are running in the sun and enjoying the morning.   The sand is soft as I walk along the beach, sinking in.  It’s a clean beach and I find mostly small pieces of plastic, then a discarded sandal.  Walking along I see an empty bottle washed up on the shore.

 This is a beautiful beach, a small stretch of sand against water and sky with Westport, Massachusetts in the distance.  People coming and going, couples driving in, parking, walking.  It’s a clear morning in Little Compton with just the wind, the sand, the waves, the gulls and all of us enjoying this Monday morning in early October.  I throw my bag of trash in the back of the car – no garbage cans here – and head up the road to Goosewing Beach.  I get a surprise up there but don’t know it as I drive along.Goosewing Beach is next to South Shore Beach on Rhode Island Sound; a stream too deep to cross at high tide but passable at low tide separates the two beaches.  This is the only access to Goosewing Beach.  The  map shows a road but it’s private and blocked by a gate; I find that out as I drive up.  So the only access is across the stream via South Shore Beach.  I head off to Padanarum Village and figure I’ll get back to Goosewing Beach later at low tide on my way back through.

Goosewing Beach (Little Compton)
Trash Collected: 1.3 lbs.
At low tide I wade across the rocks and onto Goosewing Beach.  This beach is smooth sand and scattered rocks, with just a few birds.  There is also almost no trash – just some small pieces of plastic here and there, a plastic lid, a piece of a plastic cup.  There’s something to be said for limited access as I walk and walk and find nothing.  I pick up a piece of fishing line and part of a fishing rod.  

My twenty minutes are up, my bag is light and when I weigh the trash it’s the least I’ve collected at any beach so far – just a little over one pound.  If all beaches were this hard to access, would they all be so pristine?