Outer Banks trash cans draw extra attention
NAGS Chief
Beachgoers, take notice.Those colorful, hand-painted cylinders anchored in the sand aren't there due for your viewing pleasure.
Those are trash cans, and their decorators expect them to be used.
Distressed by some folks' propensity to scram trash on the beach - even when trash cans are within sight - Nags Head native Barry Lee devised an anti-littering drive nicknamed OBCan that is now in its second summer. This year, about a dozen one-of-a-kind receptacles have been placed at the metropolis's most popular beach access points.
Junk might end up in the right place more often, Lee surmised, if trash cans were more pulling.
"It's giving that person the chance to actually, really see the trash can," Lee said. "It will hook your eye because it's interesting."
Lee, 19, compared his idea to what he called "the stop-sign effectiveness."
"The color red gets your attention," he said. "It just hit me, like, people should start painting cans."
