Your neighbors were out on our beaches during the annual International Coastal Clean Up Event in Monroe County, NY on Saturday, September 25th. Many beaches were a part of the event: Ontario Beach Park, Buckland Creek, Braddock Bay, Irondequoit Bay, Greece Ponds, Hamlin Beach State Park, Webster Park, Oatka Creek , and Payne Beach. I helped out with Durand Eastman Beach. It was a cloudy morning, a warm breeze wafting in from the north, the Lake Ontario waves a little choppy, just the kind of weather you’d imagine would be great for picking up trash on the beach. We got instructions on what to pick up, bags to put our trash in, gloves, something to drink and eat, and then we were off.
Here’s a little history on the event: “We are a coalition of dedicated volunteers, businesses, and municipalities who continue to work to promote this truly grassroots, community-based event. For the 2008 Coastal Clean Up event, Monroe County's 18th annual event, there are a growing number of registered shoreline sites throughout all parts of Monroe County, NY. All registered shoreline sites throughout New York State can be viewed on the American Littoral Society's website.” International Coastal Clean Up Event in Monroe County, NY
Not everyone was bending down to the sandy beaches or foraging through the bushes along the beach for litter. Each team had a data keeper, tallying the day’s items for future reference. Along with many other volunteers on Durand Beach, I picked up beer bottles and cans, cigarette butts (a lot of them), cigarette boxes, candy wrappers, condoms, odd-shaped pieces of plastic, Styrofoam cups, paper cups, paper plates, tissues, plastic bags wrapped around and within bushes, broken glass of all colors and degrees of sharpness, string, ropes, cellophane from cigarette boxes, paper bags, beer cartons, juice jugs with half-drunken juice still inside, paper with personal notes on them, diapers ( I don’t want to talk about it), cigarette lighters, plastic silverware, bottle caps (a zillion of them), and some unmentionables that folks should have just taken with them.
This cleanup speaks well for those willing to give up a Saturday morning and cleaning up after others who litter. It displays a demonstrable concern for our environment and gives the volunteer a warm feeling that they’ve done something good for our Rochester environment. But I must say this is not the way we as a society should be running the place. Cleaning up after those who don’t care to recycle or are too lazy to cart their discarded stuff to the proper place enables those who litter, creating a positive feedback scheme for this endless routine. I recently spotted a sign on a Massachusetts highway that read: “$10,000 fine for littering.” A couple of those hefty convictions, and those inclined to litter would cease doing it.
Ultimately, we’d like to see the public engaged in other efforts to help our environment besides cleaning up for those who don’t care. If everyone cared about our environment (that which is keeping us alive and healthy), we would see these cleanup events come to a close because there would be no junk to pick up. We’d be moving to the next level of sustainability: creating green jobs, integrating our economy with our environment, designing urban living space friendly to Earth and us. We’d be a functional species done with trashing the place, moving forward.
But somehow I’m thinking these cleanup events probably won’t be coming to a close anytime soon.
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