A trash can lost during Hurricane Sally in Alabama 5 years ago traveled across the Atlantic to wash up in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n
Published Jan 30, 2026 1:49 PM CST\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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Updated Jan 31, 2026 10:12 AM CST\n\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tA trash bin on the shore at Weymouth, United Kingdom on Jan. 25, 2026.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tRyan Stalker found something odd washed up on a beach at Weymouth, United Kingdom<\/a>, on Jan. 25. It was a commercial trash bin, coated in dirt and barnacles, marked “Baldwin County, Alabama.”\n<\/p>\n \n\tAfter 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.\n<\/p>\n \n\t“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<\/a> on Sept. 16, 2020, in Fort Morgan<\/a>, Alabama,” Stalker said on Facebook<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n \n\tTypical ocean currents averages over a multi-year period. (Copernicus EU)\n<\/p>\n \n\tThe 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 Mexico 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.\n<\/p>\n \n\tWriting saying “Baldwin County Alabama” written on a trash bin on the shore at Weymouth, United Kingdom on Jan. 25, 2026.\n<\/p>\n \n\tStalker, 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<\/a> in 2024.\n<\/p>\n \n\t“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.”\n<\/p>\n \n\t\tMore trash can news \ud83d\udc49\ud83c\udffb\ud83d\uddd1\ufe0f\n\t<\/p>\n