North Avenue Beach was trashed after Memorial Day

CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) - After the Memorial Day party at North Avenue Beach, beach-goers didn’t clean up after themselves, leaving quite the mess for the city to cleanup.

Parts of the beach were even difficult to see through the garbage, lining the lake shore.

Cleaning crews came out early to make sure the beaches opened at 11 Tuesday morning. But some beach-goers say there were still remnants left behind.

"We were running to the beach and all of a sudden I look down and my foot starts hurting. I look down and there's a brown beer bottle and my foot started bleeding,” said Caroline Trefelner.

A fun day at North Avenue beach turned into a visit to the lifeguard post for Trefelner. Fortunately, her foot won't require stiches, but she can't even jump into the water.

"It, like, upsets me because we're all just trying to have fun, we're all just trying to tan, go in the water and it kind of stinks. You have to be careful and you have to watch every little step you take,” Trefelner said.

Although the beach is in much better condition now, earlier today there was trash as far as the eye can see: beer bottles, liquor bottles, which are things you should not have on Chicago’s beaches.

"We've been to a lot of beaches in the world and this is the trashiest one we've ever seen. There's beer cans, beer bottles, broken glass, there's just trash all over the place. It's unbelievable,” said tourist Jaime Warcken.

The solution is pretty simple: throw away your trash.

The park district says it takes out the trash at least four times a day on a busy holiday like Memorial Day.

So, there's no excuse.

"Annually we spend over 4 million dollars picking up litter. Think of what we could do with that money if people only helped us out,” said Cathy Breitenbach, Director of Natural Resources.

That’s something people like Trefelner would be grateful for.

"Do whatever you want to do just make sure you throw away the stuff you bring to the beach,” Trefelner said.

The city park district says it didn't have to deploy more cleaning crews than normal, but holidays are the worst for trash.

The best way to avoid the mess, take a lesson from your mother and pick up after yourself.