It’s not safe to be beach trash today

June Casagrande

From shopping carts, sofas and refrigerators to the tiniest pieces of

Styrofoam -- you name it. If it’s litter in Orange County, it ends up

in local waterways.

But today, no piece of trash is too big or too small for the

hundreds of volunteers scouring local beaches and other communities.

Today is Coastal Cleanup Day, an international day during which

hundreds of thousands of volunteers worldwide are picking up trash

from along the coast and even from inland areas, where a lot of the

trash originates.

“Besides just picking up trash, this also helps build awareness

about the types and amount of trash that is accumulating,” said

Stephanie Barger, spokeswoman for Earth Resource Foundation. “And it

also encourages people to change their habits, showing them how their

habits contribute to trash at our beaches and in the water.”

Earth Resources Foundation is holding cleanups today at several

inland sites where trash often accumulates before it ends up in the

ocean, the harbor and the Back Bay.

Other groups throughout Orange County are cleaning up trash along

the water. Some are even cleaning it up on the water.

“We take the volunteers out on boats, especially to get to the

islands that people can’t usually get to but where trash tends to

pile up,” said John Scholl of the Upper Newport Bay Ecological

Reserve.

Human access is restricted on small islands in the Back Bay such

as Shellmaker and Middle Island to protect delicate wildlife

habitats. So many of Scholl’s volunteers will be working from the

boats, scooping debris out of the water. Others will go ashore on

some islands and to walk the perimeter picking up trash.

For today’s event, a lot of local groups work together in what

amounts to some impressive feats of coordination. Among the groups

taking part in today’s cleanup will be the Upper Newport Bay

Naturalists and Friends, the California State Parks Department and

Trails4All.