Package ran live for NewsWaves 32 on Sept. 24.
Hundreds of volunteers, including California District 24 Senator Ben Allen, joined Heal the Bay’s 35th Annual Coastal Cleanup Day on Sept. 21, picking up trash to combat coastal pollution. Over 50 cleanup sites scattered throughout California raked in hundreds of pounds worth of trash, Tracy Quinn, CEO of Heal the Bay, said.
“It’s exciting to see people really engaged and caring about the health of our natural environment,” Quinn said.
Allen emphasized the importance of community involvement in addressing California’s coastal pollution problem.
“It’s a wholesome, really positive form of community building and giving back,” Allen said.
As a senator and a father, Allen said the fight against ocean pollution is personal for him.
“It’s near and dear to my heart,” Allen said. “I’ve been working on legislation associated with cleaning up the oceans and reducing plastic waste, and those are all really important, but we also need to get our hands dirty.”
Quinn explained the trash that volunteers collected were things that could easily be thrown away. Commonly found items include cigarette butts, plastic cups and fast-food wrappers. However, peculiar items have been found over the years, like scooters, laptops, and this year, $68,000 in cashier’s checks from the Venice Pier, Quinn said.
Allen said there is a significant shift in the type of trash that has been most commonly collected over the years.
“Plastic bags were always in the top three in terms of most collected, and now they’re not even in the top 10,” Allen said.
Allen credits this to California’s plastic bag ban, a legislative effort that he was part of.
Despite this progress with legislation, plastic pollution continues to impact both the environment and public health, Quinn said.
“Oftentimes it ends up somehow in our bodies,” Quinn said. “Fish are eating it, we eat the fish, it’s affecting our health.”
Both Allen and Quinn stressed that individual lifestyle changes, such as proper trash disposal and reducing use of single-use plastics, can make a significant impact on reducing coastal pollution.
Heal the Bay is close to reaching the two-million-pound mark of trash collected over the last 30 years of Coastal Cleanup Day. Heal the Bay published the official trash count and analysis Sept. 27 on their blog.
Allen said he hopes his work helps the next generation enjoy the beach as much as he did in his childhood.
“That’s what these bills are all about; it’s just about making it cleaner and nicer for the next generation,” Allen said.
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Contact Nora Moriarty-McLaughlin via email: nora.mclaughlin@pepperdine.edu
