Eliminating rubbish

Jeff Benson

Crystal Cove Volunteer Coordinator Winter Bonnin said she can’t walk

through the state park without picking up a soda bottle, a cigarette

butt or a Styrofoam cup someone has carelessly thrown aside. She said

she has done that just about every day for seven years, and it makes

her sick.

The trash wasn’t necessarily discarded there, she added, since it

may have been washed down a river or storm drain from farther inland.

Many of these objects aren’t biodegradable and don’t taste good to

marine animals unable to digest them.

“I’m sure most people don’t want to swim with trash, but some

don’t have the consciousness to do anything about it,” Bonnin said.

“If you pulled a plug and drained out all the ocean’s water, it would

be a garbage can down there.”

On Saturday, nearly 100 countries will address these same concerns

by participating in the 20th annual Coastal Cleanup Day. Last year,

more than 450,000 people from 91 countries collected an estimated 7.5

million pounds of marine debris, according to The Ocean Conservancy.

From 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, California’s volunteers will clean

trash and debris from 1,100 miles of coastline. Nearby locations

include the Upper Newport Bay, Newport Beach from the West Jetty to

the Santa Ana River, Corona del Mar State Beach, Crystal Cove’s Reef

Point and Pelican Point, Huntington Beach and Laguna Beach.

Bonnin said 200 to 250 volunteers typically show up at Crystal

Cove annually for the cleanup.

The Upper Newport Bay cleanup is part of California Coastal

Cleanup Day and is the largest cleanup effort in the state, with

2,000 volunteers picking up 40,000 pounds of trash each year,

according to the Orange County Public Facilities and Resources

Department. Volunteers will meet from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Peter

and Mary Muth Interpretive Center parking area, 2301 University

Drive, Newport Beach.

Santa Ana-based preservation group Trails 4 All and Costa Mesa’s

Earth Resource Foundation will hold their annual Inner-Coastal

Watershed Cleanup Day around Orange County’s inland areas, cleaning

the bays, creeks, rivers and lakes that feed into the ocean.

Volunteers will meet at 9 a.m. at Vista Park, Pacific Avenue and

Victoria Street in Costa Mesa, and at Victoria Pond, where 19th

Street turns into Balboa Avenue in Newport Beach.

“Most of this is built up from the whole year, not from years

past,” said Stephanie Barger, Earth Resource Foundation founder and

director. “The amount of trash that needs to be picked up is

decreasing, but the cleanup is not just about picking up trash. It’s

about educating people. People become very numb in Southern

California as to how trashy our environment can be.”