Mission accomplished! I finally partook in my first beach clean
up, and it was a success! I don’t think I could have asked for a more gorgeous
day in NYC. The sun was shining, there was a light breeze, it wasn’t hot or
cold, but despite the beautiful weather, there was A LOT of trash to be picked
up!
I arrived at Brooklyn Bridge Park at 1:00pm, which was low
tide. There were many other friendly faces of individuals from all walks of
life ready and eager to pitch in. Our leader, Sarah, provided us with large
trash bags, gloves, tools for picking up the garbage, and waders (those funny looking
waterproof pants held up with straps that have shoes attached) for those of us
daring enough to venture out into the water. We were also supplied with
clipboards and checklists, provided by the Ocean Conservancy, to document the
items we collected. This data is crucial to the Conservancy to monitor not only
how much trash is being collected, but also what kinds are more prevalent in
what areas, and other trends.
At first glance, the beach looked fairly clean to me.
However, once I really started looking around, I felt like I wasn’t traveling
very far very fast because there were so many small things hidden in the rocks.
It was kind of like looking at the stars. Once you look at one really hard, you
notice so many more around it. Except, of course, this was trash.
The vast majority of what I picked consisted of cigarette
butts and plastic items such as straws, water bottle caps, and pieces of food
packaging. There were a lot of glass bottle caps as well. In addition, other
cleaners found a tire, fishing net, plastic bags, glass, etc.
I concluded that if we can all just stop
smoking and using plastic, the impact that these small changes would have on
the environment would be astonishing.
I was very inspired to see how eager everyone was to help
out. There was an immediate sense of community, and it was very enjoyable
because everyone who was there sincerely wanted to be. Everyone was working
hard to clean as much as they could, and by the number and size of trash bags
that were piled at the end of the day, I was shocked at how much trash everyone
collected! This was a great bonus to the wedding that crashed our clean up. I’m
sure they were very thankful for the newly cleaned shore to have as a backdrop
for their ceremony.
I left the beautiful Brooklyn Beach Park clean up with a
warm fuzzy feeling (and no it wasn’t just a sunburn) because I had helped make
a difference, even if it was very small in the grand scheme of things. Looking at the beach
while packing up my belonging, I noticed a visible difference. It truly is
amazing what we can all accomplish together! I encourage all of you to
participate in a clean up. If you aren’t by a coast, clean up a park or marsh,
or anywhere there may be trash, which should be very easy to find!
I was able to get some footage of the clean up, so stayed
tuned for the video!
For more info, check out the Ocean Conservancy, or head to the Brooklyn Bridge Park's website. Here's a link to clean up sites in NYC too: http://www.alsnyc.org/
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