Coastal Clean Up Day

Finally, this past Saturday I was able to take part in Coastal Clean Up Day - the annual beach and waterway cleanup around Southern California. In previous years, over 80,000 volunteers turned up to scour the coastlines and clean up as much trash as possible.

The last few years, since I had heard of it, I was always out of town traveling for work, and never got a chance to participate. And I'm so glad I could this year!

I got a few friends together, met bright and early on a 90 degree day at the Venice Beach Pier cleanup site sponsored by The Surfrider Foundation. We grabbed some bags and gloves and off we went in search of trash.

Cigarette butts, bottle caps, small pieces of plastic and styrofoam, pop bottles, beer cans... we found it all. I focused on picking through all the washed up seaweed - so much trash gets tangled up in the weed and makes its way back to the coast!

Just after only 2 hours, we had collected over 60 pounds of trash! And the event still went on for another hour.

It's amazing how much trash washes up on the shore from what's collected in drains and streams. We humans are slobs. It's so important to: a. use reusable items when possible; b. buy items with minimal packaging; c. throw garbage into a trash can and not on the the ground! If we don't, we'll no longer have these beautiful beaches to enjoy on these 100 degree days!

Remember - all drains lead to the ocean!