Volunteers Pick Up Nearly Two Tons of Trash from County Beaches After July Fourth Holiday

Warm weather makes local beaches an enticing place to spend Independence Day, but those celebrations come with an environmental cost.

July 4th celebrations leave more trash on American beaches than any other holiday, says the Surfrider Foundation, one of several organizations that took part in a countywide beach cleanup Friday as part of the annual “Morning After Mess” event.

According to organizers, 688 volunteers removed nearly 4,000 pounds of trash from nine San Diego County beaches during the event, most of which consisted of single-use plastics that may otherwise have washed into the ocean.

Volunteers collected trash at the following locations:

• Fiesta Island – I Love A Clean San Diego: 1,320 pounds
• Imperial Beach: 90 pounds
• Mission Beach – San Diego Coastkeeper: 231 pounds
• Moonlight Beach – Un Mar De Colores: 125 pounds
• Oceanside Breakwater Way: 135 pounds
• OB Pier- Sponsored by Mitch’s Seafood -120 pounds
• Pacific Beach – Paddle For Peace: 216 pounds
• San Diego River Estuary & OB Dog Beach – San Diego River Park Foundation: 1,575 pounds
• South Ponto – Sponsored by COOLA: 94 pounds

“Many of our volunteers remarked that the beaches seemed cleaner than in previous years, which is a great sign,” said Gabriel Racca, beach cleanup coordinator with the Surfrider Foundation.

“Despite that, we cannot lose sight of the fact that even one piece of trash on the beach is one piece too many. More than anything, we hope our beach cleanups inspire San Diegans to continue down the path of coastal stewardship, to continue lessening their reliance on single-use plastics and hold businesses and governments accountable for the plastic pollution that has no place in our communities, on our beaches or in our ocean.”

City News Service contributed to this report.