”People who are throwing garbage all over the place are evil!” chanted some of the dozen or so Piedmont children participating in the 30th anniversary of the state’s biggest volunteer event, California Coastal Cleanup Day.
On Saturday, September 20, students from Havens and Wildwood Elementary Schools joined Havens Assistant Principal Ken Taylor and Wildwood 1st grade teacher Kathleen Schneider in picking up trash at the Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline in Oakland.
Marine debris can be harmful or fatal to wildlife and can also become a human health hazard. The majority of trash items found in the ocean are plastics that come from the land. Trash travels via wind, rainwater or rivers and ends up on the coast. From there it enters the ocean, and when it does, animals can become entangled in it or ingest it. Coastal debris harms humans as well.
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Nails, glass and syringes found on the beach and shoreline can cause physical harm to those who visit. In 2013, over 58,000 volunteers removed almost 750,000 pounds of trash and recyclables on California Coastal Cleanup Day. It will be awhile before the 2014 numbers are available, but included will be the 21 bags, roughly 105 pounds, of debris picked up by our students and their parents. Ken Taylor remarked, “It makes me sad to see so much trash, but happy to see so many people who care about the environment.”
The majority of garbage collected was plastic bottles, cigarette butts, Styrofoam, plastic bags, drinking straws and micro-plastic debris. A flat bouncy ball, Legos, and a toothbrush were some unexpected finds. Most surprising, however, was when Havens 3rd grader Jessica exclaimed, “Look! I found a dollar bill!” The greater payoff, however, was in the wisdom shared by fellow Havens 3rd grader Sophia: “If everything was totally clean, people would see how nice it was, and they wouldn’t litter.”
