Friday, September 25, 2009

Day 63 - Sept. 24

Beach between Lifeguard Tower 26 & 27 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA
trash collected for 20 minutes.
estimated pounds of trash collected today - 1.2 trash/ .4 recyclable total = 1.6
estimated pounds of trash collected to date - 315
* I forgot to take a picture of the Lifeguard Tower 26! It feels strange to start my post without it.
The plastic in this picture appears almost precious because of the late afternoon sunlight. It's not.
It has been awhile since I found a single use plastic water bottle. I didn't miss them. I do like days like today though, when the weight of the trash collected is so low. Silly questions roll through my head like, "I should have picked a dirtier beach!" Well, this is my local beach, literally it is at the end of the street from where I live. I like the fact that I chose this strip of beach for just that reason.
In an email from Heal The Bay, they posted the results of Coastal Cleanup Day which was last weekend.

CCD 2009 - The Most Volunteers and Trash Ever!
Thanks to your help, Coastal Cleanup Day 2009 was a record breaking year!

At 69 cleanup sites all over Los Angeles County, we had 14,038 volunteers (a new record!) remove 298,686 lbs of trash and 1,726 lbs of recyclables for a record total of 300,413 lbs!

These numbers, extraordinary as they are, can't tell the whole story. Our hope is that everyone leaves Coastal Cleanup Day with a deeper appreciation for our ocean, rivers, creeks, and parks, and a better understanding of the problems they face.

If you follow my blog you may have had enough pictures of backlit children on the beach. I can't stop taking them. I apologize, but maybe you don't mind so much.

It is friday and we are headed to the beach to body surf before collecting Day 63's trash.