September Shoreline Sweep Was Surprising
Picture an idyllic sunny Saturday morning with a light breeze and what lies before you is a wide expanse of sand…. to be swept of plastics and other rubbish.
On September 20th another Hanford Baykeepers Shoreline Sweep took place. As the members of the Baykeepers Steering Committee prepared for the sweep early that morning, there was concern about how many fellow Hanford Bay residents and concerned citizens would take part in this sweep. Labor Day was past and with its passing, some of the part-time residents had already stopped coming as often to the Bay over a weekend and others were probably focused on other things to do. Yet, when the start time of 9:00 AM arrived, so did an unexpectedly large group of people come down to the beach end of the Moran Right-Of-Way ready to help make this sweep another successful one. In total, twenty-five people participated and signed the Beach Sweep Roster.
After a few minutes of welcoming remarks and guidelines from a few of the Steering Committee members, the sweepers set off with their buckets and gloves to locate and remove from the shoreline area all shapes and sizes of plastic waste and other materials.
After spending about an hour searching the full length of the Bay from one end to there other, the sweepers began to return to the Right-Of-Way. Their new goal was to sort their collected items into the appropriate buckets assigned to match the many categories designated by the international organization Ocean Conservancy to gather data about the waste materials.
Members of the Steering Committee helped the sweepers decide what should go into the buckets. Some items were easy to sort such as plastic straws, bottles, bottle caps and foam packaging. Other items were not so easy to identify such as distinguishing some plastic fireworks components vs. the remnants of shotgun shells. Yet, all of the collected items were ultimately sorted into the buckets/categories. There was one surprising find on the beach: A badly broken plastic lawn chair that had probably made a long slow journey floating down from one of the other Great Lakes.
As the sorting was completed by the individual sweepers, they were thanked for their help and off they went to enjoy the rest of the day.
Now the members of the Steering Committee took on the task of counting the items in each bucket so that we could report our findings to the Ocean Conservancy. Here are some highlights of what was found:
91 plastic Bottle Caps
39 Balloons
26 pieces of Construction Materials
21 plastic Grocery Bags
17 plastic Cups and Plates
366 small plastic pieces larger than a quarter
208 plastic pieces the size of a quarter or smaller
The removal of these materials benefits the environment and ultimately the health and well being of wildlife and ourselves. As we have reported in various ways on this website, plastics do not disappear. They simply get broken down into smaller and smaller particles that eventually end up contaminating food and water which then enters living beings. While the possible effects on our health are still being analyzed, we would all agree that it is best to continue finding ways to remove or better yet eliminate plastic pollution.
It is encouraging to see so many people participating in the Shoreline Sweeps and to hear from the Bay’s residents what they are doing on their own to help reduce and eliminate plastics. Stay the course and keep monitoring this website for new information about what can be done about plastics and other materials and announcements about events sponsored by the Steering Comittee.
