Hats off to CoastSavers and the many supporting organizations (the Surfrider Foundation, the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, the Olympic National Park, the Clallam Bay-Sekiu Lions Club, and numerous local community groups, among others) for coordinating a very successful Coast Cleanup event on Saturday, April 18. There was a reported 22 TONS of trash collected by an estimated 1100 volunteers from beaches on the Strait and ocean sides of our coasts.
We signed up for one of the most beautiful, pristine beaches in the United States: Shi-Shi. The Makah Nation very generously gave a free parking pass to all cleanup participants on their Reservation, as well as free entrance to the museum (it was also the day of the first Eagle Festival – but that’s for another post).
Approximately 30 others had signed up for this particular beach, noted for its more difficult access on a basically flat 2-mile trail that starts out with a nice boardwalk but finishes sloshing through thick mud.
The view is worth it.
Shi-Shi is breathtaking. It is a place that is constantly changing, shaped by winds and tides, but remains timeless. Pinnacles of sculpted rocks dot the shoreline; waves crash and splash high in the air; sculpins and hermit crab scavenge amongst anemones in quiet tidepools; herons fish while wading in the shallows.
And at high-tide mark: garbage. Flung on the beach during winter storms, plastic water bottles, plastic wine bottles, plastic jars, plastic scraps – plastic, plastic, and more plastic – and styrofoam in buoys, chunks, and crumbles – an old shoe, rubber hoses, food containers, fishing ropes and nets and gear – garbage that careless (read that could-care-less) people carelessly threw overboard to become an eyesore on one of the most gorgeous places on earth. Stained. The majority of it was bottles. Emptied, capped, and thrown overboard – not in an “oops!” moment – but deliberately thrown overboard.
We filled a backpack, 3 garbage bags, and hauled whatever else we could tie on or carry. Unfortunately, we left much behind. It was painful to do so. We hauled what we could back up the trail, no longer caring about the mud squishing over the tops of our boots.
What kind of society have we become, so accustomed to our conveniences that we do not recognize we are smothering ourselves and everything we hold precious with our excess?
Plastic bottles are the curse of our existence. It doesn’t have to be that way. We don’t have to buy them. We can recycle them if we use them.
22 Tons. That’s from the Olympic Peninsula alone. I’m trying to grasp what that must look like. It’s not something I can get my mind around. We become numb to trash that is scattered here and there across 3200 miles of coastline in Washington State. It all piles up. And up and up and up.
It’s so easy to pack it out – not only what you’ve brought in, but also a little bit more.
Happy Earth Day, everyone. It’s a good time to think about what that means to each of us and to our grandchildren’s grandchildren.
