I watched a video yesterday about the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” and yet I was still surprised today when I got to the beach and the shore looked like this:
I’ve never seen it this bad. The amount of plastic debris that had washed up on the beach was staggering. Bottle caps, styrofoam, cigarette lighters, straws & millions of tiny bits of unidentifiable plastic – just like in the video. And it stretched for as far as the eye could see.
As I looked down the beach, I noticed one man out of the large beach crowd sitting in the midst of it all with gloves and a nearly full trash bag. We walked over to talk to him. He’d barely made a dent yet I was completely inspired.
“Piece by piece” he said and he gave us a garbage bag.
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That is so sad! Kudos to you and you family for helping out!
Carrie, I love your blog. Posts like this totally inspire me. I would like to think I would have gone up to the man too to help, but I think I would probably have been too afraid of what the kids might touch. Next time we head to the beach I'm going to throw a bag and some gloves in the car, just in case. You are an awesome mom!
Melanie
So sad.
Can you imagine if the price to use the beach was to just pick up one bag per person…? Good for you.
Kage,
It was hard to not think that exact thing with the large crowds sitting just a few yards away and stepping over the line of trash on their way to the water. If each person just picked up the trash in front of them, the whole beach could have been clean in 10 minutes. But, I know how hard it is to take action in those circumstances. I was almost one of those people who just sat on the beach looking at the sad state of the shoreline.
That is pretty heartbreaking. We couldn't go yesterday, but hope to hang out soon. We'll bring a trash bag!
Yikes. That is just too sad. I can totally picture you with your trash bag, picking up the beach and your girls right beside you.
Piece by piece. The only way to go.
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