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SOS' July 4th Pollution Prevention Efforts a Huge Success!

Submitted by emily on Thu, 06/04/2009 - 09:16.
Volunteers bag trash at Panther Beach on July 5th
Save Our Shores is excited to announce that our July 4th “Pollution Prevention is Patriotic” efforts dramatically decreased the amount of trash left behind on Santa Cruz County beaches after the fun and often rowdy July 4th celebrations.  SOS staff and volunteers launched a widespread awareness and pollution prevention campaign leading up to this year’s Independence Day holiday that helped celebrators at the beach ensure that their party didn’t leave a big mess. 

Approximately 1,200 garbage and recycle bags were distributed to beach goers on July 4th through education and pollution prevention efforts in the Aptos parade (where SOS won Grand Prize! Check back for our July 4th and 5th YouTube video)  and at our local beaches.  Volunteers walked the beaches, approaching groups of celebrators to offer extra garbage and recycle bags and share information about where to dispose of your trash and what items are recyclable in Santa Cruz County.

Last year on July 5th, a total of 15,000 pounds of trash from seven Santa Cruz Beaches was collected. This year, however, with the help of State Parks maintenance crews and GreenWaste Recovery, in total over 12,500 pounds were removed from our beaches on July 4th and 5th. Of that 12,500 our volunteers removed 2,450 pounds in just 3 hours on July 5th. 

Approximately 150 volunteers turned out at local beaches early on the morning of July 5th to survey the impact of our July 4th efforts.  Overall, the beaches were much cleaner than normal for the 5th of July.  The majority of the debris removed came from Panther Beach and Seascape Beach, where volunteers removed tents, barbeques, thousands of fireworks, cook stoves, sleeping bags, you name it we found it. New this year were "poop tents", where individuals cut holes in the bottom of their tents and placed a bucket in the center which people used as a make shift toilet.

While most of our in-town beaches including Rio Del Mar, Seacliff, Twin Lakes, and Seabright looked better then years past, our north county and south county beaches suffered more then ever. Thanks to Seascape Resort, who recruited 28 volunteers to help them clean Seascape Beach, there volunteers removed 1200 pounds of debris  from this beautiful stretch of beach.

SOS is concerned that because of the increased law enforcement and regulation on our in-town beaches, many people are heading north and south to locations that have little to no regulation, no facilities such as bathrooms or safe parking lots, and no scheduled maintenance crews or trash cans. The devastation that we found at Panther and Seascape Beaches this year sent a strong message to us: We need to strategize how we can better regulate our northern and southern locations so that these beaches are not completely destroyed over this holiday weekend. Save Our Shores is dedicated to protecting our local beaches, whether in town or out and we hope to garner community support to address this important issue.

Our July 4th efforts would not be possible without the help of our Sponsors! Thank you to: Geo H. Wilson, EcoGoods, City of Santa Cruz, County of Santa Cruz, Richard Schmidt Surf School, Inc., Ecology Action, and Ristorante Avanti!


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