VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — If you're headed down to the Virginia Beach Oceanfront this weekend, you'll notice four new boxes out on the sand aimed at reducing plastic toys left on the beach.
On Friday the beach toy boxes were placed at 7th St., 17th St., 24th St., and 31 St.
It's all a part of a pilot program that has been in the making since 2019.
After a family is done enjoying the beach, they could put items like sand castle molds or toy shovels in the box for other families to use during the summer.
The group hopes this will help cut down on families buying new sand toys while at the same time keeping plastic out of the Atlantic Ocean.
"We do find these plastic beach toys on much more remote beaches like False Cape State Park, Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge," said Christina Trapani, with Keep It Beachy Clean. "So when they're washing out they are washing back in and landing on these remote beaches which should be pristine."
Boxes were constructed by Lynhaven River Now volunteer, Mike Lavery.
The unique artwork around the boxes was painted on by students at Seatack and Cooke Elementary Schools.
"One Friday I painted 88 first grader hands and those are all over the two boxes," said Laura Traylor with Virginia Master Naturalists, an environmental group. "The idea Ms.Johnson, one of the first-grade teachers had was to turn them into sea creatures."
Molly Riley, with Lynnhaven River Now, said the boxes will be monitored all summer long to make sure only toys go in them. They hope to expand the program for summers to come.
"We wanna see these [boxes] filled with toys by the end of the summer," Riley said. "Then be used for many summers to come."
