Not so trashy

Marisa O’Neil

Hundreds of volunteers armed with trash bags, rubber gloves and

bottles of water scoured local beaches and shorelines Saturday

morning as part of the 19th annual International Coastal Cleanup.

Local environmental groups organized cleanups in the Back Bay and

Crystal Cove State Park, where volunteers cleared three beaches of

accumulated garbage. Sage Hill student Audrey Kim, 16, helped collect

and weigh garbage at Reef Point, where volunteers collected nearly

200 pounds worth.

“I come to the beach a lot and see so much trash,” she said. “It

bothers me because I swim in that water and I sit in that sand. It’s

really gross.”

Each of the 300 or so volunteers at Crystal Cove State Park

received a tally card to mark down the types of garbage they found.

Most volunteers listed cigarette butts and Styrofoam as the top two

items collected on the beach.

Plastic bags, balloons and six-pack rings can injure or kill

wildlife, said Crystal Cove Volunteer Coordinator Winter Bonnin. But

the little things, like bits of Styrofoam, can cause just as much

damage because fish and birds often mistake the non-biodegradable

substances for food.

“We found lots of Styrofoam, plastic beads, beer bottles, water

bottle lids, juice box straws,” Lake Forest resident Steve Runels

said. “And a plastic chopstick.”

Runels and his family came to the cleanup with their 11-year-old

son Jackson’s Cub Scout Pack 621. Some schools and companies

throughout Orange County also sent groups to the event.

Other items collected included golf balls, a rake and a glass

bottle filled with assorted beetle and mouse carcasses.

Volunteers from “little 5-year-olds up to seniors” took part in

the cleanup and prize raffle that followed, said Mary Fegraus, a

volunteer with the Crystal Cove Interpretive Assn. The event gives

people, especially children, a chance to enjoy one of the last

vestiges of unspoiled coastland in the area, said fellow Crystal Cove

volunteer Dick Raulston.

“Sure they get to pick up some trash,” he said. “But they also get

a taste of nature and get to see what’s going on.”

Another 300 people took part in a cleanup in the Back Bay, said

John Scholl, an environmental scientist at the Upper Newport Bay

Ecological Preserve. Though he said they collected about two thousand

pounds of trash, plenty more still remains.

He wants to organize four or five more smaller cleanups before the

bird nesting season starts.

The International Coastal Cleanup had more than 450,000 people

from 90 countries participate last year, according to the Ocean

Conservancy website. It’s designed to clean beaches and raise

awareness of risks to wildlife from polluted waterways.

* MARISA O’NEIL covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4268 or by e-mail at marisa.oneil@latimes.com.