Surfrider Volunteers Tackle the Morning After Mess
Partially from San Diego Surfrider
Nearly 500 volunteers gathered at four popular beaches the morning of July 5th to assist with the Surfrider Foundation San Diego County Chapter’s annual post-Fourth of July Morning After Mess beach series.
By midday, volunteers had recovered over 800 pounds of trash and recycling, which otherwise would have been washed into the sea where it would add to the already critical pollution problem devastating the world’s oceans.
Surfrider volunteers hosted four cleanups in collaboration with I Love a Clean San Diego and San Diego Coastkeeper from 9 a.m. to noon at the following County beaches:
- Ocean Beach Pier,
- Belmont Park in Mission Beach,
- Crystal Pier in Pacific Beach
- and the Oceanside Pier.
These cleanup sites were chosen because of the high concentration of beachgoers and notorious reputations for post-Fourth of July trash.
Surfrider Chapter Coordinator, Caroline, said:
“We are really happy to see the number of volunteers that came out this morning to help clean the beaches after the busy and long holiday weekend.
While it’s disappointing to see the beaches trashed, it’s always amazing to see the huge difference that three hours of work can make. We can really see the community coming together to keep San Diego’s beaches clean and beautiful.”
Few holidays generate more trash on San Diego County beaches than the Fourth of July. Sadly, much of this litter is made up of plastic, which exacerbates an already critical pollution problem devastating marine life in the world’s oceans.
This year’s Morning After Mess recovered around 7,000 cigarette butts, 947 pieces of styrofoam, and a variety of obscure items including a toilet seat and hockey stick.
Throughout the year, the Surfrider Foundation works hard to prevent pollution from becoming part of the ‘Morning After Mess.’ Through successful programs like Rise Above Plastics and Hold Onto Your Butt, the organization uses education, outreach, and advocacy to reduce the amount of single-use plastics and cigarette butts along our coast.
For more information on Surfrider Foundation San Diego County Chapter, visit www.surfridersd.org or contact Chapter Coordinator, Caroline Canter at caroline@surfridersd.org.
Contrast With Other Years
As a comparison, on the same day in 2014, volunteers had collected a total of 1,410 pounds of trash and 326 pounds of recycling, which included recovered 489 plastic bags, 983 pieces of styrofoam and 14,796 cigarette butts.
In contrast, in 2012, there were around 500 volunteers and “By midday, Surfrider volunteers had recovered 2,607 pounds of trash and 191 pounds of recycling which otherwise would have been washed into the sea.” And remarkably, 3/4’s of 2012 trash was found on OB’s beaches.
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