Footprints in the sand. About twenty individuals, including several local families, trekked the beach across from the historic Crescent Park Carousel for two hours, collecting trash. This clean-up was sponsored by Save the Bay and the Riverside Renaissance Movement. With plastic gloves and garden gloves on top, my partner and I mostly focused on glass, collecting 1,360 pieces and not even getting it all! (On bag of just glass weighed 14 pounds!)
I saw the teens gleefully cart away tires, blankets, and other large items. But the glass kept calling me, its texture glossy against course sand. Yet it took a careful eye, as shiny shells competed for my attention as well. There was a lot of pottery collected as well. Thankfully, very few cigarette butts. A few pieces I thought were Styrofoam were actually worm-eaten clam shells. What I thought was plastic was seaweed. What must the animals think of our man-made detritus? I'm interested to know what everyone else collected.
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| A seaweed I mistook for plastic. |
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| One tiny piece of glass, one dead crab. |
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| Horseshoe crab shell. |
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| A modest pile of glass. Some I even kept. |
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| Stranded shiny sardine. |
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| Dead honey bee. |
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| Aquatic boring worms that make shells look like Styrofoam. |
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| More glass. Sardine. |
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| A former student finds a female Monarch! It was windy and we had had our first frost. She put her in a sheltered area. Will she make it? |
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| Saw two flocks of brants. One group had 29 members! |
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| Leave less behind. |
A Plastic Ocean Film Screening
Friday, October 26 at 6:30 PM – 8 PM
A Plastic Ocean is an adventure film in which searchers for the elusive blue whale find instead oceans filled with plastic waste. Incredibly captivating, beautiful and moving, the film rethinks our everyday use of plastics - from shopping bags, straws and plastic tableware to food containers. Over time, most of this plastic breaks down into tiny pieces invisible to the naked eye, which are consumed by marine wildlife and contaminate the food we eat. These microplastics pose a serious risk to ocean and human health worldwide.
Doors open at 6:00 pm with refreshments and socializing. The 22-minute educational film starts at 6:30 pm. Afterward, there will be a discussion of causes, and practical ways to react to this pollution.
Please bring information or a sample of your favorite eco-friendly product to show the group.
Kids are welcome! Bring a clean used plastic container such as a bottle or yogurt cup to make a ‘trash turtle’ craft.
Sponsored by The First Unitarian Green Team and Benevolent Street Zendo/Ecosattva Sangha
This event is free. So that we may plan accordingly, please register at: www.bit.ly/2CPs0mK
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