Dog Beach in Ocean Beach won the “day after” award — it had the most trash from the celebrations from July 4th. Volunteers organized by Surfrider Foundation removed 1,575 pounds of trash at Dog Beach. And then including the 120 pounds from around the OB Pier, the Ocean Beach contribution to the landfill was finalized at nearly 1,700 pounds.
Every year, Surfrider organizes these “Morning After Mess” cleanups. According to the organization, 688 volunteers collected 3,906 pounds of trash at nine San Diego County beaches in three hours, with most of the refuse consisting primarily of plastics that otherwise could have washed out to sea, the nonprofit environmental organization said. The nine sites were chosen because of their high concentration of beach-goers and their reputation for post-Independence Day trash.
Here are the other winning locations, with weights in pounds (don’t forget that altogether OB had 1,700 pounds):
- Fiesta Island: 1,320
- Mission Beach: 231
- Pacific Beach: 216
- Oceanside Breakwater Way: 135
- Moonlight Beach: 125
- South Ponto: 94
- Imperial Beach: 90
Gabriel Racca, beach cleanup coordinator for Surfrider Foundation San Diego, said in a statement:
“Many of our volunteers remarked that the beaches seemed cleaner than in previous years, which is a great sign. Despite that, we cannot lose sight of the fact that even one piece of trash on the beach is one piece too many.”
News source: Pt Loma-OB Monthly
I’m wondering if this is directly proportional to 2 things: the fact that OB doesn’t have enough trash receptacles at dog beach and the fact that homeless encampments are common along the dunes
Td, I just looked back a few years, and every 4th Dog Beach has the most trash locally at least.
Seeing that we always had the best fire works show for many years :-) that would make sense. But now, with nothing to draw tourists here on July 4th other than the beach and booze, it surprises me that we have more trash than other locations. Which is why I’m thinking there is more to it than just a single days holiday trash and that makes me sad.
Something is really screwy here. They are saying that the piece of beach between the river and the first jetty had 1,575 pounds of trash and the whole rest of the beach from the jetty to the pier only contributed 120 pounds? I don’t believe these figures. Dog Beach may have usually had more trash but that much more? Makes no sense.
Hi OB! Shane Conta, Program Manager at San Diego River Park Foundation here to chime in! We partner with Surfrider for this event each year to help clean Dog Beach and the river estuary. Our volunteers managed to clean 1,575 pounds of trash by cleaning up nearly to the 5 freeway on both the North and South side of the estuary, not just Dog Beach!
Thank you for the clarity. You can tell, some of us couldn’t believe the amount reported for the holiday clean up. If the river bed and estuary was mentioned, that would have made a lot more sense as there are a lot of homeless folk living along the river. We also have trash that finds its way down here from east of the 5.
I agree with Geoff and td. The numbers are way off… and why so much trash with nothing special to attract the crowds to stay all day for after-dark fireworks? Not even marshmallow wars.
Oh well, thanks to everyone for helping out and cleaning up after the masses. What a tough year to celebrate America…
Hello! This is Gabriel, the Beach Cleanup Coordinator for Surfrider San Diego. I wanted to make an important clarification to this article. While Surfrider San Diego spearheads the Morning After Mess event on July 5th and leads several cleanups during the event (including OB Pier), we have lots of fantastic partners that support us during the event by leading additional sites. That was the case with the cleanup at the San Diego River Estuary and OB Dog Beach cleanup (efforts focused mainly to the river), which was hosted by the San Diego River Park Foundation. It is SDPRF (and the amazing volunteers who joined) who are really to thank for this huge accomplishment! We are incredibly thankful for their support; they are always the MVPs with the most trash cleaned up!
This comment seems to have been edited. When I first read it, the comment clarified that the cleanup was on both sides of the estuary almost to I-5, which explained why the “Dog Beach” total was so high. This edited comment left out that part while adding more information. At least the huge number now makes more sense.
Whoops, sorry, wrong comment.
Thank you and all those who give their effort to clean up after America’s finest piglets. You are appreciated. Why some want to question the amount is beyond me. Maybe the bean counters could help out in the future and gain further enlightenment.
If you really wanted to know why “some want to question the amount,” why didn’t you ask before making this comment?
I go to Dog Beach every morning with my dogs. Have been doing so for 40 years. Most people consider Dog Beach to be from the river to the first south jetty and east to about where Robb Field starts. The beach itself is small. The only signs of trash ever seen in the area are in the bushes that line the bike path and in some sand dunes.
People love Dog Beach and it bothered me to see it portrayed this way, an entirely wrong image. I’ve lived in OB for 44 years and I have always reacted when someone either intentionally or unintentionally trashes OB.
So, that is why someone would want to question the amount, which resulted in a detailed clarification for everyone.
And if you wanted to question the amount, particularly as a “journalist”, you could have contacted the organization directly instead of just blowing casual smoke without appreciation for their effort.
First, I don’t call myself a journalist so the insulting quotations were unnecessary. I “write” articles for The OB Rag. I spent my working career in construction.
Second, I did not blow casual smoke – whatever that means. I made a comment that I knew would generate responses that could clear the issue up and that is what happened. The Rag’s comment section is a perfect way to get other people to contribute and quickly.
And, third, nowhere did I say I did not appreciate their cleanup efforts of the volunteers.
And, in the end, it turned out that I was right to be skeptical. Maybe you take everything you see in the news as the verbatim truth but I don’t.
What else do you have?