5 Gyres - Understanding Plastic Pollution Through Exploration, Education, and Action

Cayucos Pier, Cayucos State Beach CA

Thank you dearly to Serena and Melia who thoughtfully helped me with this debris collection/beach cleanup. It’s always nice when you can convince your friends to pick up cigarette butts and used dental floss with you.  For whatever reason (I hesitate to give CA State Parks too much credit here), this beach was in relatively good shape when it came to plastic debris. The three of us walked half the beach for around an hour, and came up with, in total, ten chunks of Styrofoam, two shotgun shells, three bottle caps, one tube of lip gloss and one tube of chap stick, one energy drink bottle, a fifth of a Styrofoam plate, packaging for crackers, a plastic bucket handle, one plastic knife, a plastic spoon handle, a 2-oz condiment cup, a toy shovel, a preservative packet, several cigarette butts, dental floss, a fishing lure, a 1-oz vodka bottle, plastic twine, plastic-coated wire, a candy wrapper, some small parts to plastic toys I couldn’t recognize, part of a chips bag, an abundant amount of plastic straws, and a handful of miscellaneous plastic bits. In addition, we found the twist-off top to a Squeezit "juice" drink (remember those?) which, interestingly enough, have not been produced since 2001. Might sound like quite a lot, but stay tuned for upcoming posts to see what a terrible bring-down truly trashy beaches can be.

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