Sunday, February 28, 2010

Day 101 - Feb. 28, 2010

life guard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica, CA
trash collected for 20 minutes
3.5 pounds
408.9 pounds total
The high tide line was the highest I've ever seen it tonight. Coming up way past the life guard tower, it left a line of debris and trash, (most of it plastic), in its wake that kept me very busy for twenty minutes.

I estimate that I cleaned a 40 foot square area in 20 minutes. I never got past the life guard tower, and certainly stayed far away from the water because of all the trash to pick up at the high tide line.

Plastic can take a beating and still come out looking used, sure, but not too far from the condition it was in when it was bought. I doubt this lighter was dropped on the beach. Let's imagine that somewhere in the middle of LA it fell from a jacket pocket, sat around in the gutter for a day or so before getting kicked into the storm drain, and then washed down the miles of underground pipe all the way to the ocean where it then got pushed back onto the beach.

Did you know that it is estimated that 80% of all trash in the ocean comes from land?

My beach parking lot during a February sunset.