Trash bin lost in Hurricane Sally makes 1,957-day trek to United Kingdom
A trash can lost during Hurricane Sally in Alabama 5 years ago traveled across the Atlantic to wash up in the United Kingdom.
A trash bin on the shore at Weymouth, United Kingdom on Jan. 25, 2026.
Ryan Stalker found something odd washed up on a beach at Weymouth, United Kingdom, on Jan. 25. It was a commercial trash bin, coated in dirt and barnacles, marked "Baldwin County, Alabama."
After doing some research on the Internet, he tracked the offending bin down and found out that it left its home on the Gulf Coast during a hurricane 5 years, 4 months and 9 days ago.
"With help from the waste disposal team in Alabama, and a code I was asked to find, it has been tracked down to three possible bins all lost during Hurricane Sally on Sept. 16, 2020, in Fort Morgan, Alabama," Stalker said on Facebook.
Typical ocean currents averages over a multi-year period. (Copernicus EU)
The trash bin likely travelled across the Atlantic Ocean, propelled by ocean currents and strong storms. Typical ocean currents deliver ocean water from the Gulf of America into the Gulf Stream, which runs from off the southern Florida coast northeast to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. From there, things get more complicated with eddies that circulate, but the general direction remains east, towards the U.K. and Europe.
Writing saying "Baldwin County Alabama" written on a trash bin on the shore at Weymouth, United Kingdom on Jan. 25, 2026.
Stalker, an underwater photographer, often photographs goose barnacles like those on the Alabama bin because they symbolize long ocean journeys that waste takes. A photo he took of a barnacle-covered soccer ball won the British Wildlife Photography Award in 2024.
"I do wonder about the journey the ball has been on," Stalker said after winning the award. "From initially being lost, then spending time in the tropics where the barnacles are native and perhaps years in the open ocean before arriving in Dorset."
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