Litter removal is just a band-aid.  We as a world need to consume less. This planet we take for granted is a fragile eco-sysytem that needs to be protected. The bottom line is, No Earth = No People. Trash is a product of our modern lives, but it doesn’t have to be such a force of pollution.  Here is what you can do:

• Buy less.
• Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!
• Buy products made from recycled material.
• Buy biodegradable products.
• Say no to plastic and styrofoam.
• Say no to packaging.
• Ask for smaller boxes for take-out food
• Say no to lids and straws for drinks OR bring a reusable bottle with you.
• Bring those reusable bags INTO the store with you.

WHAT WILL YOU DO TO CLEAN UP OUR PLANET?

Thank goodness for the end of summer. The beaches could not handle this much traffic and litter year round. I picked up a juice container worth of trash near Cardiff State Beach.

No point in blaming one group, such as tourists, for our trashy beaches because they are always trashy. Still we get a lot more trash in the summer. The way humans consume these days it is inevitable that more people = more trash.

I filled two plastic drink bottles full of little bits of plastic and trashy refuge. Then I found some larger pieces, a blue hanger(in perfectly good shape by the way) and a lonely bucket.  Below is a photo of the trash I found on South Oceanside beach this past Sunday the 22nd.

There were hundreds of people on that beach which means that several other people could have picked up trash. I could have picked up more, but it is overwhelming to constantly spend my free time picking up litter and seeing other peoplw who just don’t bother to care.

So I splurged on a smoothie for breakfast yesterday.  Since I was not in a hurry and would not be running to work, I asked them to leave off the lid and straw.  Just a block from the office I found a straw and lid(looked like Starbucks) in the gutter. Disgusted as usual, I picked it up and walked a whole half a block to a trash can and tossed it in.

So it’s amazingly easy to reduce our trash. We just have to make conscious decisions.

I was walking along the coast in Carlsbad when I stumbled upon a large area covered with trash.  Someone must have had a party because there were bags of chips, drink bottles, candy and a package of cigarettes along with several cigarettes littering the sand.  It was practically piled there in that one location. There is no way this trash blew in. Some jerks actually took the time to trash up the beach. ARGH!!

It was one of those moments where I was just so disgusted with humans that I wished for a plague to wipe all of humanity out.  No other being on this planet is so wasteful, so quick to create crap that ends up poisoning our land.  It can be so embarrassing sometimes to be associated with a race that is so completely ignorant and uncaring about our planet.

There was a plastic bag hanging on a fence nearby( not a big surprise). I grabbed that and shoved most of the trash into the bag.   There usually is not much trash on the beach in Carlsbad. It’s one reason I love the beach there so much.  It’s usually quite clean.

**Don’t be an Ass,  Pick up your trash!**

I love birthdays. I love balloons and I love birthdays at the beach. What I don’t love is the amount of birthday balloons I see trashing up our beautiful coast.

I picked this up just North of Ponto beach.

If it won’t biodegrade soon, don’t take it to the beach. You know the wind is going to blow stuff like this away.  See that orange wrinkly thing? That is another balloon that is going to get stuck in the coral or in the stomach of a bird. Did you know that birds eat colorful plastic trash thinking it is food. It stays in their stomach and slowly kills them.

**PICK UP YOUR TRASH AND PICK UP TRASH YOU SEE ON THE BEACH**