Message in a barrel: Myrtle Beach trash bin makes landfall in Ireland

A trash bin from Myrtle Beach in South Carolina was found 5,500 kilometres away on the western coast of Ireland.

But the shoreline he was surveying isn’t in the city’s state of South Carolina. McGreal lives across the Atlantic Ocean, on the western coast of Ireland.

“As I got closer, I could see a white label on it and it said, ‘trash only,’” he told CTV National News. “In Ireland we don’t call it trash, we call it rubbish.”

After snapping photos of the barnacle-covered barrel, McGreal emailed Myrtle Beach City Hall to show them their property had washed ashore in the village of Mulranny, supposedly after a journey of 5,500 kilometres.

“My first thought was, ‘Oh, shoot, we’ve lost a trash can,’ and my second thought was, ‘It made its way to Ireland of all places!’” Mark Kruea, Myrtle Beach’s public information director, told CTV National News. “[We] then sent him an email back saying, ‘Gee, thanks for the heads up. We wish it had stayed put on our beach, but glad to know that it found a new home.’”