International Coastal Cleanup Day is celebrated annually on the third Saturday in September. Last year, over half a million volunteers removed over 18 million pounds of trash from beaches, coasts and waterways in 112 countries. Trash on the beach and in the water is bad for the environment. Occasionally, aquatic animals or birds will eat plastic because they think it is food. When they eat too much off it, they die.
On September 16th 2017, Alyssa, Kylie, Sharleen, Dan, Jada, Joshua and Kieu went to Crown Memorial Beach in Alameda and spent two hours picking up litter. Collectively, our group picked up over 700 pieces of litter on the beach. Out of that 700, 403 were plastic pieces! There were cigarette butts, food wrappers, packaging foam, and plastic sand toys. Some other things that different people found included a ceramic incense holder, dolls, sunglasses, and part of a Halloween costume.
Our group had the privilege of meeting Alameda Mayor Trish Spencer, Todd, a Rotary Club member, and his daughters, Madison and Hayley. Becca with the Park Service patrolled the beach. We observed over 200 other volunteers that day!
Everyone came together because we wanted to have a clean beach and a healthy planet. We didn’t want animals dying because of the trash choking the Earth.
BFF Alliance 