July 4th and all of its associated festivities and bacchanalia is officially here. And what about tomorrow? Our beaches are at their very dirtiest, says Surfrider Foundation. But it’s possible that so, too, are our lineups.
But every year, the nonprofit rallies to clean everything up on the morning after, what they and others have dubbed “the dirtiest beach day of the year.” From single-use plastics and fireworks casings to broken glass bottles and mutilated aluminum cans, there’s no shortage of debris strewn about our coastlines. And that, it goes without saying, is a damned shame. Not to get down on patriotism.
While Surfrider organizes some 1,200 cleanups resulting in more than a million pounds of trash removed from our coastlines over the last decade, it’ll never be enough.
Most of us already know the easy, preventative answers to the conundrum of garbage on our beaches: reusable food- and drinkware, biodegradable and recyclable alternatives, and simply picking up after ourselves and the occasional negligent other. Limiting the flotsam and jetsam of humanoids is probably the best thing we can all do.
On another note, Surfrider’s Senior Manager of its Plastic Pollution Initiative, Jennifer Savage, suspects that July 5th is “a bad day for water quality based on the amount of trash left on the beach.”
What else can we say but light those grills, tear through a hot dog, burger, brat, or two of each, and drink all the beer, bourbon, and/or carbonated malt-liquor beverages your 21-and-older liver will allow! For your sake and ours, though, consider treading lightly across the beach and out in the lineup, and what the hell, maybe picking up a piece or two of errant trash here and there on your way back to the car. It might not help all that much, but it certainly can’t hurt.
Join a Surfrider Foundation July 5th cleanup near you here , and if you’d like to support Surfrider Foundation and help them do the same all year with more than 1,200 cleanups annually, become a monthly donor and support our work year-round.
Related: This California Beach Is the Most Toxic in America
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