Volunteers Needed For Watsonville’s Coastal Cleanup Day

From The City of Watsonville: There’s a rather optimistic idiom, “don’t sweat the small stuff,” that can be equated to popular modern-day social media calls to “live your best life,” letting the inconvenient concerns of every day struggles roll off like the polished swirls of social media text fonts. The City of Watsonville, joined by several positive forces for nature including the Santa Cruz County Tobacco Education Coalition, is encouraging residents to do the exact opposite for the upcoming Annual Coastal Cleanup Day. Sweat the small stuff, sweat it big time, and make sure to pick it up. This year’s event will occur on Saturday, September 15th from 9AM - Noon at multiple Watsonville sites.

In preparation, City environmental staff and Tobacco Education Coalition coordinators are visiting hundreds of students to increase participation in the cleanup and draw focus towards the often overlooked, obnoxious small plastic pieces like cigarette butts. Mintie White Elementary, Watsonville High School, Pajaro Valley High School Wetlands Stewards, Watsonville’s New School, and the Watsonville Science Workshop are a handful of the groups lending a hand and taking a stand. In the classroom, students are asked “how many of you are sick and tired of picking this litter up?” and all hands simultaneously raise high. Students learn about new policy efforts advocating for single-use plastic bans and clean stormwater mandates, and about demanding Extended Producer Responsibility for the most ubiquitous items retrieved at cleanups.

Tara Leonard, County Public Health Educator and advocate for responsive policy solutions, reminds the audience that feeling sick of cleanups is normal. “Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome is the definition of crazy. We need to take the Coastal Cleanup data back to polluting industries like big tobacco and let them know it’s time to take responsibility for their toxic waste.”

The Ocean Conservancy, international organizer of Coastal Cleanup Day, reported earlier this year that for the first time since the inception of the event more than 30 years ago, all ten of the top-ten items collected by volunteers around the world were made of plastic, edging out glass beverage bottles from the list. Single-use plastics have gained much-needed attention with impending statewide plastic straw reduction legislation on the heels of a successful statewide plastic bag ban.

Rachel Kippen, Watsonville’s Environmental Projects Coordinator argues that “This event is not just about picking up trash. It’s our most comprehensive litter snapshot in California and the data collected by volunteers truly influences solution-building. She continues “Coastal Cleanup Day data has led to stronger statewide regulation such as California’s ambitious trash amendment, and volunteer data has proven the efficacy of banning plastics.” For example, after the statewide bag ban, cleanup organizers reported that plastic bag litter dropped by 72% in comparison to years prior to the ban.

With the end goal of getting out of the business of litter cleanups, Watsonville and neighboring coastal communities look anxiously towards the day that there is no longer a need for Coastal Cleanup. In the meantime, community members are invited to multiple cleanup sites on Saturday, September 15th from 9 AM - Noon. All cleanup materials and a safety talk will be provided, along with free lunch for cleanup participants.

Watsonville Coastal Cleanup Sites:

• West Struve Slough at Pajaro Valley High School.
• Watsonville Slough at the City of Watsonville Nature Center in Ramsay Park.
• Pajaro River levee at River Park.
• Cigarette Butt Cleanup at the City Plaza Park and including downtown streets and a walk to the Santa Cruz Metro - Watsonville Transit Center.
• Palm Beach State Park at Palm State Beach parking lot.

Photo via Shuttershock