VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — It was a busy holiday weekend at the Oceanfront. That also means it's been busy for those cleaning up.
Garbage collection crews got an early start Wednesday.
"The tractors start at two a.m. Every year, besides COVID, Fourth of July is the busiest weekend for Virginia Beach," said Mitch St. Clair assistant superintendent for the VB Beach Operations team.
"This morning was pretty rough," said a worker as he swept along Atlantic Avenue.
Each little bit and bottle cap is a remnant of the night before.
The bottle caps are a common theme for someone else moving through the Independence Day aftermath too.
Mark West of Virginia Beach uses his metal detector to comb the beach often. His finds Wednesday?
"A lot of trash unfortunately. Folks come down here and they party and all that stuff. Unfortunately, they throw a lot of it on the ground," said West.
But with inspiration from Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn he's always on the hunt for something else.
"Treasure's pretty good. I got a nice little ring here, probably three or four dollars in change," said West.
He said Virginia Beach is one of his favorite spots to search.
"Virginia Beach is the epicenter of treasure hunting as far as I'm concerned," said West.
Regardless of whether his finds are trash or treasure he says he's glad to play a small role in cleaning up the beach.
"If people continue to do what they're doing we're not going to have all this," said West as he gestured to the rest of the beach.
City workers said you can help with the cleanup efforts too.
"What helps us out is, picking up after yourself of course," said St. Clair.
Last year crews removed 119 tons of garbage from all Virginia Beach beaches over the Fourth of July weekend. This year they expect that number to grow to a rough estimate of 125 tons.
