Our grand total of beach trash during the 3-day July 4th weekend is 35,120 pounds of trash!
How in the world did we pull that off with ALL VOLUNTEERS and some help from Pacific County, City of Long Beach and Washington State Dept of Ecology?
Well, let’s see.
- Three days of accumulative effort by hundreds of volunteers,
- Incredible ‘exposure’ thanks to many, many individuals and businesses,
- Responsible beach revelers who took our message to heart to clean and dump their garbage late night July 4th in more dumpsters placed in strategic locations with inviting signs, and
- The faithful who are committed enough to the beach to clean it (again) on July 6th after the last ‘legal’ night of fireworks on the beach.
Yup, that was the makings of a 17-1/2 tons haul of trash !!!
Mother Nature didn’t necessarily cooperate at our formal community beach cleanup on the morning of the 5th. Actually, she was downright nasty - more like the January cleanup weather. Heavy rain, blasting sand and the wind blowing sideways are not usually the fare for July. Waking up, I lay there wondering, "What fools would brave this weather?" and soon realized I had asked myself the same thing on the morning of our first cleanup in January, 2002. I was surprised when 12 wonderful people showed up in January, 2002 and had faith that the weather wouldn’t stop us this time either. It didn’t stop all 504 volunteers who registered for the cleanup plus others who just walked onto the beach and started cleaning. We looked like a regular army out there. So, first and foremost, our thanks for your personal constitution to brave that weather. We had a choice; we could have stayed in bed instead.
Next, a big thanks for your individual efforts. How do you PERSONALLY thank probably 700 individuals (alone and in groups) who make this happen? Not in a newsletter. The best we can do is recognize your actual work and tell you that we know who you are and so appreciate the tasks you contributed. The table below gives all of us a sampling of the efforts that go into what we call the beach cleanup. You know what you’ve done to contribute, so consider this a good pat on your back from all of us.
A Sampling of July 4th Weekend Beach Cleanup Efforts Done by GRGG Volunteers/ Government/Businesses and Service Groups.
Secure dumpsters | Secure bags for collection |
Make signs , LOTS of signs, GREAT signs | Write articles for Chinook Observer |
Hang Beach Cleanup Banner - Long Beach | Publish written materials submitted by volunteers |
Hang Beach Cleanup Banner - Ocean Park | Decorate truck/float for parade |
Make tailgate lunch for parade marchers | March in parade |
Drive truck in parade | Distribute reader board text for Peninsula reader boards |
Hang signs on dumpsters | Transport bagged garbage to dumpsters |
Pay dumpsters fees and dump fees | Get supplies to adopt-a-beach leaders & beach approach coordinators |
Provide collection bags | Post beach cleanup posters on bulletin board/store window |
Clean up after lunch | Prepare food for thank-you lunch |
Secure lunch location | Pick up large items on beach, get to dumpster |
Serve as beach approach coordinator | Lead an adopt-a-beach-group |
Participate in adopt-a-beach group | Walk on at beach approach and clean beach on July 5th |
Make spent plastics in fireworks displays | Distribute bags early eve on July 4th at Bolstad |
Create music for parade | Handle a dumpster’s early ‘overflow’ |
Distribute beach cleanup posters | Clean beach on July 6th, get bags to dumpster |
Provide flags to distribute to parade goers | Contribute foods and supplies for thank- you lunch |
Write newsletters | Provide a wonderful location for thank- you lunch |
Serve at thank-you lunch | Display beach cleanup info on reader board |
Remove signs on dumpsters | Store A LOT of GRGG supplies from cleanup to cleanup |
Maintain GRGG contact spreadsheet | Overall cleanup coordination |
Thank volunteers with valuable coupons | Make soups |
What was new about this cleanup?
- Well, Shelly Pollock worked hard to get full dumpster coverage at our beach approaches. But she didn’t stop with just dumpsters, she wanted them WELL MARKED so anyone new got the message that this dumpster is meant for YOUR GARBAGE. Susi Frost made beautiful signs for every dumpster. We know people used them after their parties. And true to our faith in mankind, we saw very little misuse of the dumpsters (for personal garbage disposal) despite the fact that they sat at the approaches from Friday morning, July 4th, through Monday morning, July 7th. This time lapse also allowed us to promote individuals cleaning on July 6th, the day after the last legal night of fireworks on the beach. Now, of course, it would be heaven to see this full dumpster coverage at every major beach approach during every community beach cleanup !!!
