GRAND HAVEN, Mich. - More than 10,000 people visited the Grand Haven State Park Beach over the holiday weekend and unfortunately many of them left the area trashed.
“This is a mess,” Debi Shelton said as she sat on her beach chair surrounded by bottles and plastic bags.
“I found it fascinating that people could be such pigs, for lack of a better word,” she continued. “I'm not surprised by the quantity of people down here because it's a beautiful place, but the trash is upsetting.”
DNR workers spent a majority of the day cleaning up the trash thousands left behind this weekend and unfortunately this wasn't too surprising for them.
“They do have a beach cleaner that pulls behind a tractor and that will sweep the beach, pick all the things up. Cleans it very well but it takes time to do that,” Pat Whalen with the Department of Natural Resources said.
Meanwhile it’s turning off out-of-state beach goers like Kevin Krampf.
“It's more than gross,” he told 13 On Your Side. “We've been coming here for three years and without a doubt this is the worse day we've seen it. There's literally trash 3-4 feet from us and we don't mind picking it up some. But in that same respect it takes a minute to pick up after yourself.”
It's a sentiment beach officials echoed.
“We've got trash cans throughout the beach and it's like that at any Michigan State Park. We love to have the people there but yeah the people can take care of that themselves,” Whalen said. “When they show up they can take their trash and take it to those reciprocals. We provide those for that reason.”
Michigan does have littering laws but the person needs to be caught in the act. If they are, they can get a ticket. Depending on the amount they litter, that ticket can be up to $800 - $2500.
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