Soap For Hope
In this project we identified an issue in the San Diego Community that we believed was an important to become personally involved with. My group members, John Schopp and Keith Tran, and I wanted to help raise awareness about how to keep the beaches and oceans clean. We created soap in our Chemistry Class and sold the soap during our exhibition. We then donated the money towards our non-profit, I Love A Clean San Diego.
Why Statement:
San Diego is our home. We have the responsibility of keeping our home happy and healthy. We also have the responsibility of keeping the pollution off the beaches and away from our ocean wildlife.
San Diego is our home. We have the responsibility of keeping our home happy and healthy. We also have the responsibility of keeping the pollution off the beaches and away from our ocean wildlife.
Issue Briefing
Becca Branch
Humanities ½
May 21, 2014
Briefing: Beach and Ocean
San Diego County is a very sunny beach town in California, making the beaches a popular tourist destination and weekend activity for locals. Due to this, the beaches have trash all over them; cigarette butts, plastic containers, and other debris that are not biodegradable. Even though there are trash cans along the beach people are not being responsible about their cleanup, letting their trash from their day at the beach fly off.
In San Diego there are a multitude of non profit groups trying to protect our beaches and help maintain their natural beauty. To get the community involved they hold events for beach cleanups, awareness about plastic bags and recyclables, and how to keep the trash off the beaches, out of the sewers, and out of the oceans. When it rains in San Diego there are many surf warnings sent out because our drainage system leads straight to the ocean. When it rains all the bacteria and debris wash out of the sewers into the ocean, making it very easy to become sick. The San Diego Coastkeeper takes data yearly of all the trash found during beach clean ups. The top six found in 2011 were, cigarette butts (38%), other (14%), other plastic (11%), styrofoam (10%), paper (7%), and plastic food wrappers (7%) (San Diego Coastkeeper). In 2011, Ocean Beach Pier was ranked the dirtiest of all beaches in San Diego County, because there was around 3.57 pounds picked up by volunteers there. At Ocean Beach they also had many aluminum cans and glass bottles, supporting the implementation of more recycling in the area (San Diego Coastkeeper). In 2013, “The Surfrider Foundation San Diego County Chapter and San Diego Coastkeeper held forty two public beach cleanups and twenty private cleanups. During these cleanups, 6,489 volunteers removed 9,544 lbs of trash including 58,236 cigarette butts, 16,158 pieces of styrofoam and 4,418 plastic bags from San Diego County beaches and surrounding areas.” (Surfrider Foundation). There are many reasons why there was so many cigarettes, styrofoam, and plastic bags found on the beaches, a few are, stores use plastic bags for their shoppers, when people are done with their cigarette instead of putting them in an ashtray they chose to use the ground, and styrofoam is used very often in packaging especially the styrofoam peanuts and can be blown away very easily towards the beach. When people bring their food to the beach, it is often carried in a plastic bag, as well as when smokers drop their cigarette butts in the sand and streets near the beaches. In the Tijuana Estuary River, around 51,575 lbs of trash was removed not including 185 tires (Surfrider Foundation). Another San Diego non profit, “I Love A Clean San Diego” holds numerous events, they also go into schools and educate children and adults about the ocean and ways to keep San Diego clean. In 2012 there were 531 presentations held and 37,075 children and adults educated (I Love A Clean San Diego). Things are being done to help preserve our beaches but there is still much more to do, installing more trash cans, making the community aware, and many more beach cleanups.
I am very concerned about the beach and oceans because I play beach volleyball. It is awful when it is a nice day out and you are playing with your friends and having to dig out trash out of the middle of the courts because people are too lazy to throw away their trash or it has been blowing up and down the beach. It is awful to step on trash and it is easy to get cuts from it. These cuts could possibly become infected. I remember one time last summer after the fourth of July, there were marshmallows all over the beach covered in sand so you couldn’t see them. People were stepping on them the whole time we were playing and we kept finding more and more all over the beach. After a sandy game, most people want to go into the ocean to clean themselves off and be refreshed on a hot sunny day. As the sand washes off and the waves are going in and out, you can see how easily one piece of trash can go out to sea. These small increments of people forgetting or being lazy builds up and puts many wildlife in the ocean at risk for dying because of consumption or becoming tangled.
