Trash buildup at Newbury beach leads to 'carry in, carry out' policy

NEWBURY, Mass. — Health Officials in Newbury are concerned about a buildup of trash around Center Beach that could be creating a hazardous situation.

According to town officials, a dumpster in the area was removed after it was vandalized, but now the trash is being dumped in porta potties ore just left on the ground.

There is still one dumpster in the area, but that's also heavily overflowing.

"It gets pretty smelly. You get a lot of nuisance issues like seagulls coming in and picking up the trash. It just kind of trashes up the place that's really, really nice and that's a shame," Steve Smietana said.

Now, Newbury Selectmen are removing the dumpster and portable bathrooms from the beach after they just formalized a "carry in, carry out" rule.

"It's very unfortunate and if people can't play by the rules, I guess that's what happens," Matt Moran said.

Just steps from the ocean is the Beachcoma. Owner Greg Pugh said the solution had been simple in the past.

"We always chipped in as a whole as businesses and everything seemed to go okay. I don't know what happened this year when the town picked up the tab," he said.

Pugh and others say removing the porta potties and the dumpster is not the correct solution.

"Every day we'll get inundated with people coming to use the bathroom here. The trash will become a huge issue. Every weekend people just leave all their stuff here so removing the dumpster is going to make a big impact on the center beach," he said.

Security cameras and a person to monitor the beach were also proposed, but those were not adopted because of budget disputes.

Cox Media Group