- We added music to the parade on the 4th. A snappy children’s tune and small flags handed out to the kids promoted cleaning your own mess and joining the organized cleanup on the 5th. A great group of marchers livened up the streets of OP !!! Our ‘back end’ people reported positive feedback for both additions.
- Pilgrim Pat organized a bag distribution in the early eve on July 4th. Dave Cook graciously did this in years past but without much assistance. Pat got the City of Long Beach workers to join her and they handed out hundreds of bags with a message to clean up your mess.
- A better truck brigade for bagged garbage transfer from beach to dumpsters. I personally could hardly put a full bag down on the sand before a gentleman was there to grab it and take it away.
- We gave each beach approach coordinator a small display of spent plastics from fireworks to use in orienting new volunteers. Several coordinators reported that the crowds and the weather impacted their ability to personally use them but the displays were studied by people waiting to sign in. One coordinator reported her very young granddaughter immediately started collecting (and counting) the long, black spent plastics from missiles. Good game to keep the young occupied and learning about the earth they will inherit.
A cautionary note to share from this July 5th cleanup. We had our first injury, one bad enough to warrant medical care and stitches. A truck driver was given a closed bag of garbage by a volunteer without warning that the bag contained a long, sharp, piece
of glass in the bottom. The driver sustained a hand injury that required medical care and four stitches. We wish our patient (name withheld to protect the wounded) a quick recovery and tell this story to heighten the awareness of safety while working. Planned notices will be incorporated into cleanup materials in the future. We may also need to produce small tags for volunteers to use on bagged garbage to warn the handlers who transport it to the dumpsters. As we get bigger, our infrastructure needs to grow. More dumpsters that collect record amounts of garbage costing more in disposal fees means more money needed to support our volunteer efforts. Please use every opportunity to thank Washington State Fish and Wildlife (for the extra dumpsters through a grant), the City of Long Beach, Pacific County, Washington State Parks and Recreation Dept, and Washington State Dept of Ecology for their continuing infrastructure support.
Operation Shore Patrol Beach Cleanup in September
Don’t forget Pacific 4-Wheel Drive Association’s Operation Shore Patrol beach cleanup the third weekend in September. While the Grass Roots Garbage Gang does not organize this event, we encourage you to help the 4-wheel drive clubs from the four Pacific Northwest states to clean our beach on Saturday, September 20th.
2009 and 2010 Grass Roots Garbage Gang Community Beach Cleanup
Dates for our community beach cleanups have been set for 2009 and 2010 with the consultation of razor clam season organizers. Please keep this information handy as you start using your future calendars.
2009 Community Beach Cleanups:
January 31, 2009
April 18, 2009
July 5th, 2009
2010 Community Beach Cleanups
January 23, 2010:
April 17, 2010
July 5th, 2010
A Little Neighborhood Experiment
Steve and Shelly Pollock tried this experiment in their neighborhood during the past several months. The neighborhood shares a community path to the beach. The Pollocks thought this could be a conduit for an on-going neighborhood effort to keep the beach clean. The path has a sign for the beach access. They glued a container full of bags with a sign on waterproof vinyl that reads, "Going to the beach? Grab a bag to take along with you!" Then they hung a large garbage bag on a tree behind the sign. Soon the bag started to fill and some collectors even hung bags of collected recyclable on the tree too. Each week on garbage day, the neighbors survey who has space in their garbage can and the collected garbage is canned for pickup. If you have a neighborhood path, this might be something to try. It just took a little encouragement and the right tools to see it happen in north Ocean Park !!!
Recyclable and Biodegradable Collection Bags
We would all like to see less of what’s collected on the community beach cleanup day go directly to landfill. It’s a matter of logistics. Know that people are looking into possibilities. Meanwhile, when you personally collect, please recycle the plastic water bottles, aluminum cans and glass bottles whenever you can.
We are currently researching bio-degradable collection bags. The challenge here is getting biodegradable bags that are strong enough to withstand the battering they get when collecting ugly garbage in bad weather. The world is changing rapidly; we think the right bag is out there somewhere.