Works Cited
"Data from San Diego Beach Cleanups." San Diego Coastkeeper. Web. 11 May 2014.
"About Us.” I Love A Clean San Diego. Web. 11 May 2014.
"Accomplishments." Surfrider Foundation San Diego Chapter. Web. 11 May 2014.
Becca Branch
Humanities ½
May 21, 2014
Briefing: Beach and Ocean
San Diego County is a very sunny beach town in California, making the beaches a popular tourist destination and weekend activity for locals. Due to this, the beaches have trash all over them; cigarette butts, plastic containers, and other debris that are not biodegradable. Even though there are trash cans along the beach people are not being responsible about their cleanup, letting their trash from their day at the beach fly off.
In San Diego there are a multitude of non profit groups trying to protect our beaches and help maintain their natural beauty. To get the community involved they hold events for beach cleanups, awareness about plastic bags and recyclables, and how to keep the trash off the beaches, out of the sewers, and out of the oceans. When it rains in San Diego there are many surf warnings sent out because our drainage system leads straight to the ocean. When it rains all the bacteria and debris wash out of the sewers into the ocean, making it very easy to become sick. The San Diego Coastkeeper takes data yearly of all the trash found during beach clean ups. The top six found in 2011 were, cigarette butts (38%), other (14%), other plastic (11%), styrofoam (10%), paper (7%), and plastic food wrappers (7%) (San Diego Coastkeeper). In 2011, Ocean Beach Pier was ranked the dirtiest of all beaches in San Diego County, because there was around 3.57 pounds picked up by volunteers there. At Ocean Beach they also had many aluminum cans and glass bottles, supporting the implementation of more recycling in the area (San Diego Coastkeeper). In 2013, “The Surfrider Foundation San Diego County Chapter and San Diego Coastkeeper held forty two public beach cleanups and twenty private cleanups. During these cleanups, 6,489 volunteers removed 9,544 lbs of trash including 58,236 cigarette butts, 16,158 pieces of styrofoam and 4,418 plastic bags from San Diego County beaches and surrounding areas.” (Surfrider Foundation). There are many reasons why there was so many cigarettes, styrofoam, and plastic bags found on the beaches, a few are, stores use plastic bags for their shoppers, when people are done with their cigarette instead of putting them in an ashtray they chose to use the ground, and styrofoam is used very often in packaging especially the styrofoam peanuts and can be blown away very easily towards the beach. When people bring their food to the beach, it is often carried in a plastic bag, as well as when smokers drop their cigarette butts in the sand and streets near the beaches. In the Tijuana Estuary River, around 51,575 lbs of trash was removed not including 185 tires (Surfrider Foundation). Another San Diego non profit, “I Love A Clean San Diego” holds numerous events, they also go into schools and educate children and adults about the ocean and ways to keep San Diego clean. In 2012 there were 531 presentations held and 37,075 children and adults educated (I Love A Clean San Diego). Things are being done to help preserve our beaches but there is still much more to do, installing more trash cans, making the community aware, and many more beach cleanups.
I am very concerned about the beach and oceans because I play beach volleyball. It is awful when it is a nice day out and you are playing with your friends and having to dig out trash out of the middle of the courts because people are too lazy to throw away their trash or it has been blowing up and down the beach. It is awful to step on trash and it is easy to get cuts from it. These cuts could possibly become infected. I remember one time last summer after the fourth of July, there were marshmallows all over the beach covered in sand so you couldn’t see them. People were stepping on them the whole time we were playing and we kept finding more and more all over the beach. After a sandy game, most people want to go into the ocean to clean themselves off and be refreshed on a hot sunny day. As the sand washes off and the waves are going in and out, you can see how easily one piece of trash can go out to sea. These small increments of people forgetting or being lazy builds up and puts many wildlife in the ocean at risk for dying because of consumption or becoming tangled.
Works Cited
"Data from San Diego Beach Cleanups." San Diego Coastkeeper. Web. 11 May 2014.
"About Us.” I Love A Clean San Diego. Web. 11 May 2014.
"Accomplishments." Surfrider Foundation San Diego Chapter. Web. 11 May 2014.