FOR a large majority of the expatriate community, Christmas Day means drinking champagne on the public portion of Elbow Beach.

Piles of champagne bottles line the beach as party-goers don sunglasses and Santa hats while chatting with friends and family. Some brave souls even take a dip in the cold water making Bermudians shiver at the thought.

As Keep Bermuda Beautiful (KBB) inspected the beach on Boxing Day, the group reported that it found two "huge heaps of bottles and other trash centred around the two bins at the bottom of the steps".

According to the Director of KBB Dr. Eugene Harvey, while the revellers made an effort to keep things tidy, they could have gone one step further by bringing their trash up to the recycling barrels at the top of the entrance steps that were left there for Christmas Day clean-up purposes.

"It was very evident that the Christmas partygoers had made a fine effort to collect their empties together, but failed to notice the bins left for the purpose at the top of the steps," he said, adding that only a very few bottles were left scattered on the beach.

Dr. Harvey hauled 37 bags of recyclables and eight bags of general trash up the steps for collection by the Parks Department.

"Both Waste Management and the Parks Department are immensely grateful to Keep Bermuda Beautiful for their energetic and dedicated work identifying and providing solutions to many of the litter and trash problems that deface the environment," said Vanese Flood Gordon, of Waste Management.

"Their clean-ups and education programmes are a constant reminder to the public for the need for proper disposal of litter and trash in the fight for a cleaner, greener and healthier environment."