When Sallie Dickinson and her family go out to enjoy the sandy shore near their Topsail Island home, they are always mindful to be stewards for the beach by picking up litter. 

"That's kind of our rule," Dickinson said. "Anytime when we go out to the beach and if there's any trash, we bring it back with us." 

Dickinson, president of the soundside homeowners association for Queens Grant in Topsail Beach, said it's something a lot of people in the area do for a clean environment. While paper, cups and bottles are easy to see, many of them are probably unaware of another problem — polystyrene foam coming from docks. 

The town of Topsail Beach is working to draft a new ordinance to eliminate unencapsulated polystyrene in dock floats and buoys in local waterways. It's one of many efforts of an island-wide environmental management initiative, which also includes Surf City and North Topsail Beach.

According to a sample ordinance, polystyrene is a petroleum product, commonly known as Styrofoam. It is often used in dock floats because of its ability to float in the water. It's not recyclable nor biodegradable and takes hundreds of years to degrade in the environment. When exposed to the elements, small fragments may be ingested by marine life, wild and domestic water birds and other wildlife. 

"Personally, if there was intervention from the town to make more mandates, that would not hurt my feelings," Dickinson said. "Any light that can be shined on environmental issues, we are all for because if we don't step up to the plate, things can go south really quickly in such a delicate ecosystem." 

The Topsail Island Shoreline Protection Commission is working on effort with help from the Pender County Tourism Department and the Topsail Area Chamber of Commerce. Participants launched "BEeach CLEAN" to help stop litter and other environmental issues. 

North Carolina Coastal Federation (NCCF) is also involved in the effort. 

Kerri Allen, a coastal advocate and Southeast regional manager for NCCF, said it's something a lot of property owners don't think about when it comes to the environment. She looking forward to educating property owners about how they can help the environment by buildings more durable decks, saving money in the long run. 

A similar ordinance was found in Camden, Maine, where the hard encapsulation of floating docks were required. It includes an expanded foam core, which is one solid piece, instead of all the beads melted together. A hard shell is also melted on. 

If Topsail Beach moves forward with ordinance, it will be the first town in North Carolina to regulate the floating dock materials, Allen said. 

"We're really excited that they've been such a strong voice on this and excited to use it as a pilot ordinance and hopefully have other towns adopt similar language," Allen said.

After Hurricane Florence in 2018, officials noticed areas where private docks and piers were completely destroyed or damaged from aerial images from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NCCF worked with the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality's Coastal Management to launch a marine debris cleanup, which received state funding from legislators. 

Local fishermen and crews were hired. They removed an average of 1 ton of debris per day, which is about 2,000 pounds. 

"Two years later, they actually caught 2 million pounds and they're still going at it out on our coast," Allen said.

According to officials, 80% of all the debris is from the docks and piers. This led to town and environmental leaders to push for better docks and receive input from stakeholders, contractors and engineers. The organization is still in the early stages of making plans. One of the recommendations was the encapsulation of polystyrene in floating docks. Debris crews were finding 30-to-50-foot swabs of the polystyrene throughout the marsh. 

"For anyone who's seen a Styrofoam cup or something dissolve, once those millions of beads are out there in the environment, we're not getting those out," Allen said. "They make their way into the marsh, into our water, into our seafood and into wildlife." 

If the ordinance is approved by Topsail Beach commissioners, residents with unencapsulated docks will be grandfathered in, until a new dock is required. Christina Burke, assistant town manager, said the town does not have a count of uncapped docks.

"At this point, the board does not have an appetite to say 'OK, in five years, everybody has to come into compliance,'" Burke said. "It's just going to be one of those phasing out of things that have to be repaired or replaced." 

Allen said most people favor the encapsulated dock after storms. 

"Certainly older structures have it where it's just basically a hunk of polystyrene wrapped in filter cloth, so it's something where animals can get in their and start nibbling at it and it starts breaking away pretty quickly," she said. "I don't anticipate a lot of pushback because it is a superior product and more people are moving towards it." 

Burke said a draft of the ordinance could be presented during an April meeting. She doesn't expect a lot of new environmental rules to be presented in the future, but there will be an emphasis placed on educating the public. The main points are using trash containers, not bringing glass to the beach, picking up after pets, and filling holes on the beach to help sea turtles. 

Scott Franko, a participant in the "BEeach CLEAN" initiative, is working on branding efforts for the campaign, which is also receiving support in joining the state and federal "Leave No Trace" program. 

"It's basically trying to educate people and remind them, hey look, as we're all flocking to places of public uses like beaches, mountains, or wherever tourism is, we got to get rid of this stadium mentality where people are just showing up, having a good time, making a mess, and they assume that someone is coming around after they leave to do the cleanup," Franko said. "That's not the case."

Steven G. Smith, mayor of Topsail Beach, said the dock ordinance is just a little step, but it could have an impact if there's a storm or other weather events where docks are damaged and find their ways into local marshes. 

"It's one thing the communities can do to help reduce the impact of microplastics in our environment," Smith said. "Everybody needs to do their part, and look long term and not short term at what we're doing." 

Reporter Chase Jordan can be reached at cjjordan@gannett.com.