Litterbugs are continuing to spoil Bermuda's scenic beaches and public areas with discarded junk food wrappers, beer bottles, cigarette butts and even condoms.

Martin Brown, Superintendent of the Parks Department, told littering has increased in public parks and beaches and is taking a chunk of money out of the department's budget and ruining the clean, pristine image Bermuda wants to promote overseas.

"As a nation, we're filthy," said Mr. Brown.

As part of the Island's regular clean-up schedule, the department has three workers who spend 30 hours a week in the early morning cleaning up the stretch of road between Elbow Beach and Barnes Corner. The majority of trash picked up consists of beer bottles and junk food wrappers left on the beaches or in the parks by locals and visitors who are enjoying picnics and have not been careful enough to clean up after themselves.

The Parks Department has an operating budget of $6 million for the year. Out of that, Mr. Brown said littering is costing taxpayers a total of $500,000 a year to clean up parks in the western and eastern ends of the Island.

Rather than being able to concentrate staff in park development projects, four people are employed to pick up trash, seven days a week. Six are employed on the weekend to clean up parks in both ends of the Island.

Mr. Brown said visitors and locals also complain about any rubbish they spot ? particularly during the summer months when storm surge washes up any discarded items which may have been left floating in the ocean. Trash in the environment is inevitable to a certain extent, but most littering is out of laziness, he said.

"This pollution is affecting us. The amount of non-degradeable trash that is ending up in the environment is worrying, knowing what plastics and the like can do in the ocean and to our natural environment," said Mr. Brown. "In the short term this affects the product we are able to offer as an Island."

Mr. Brown said some of the littering culprits include summer day camps, which should be stressing the importance of cleaning up any trash left behind to their campers.

"This is becoming a worrying trend, holiday camps are bringing snacks and lunches to the parks with paper cups and are not taking the care to teach the children that their actions are impacting on the park," he said.

But coastal clean-up coordinator Robyn Bungay said it's not just bottles and junk food wrappers people are leaving behind.

During Monday's clean-up at the cruise ship terminal in Dockyard, Ms Bungay and her team found used tampons and condoms, plastic chairs, batteries, a vacuum cleaner, discarded school backpacks and other miscellaneous items.

In total, 15 workers picked up 322 pounds of trash in a half mile.

At the end the clean-up, they had collected 903 were cigarette butts and 21 bags filled with glass and aluminium cans.

According to environmentalists at the Ocean Conservancy, an organisation which studies debris trends in marine areas, the items most often tossed into the environment by litterbugs are cigarette butts.

"People are not realising the effects that cigarette butts can have one the marine environment, on our health and on the health of the animals that live in the oceans," said Ms. Bungay.

Environmentalists hope to emphasise the small things the community can do which make a positive long term impact on the Island.

"If the public would realise little actions have a big impact, they'll be more inclined to do the right thing and put the trash they throw away in a proper trash can," said Ms. Bungay.

Lennox Boodram, who runs clean-up group Keep Bermuda Beautiful, said litter is increasing all over the Island. He questions the effectiveness of the law in fining people who litter.

"When is the last time someone was fined for littering?" said Mr. Boodram. "Littering is increasing in parks and public beaches where people are of the mentality that they are not responsible for keeping public areas clean."

Mr. Boodram invites the public to participate in a coastal clean-up day this Saturday. In order to get involved call his office at 295-5142.