Surfrider volunteers will be hosting its “Morning After Mess” Beach Cleanup at the Ocean Beach Pier on Tuesday, July 5. Another partner group will host the clean-up at OB’s Dog Park. The clean-ups will be from 8 to 11 am.
They’re part of a series Surfrider and its partners are hosting throughout the county, which are held each year to help tackle the mess. These cleanups are open to the public; registration is live at Surfrider San Diego’s website.
Bags, gloves, and trash grabbers will be provided while supplies last, but participants are encouraged to bring their own reusable supplies if they have them.
From San Diego Surfrider:
Thousands of residents and visitors will flock to San Diego’s beaches to celebrate the 4th of July this Monday. While the beach is an epic place to celebrate the fourth, The Surfrider Foundation has long referred to July 5th as “the morning after mess.”
On this day, volunteers remove incredible amounts of red, white, and blue single-use plastic cups, food packaging, abandoned belongings, fireworks, and cigarette butts from beaches nationwide. In 2021, volunteers removed 1,500 pounds of trash from five beaches in only two hours.
The “Morning After Mess” Cleanup Series will be hosted from 8 to 11 a.m. at the following locations:
- Ocean Beach Pier,
- Ocean Beach Dog Park Estuary,
- Mission Beach Park,
- Crystal Pier in Pacific Beach,
- Fiesta Island,
- Moonlight Beach in Encinitas, and
- the Oceanside Pier.
Surfrider volunteers will host the Ocean Beach Pier and Oceanside Pier sites.
Partner organizations will be hosting:
- San Diego River Park Foundation at Dog Beach,
- San Diego Coastkeeper at Mission Beach,
- I Love A Clean San Diego at Fiesta Island,
- Paddle For Peace at Pacific Beach, and
- Un Mar De Colores at Moonlight Beach.
The Morning After Mess showcases the disastrous consequences of our reliance on wasteful, single-use plastic products on our coastal environment.
“These cleanups raise awareness about how common single-use items leave us unintentionally harming the places we love and need,” said Alex Ferron, chapter manager for Surfrider Foundation San Diego.
“We hope to see beachgoers ditch common single-use plastic items. Plastic waste like bottled water, cups, plates, utensils, etc., can be easily replaced with reusable versions—which are much less likely to be left behind and help reduce our waste.”
The Surfrider Foundation San Diego has a handful of programs working to fight plastic pollution in San Diego. The Rise Above Plastics program has been key in introducing and passing single-use plastic and polystyrene ordinances across San Diego County. The program uses outreach, education, and advocacy to cut down on single-use plastics before they reach the coast.
For more information on Surfrider Foundation San Diego County Chapter’s Morning After Mess cleanups on July 5th, visit www.surfridersd.org, or contact Alex Ferron at alex@surfridersd.org.
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