On Saturday, I participated in Orange County’s Coastalkeeper Beach clean up at Huntington State Beach at Tower 2. For two hours a group of nearly 40 volunteers walked and collected 255 pounds of trash off of what appeared to be a clean beach. The Coastalkeeper hosts clean ups in this location every second Saturday of the month and at San Clemente State Beach on the first Saturday of the month. This year in Huntington they have collected 3,719 pounds and in San Clemente 1,116 pounds.

I was very surprised to find so much on a beach that looked to be clean sand. They weren’t kidding about all the bottle caps either. It felt like that was what I was mostly picking up. Come to find out, organizers shared with us that Styrofoam and bottle caps are the most commonly found items collected on this section of beach.

Today I went through and cleaned the 40 pounds of trash that I had taken home with me after the event ended. It was interesting to see so many of the same items that either washed up to shore or were left behind on the beach. Straws, plastic wear, and zip ties made the most appearances. All items that are single use, unless you are a turn MacGyver and know how to reuse zip ties.

Next week on Fathers Day I will be taking part in another beach clean in Northern California that is led by Save Our Shores in Davenport, CA with my family. I am interested to see if I will be finding similar items or if there will be some new items not found down south. I am also interested to see if there will be any differences in the amount that is being collected because the Davenport clean up happens every week where Coastalkeeper’s is held in each location once a month. We shall see!!!

Above: Drawings from this week focusing on the impacts of humans and the differences of harbors and natural coastlines.