Happy Coastal Clean Up Day to everyone around the globe!
Today I was a site-captain for Monterey State Beach in Seaside, California through the Save Our Shores Organization. I had around 43 participants raging from groups consisting of boy/cub scouts, co-workers, friends, students, and families.
We collect around 173 pounds of trash, and 35 pounds of recycling over a 3 hour period (or less) of walking up and down the beach. The most common occurrence was cigarette butts- a whopping 774 in total. There were lots of plastic and Styrofoam pieces as well.
Everything worked out great this morning! The weather was unbeatable- sunny warm and beachy (for once in Monterey..it’s very very rare we get this awesome weather here if you are not familiar with the location). I even got a sunglasses tan!
Overall I just hoped that I helped embed into the minds of those who participated how much we need to stop relying and using plastics. Luckily I had a lot of people sign 2 petitions- one to ban single-use plastic bags in Marina CA- and one to ban Styrofoam takeout boxes restaurants use in Monterey County (and instead use biodegradable to-go boxes which a lot of restaurants have already converted to using around Monterey).
I enjoyed this experience a lot and I hope to continue volunteering as a site captain every year- no matter which part of California I will be in next year. 🙂
Photography + Science = Chanel 
So proud of you and all your hard work to make our environment a better place to live. If we could just clone more of you!