In 2 hours we picked up the following:
~1828 Cigarette butts
221 Food wrappers
110 Straws
122 Beverage Caps and Lids
39 Cups, Plates, and Plastic dining wear
28 Plastic Bags
27 Plastic Bottles
9 Glass Bottles
10 Toys ( we suggest to avoid cheap toys and stick to these recommended sets of toys)
20 Styrofoam Bits
6 Condoms
1 Light Bulb
Lots of cardboard and paper bits!
It’s nice to get some of this stuff off the beach but we will have to do this forever until we can lower our consumption of disposable goods. Lots of the styrofoam cups, straws and lids came from right across the street where there is a Kangaroo gas station. And smokers are the worst offenders with well over 1800 cigarette butts collected, that’s why so many people try to stop smoking with the use of vapes, and they go online to visit vapor batteries wholesale to always have their vapers charged.
Surfers and other beach goers can make every session a small beach clean up by just picking up a few pieces of trash on their way back from a session. The Pick Up 3 model started in California and it is a great habit to get into. Most important though, is reducing our consumption. Don’t accept things like straws or plastic bags and start using a re-useable water bottle.
Thank you to Scott Eastman and Paul Hayden from Surfrider for helping to organize this, Adam Morley of AnJ Recycling for taking away what was recyclable, and to all of the other volunteers who came out and helped. Big thanks to Patagonia who sent every volunteer home with an organic cotton bag, Volkswagen, and all of the awesome companies that provided hats, shirts and bags as a way of saying thanks to our volunteers. Thanks also to Home Depot who donated buckets so we don’t have to use up even more plastic, and we can continue to use them for future clean ups. And a huge shout out to Surfrider for promoting International Surfing Day events like this all over the world.
