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As we enter the season of extreme
beach cleanups, California beaches get a face lift when kids and
adults pour onto the sand each April to pick up trash. While
many of the Southern California cities routinely sweep the sand
for trash with huge machines, smaller beaches do not.
The question arises: Do California beach cleanups simply create
the illusion of cleanliness, or do they offer a real
contribution to the health of beaches.
If you ask conservation and beach societies such as Surfrider,
Save or Beaches, Heal the Bay and other such nonprofit
organizations dedicated to the health and cleanliness of
beaches, you'll get a resounding, "YES!"
But for the trash that is removed from a beach, the flow of
trash continues to land onshore, and then there's a need for
more cleanup. It's a constant process. So why are the Earth Day
celebrations focusing on beach cleanup, when the source of the
trash often is the water, itself?
We attended several beach cleanup events in California recently
and asked the people who hosted them this very question. Some
conceded that their efforts offer some relief to beaches, birds
and people, one cleanup at a time.
The bigger question is what to do about polluted ocean sources.
And that's where beach cleanup volunteers see opportunity to
remind us of the changes that have come about in places such as
Malibu, where filters and pipes have been constructed to catch
sewage before it flows into the ocean.
Unfortunately, plastics are one of the top killers in the ocean.
According to a recent figure, Americans use up over 1 million
bottles every five minutes. And plastic is what enters the sea,
only eventually breaking down into smaller pieces of polymers.
80% of plastic in the ocean drifts from land, and the other 20%
comes from ships and merchant vessels.
So, how can beach cleanup stop the pollution? And is it merely
window dressing? Education is one valuable tool for youth and
adults unaware of the impacts of plastic.
According to Charles Moore, a sailor who first recognized an
island of trash in the Pacific, the only way to stop polluting
is to stop producing plastics.
The trash island is located approx. 500 miles off the California
Coast, runs past the islands of Hawaii, and reaches near the
coast of Japan. The biggest trash dump in the world kills
thousands of seabirds and countless ocean animals and plants.
Expert opinions say that no country has the resources to clean
it up and remove the plastic.
As we enter yet another Green Spring in which corporations and
community groups pitch in to clean up trash on the beach,
perhaps our best hope for our future is to change our habits,
and try to replace or minimize use of plastic bottles and
plastic products so they will not loom so large in our future.
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