myOC

So you go to the beach for a fun day of soaking up the rays, hitting the waves, having a picnic lunch on the sand or perhaps some smores at the fire pit with family and friends… all the while you don’t mean to pollute the very natural world you came to enjoy.

But it’s that broken plastic sand shovel, elastic ponytail hair band, plastic water bottle cap, and foil Hershey’s bar wrapper that you accidently left behind that adds to the tons of trash that volunteers collect each year at the California Coastal Cleanup.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMAGES OF THE CALIFORNIA COASTAL CLEANUP AT HUNTINGTON BEACH.

While talking to volunteers at this year’s efforts, on Sat. Sept. 17, a few felt that perhaps beach goers hadn’t meant to leave so much trash behind. Maybe it blew away and they just didn’t take the time to chase it. Or perhaps they didn’t realize that they left debris behind as they packed up to leave.

Others however – like the Girl Scout troop 2065 from Irvine – thought, “The trash can is right there!”

Troop leaders Amanda Babiar and Andrea Navaria have a tradition of bringing the troop to the cleanup because they have been to the Marine Mammal Center and have seen first-hand what can happen to the animals when they get caught up in or ingest the garbage that washes at to sea.

“We like to make it fun by doing the cleanup with a walk down to the pier and then the girls get to play at the beach after,” said Babiar.

So, while the volunteers where more than happy to help make a difference by sifting through the sand to collect and document debris along the water, near fir pits, and scattered about the beach… their consensused hope was that people would be more aware of their impact the next time.

In the mean time, the cleanup gave them a chance to do something as a group, give back to the community, and a chance to enjoy what the outdoors had to offer. Nearly 30 Marriott workers came out to help as part of Marriott’s “Spirit to Serve” platform.

This was their first cleanup together at Huntington State Park Beach and they noticed that it was mostly small stuff that needed collected.

Besides the afore mentioned culprits, some of the common man-made finds where broken pits of plastic and Styrofoam, zip-ties, bread tabs, candy wrappers, balloons, cigarette butts, and chip bags.

Although there are beach, park, and waterway cleanups year-round, the next annual California Coastal Cleanup will take place on Sept. 15, 2012 (http://www.coastal.ca.gov/publiced/ccd/ccd.html).

You can also check for dozens of upcoming cleanups at www.orangecounty.com by
clicking on the “calendar” tab and entering the search term “cleanup”.