lifeguard tower 26 - Ocean Park, Santa Monica CA
trash collected for 20 minutes
5.2 pounds
1,007.6 pounds total
Since I've passed the 1,000 pound collection mark, I've been thinking about how many ounces, or factions of an ounce, the trash items I find weigh. The lightweight material of plastic film food wrappers, styrofoam cups, cigarette butts, and bottle tops adding up to over 1,000 pounds says "volumes" for how much single-use crap we circulate through our lives.
A common Cow weighs between 900 - 1,200 pounds. Moo!
How many plastic forks would it take to equal the weight of a cow?
Well over 181,000 to equal 1,000 pounds...
We found 4 cigarette butts tonight. Danielle from the IT STARTS WITH ME blog found 287 the last 20 minute beach cleanup she did on her local North Carolina beach...
Sara - 9 cleanups comparing cigarette butts collected
105 cigarette butts
Santa Monica, CA where smoking is banned from the beaches
1,762 cigarette butts
Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina where smoking is allowed on the beach
The beach in Santa Monica where I've collected the 1,000+ pounds (I go to the same one every cleanup) is raked in the morning for trash. I know of one other diligent elderly couple who collects trash from this stretch of beach nearly every morning as well. 26 as it is commonly known, is not considered a dirty beach, but a well loved one. I chose this location because it is down the street from our house.
One average beach
One person
One 20 minute beach cleanup every few days
3 years
One thousand pounds of trash taken from this small stretch of sand and counting....
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