Coos Bay beach trash: The Surfrider Association organizes clean-ups

by Teagan Barrentine, Julian Liga, Drake Nelson, and Maya Parrish

The beach is a beautiful place to be, with the sounds of the birds and the waves it can be calming.

When you’re on the beach you don’t want the sights ruined by trash scattered. The problem with trash in the ocean and on our beaches is that it can ruin a person’s experience at the beach and it has an overall negative impact on the enviornment. 

“When you go to the beach you don’t want to see a dead bird and its belly full of trash, it makes you sad,” Annie Pollard, a volunteer of the Coos Bay Surfrider Association, said.

How did it all get there? 

“Approximately three million waste items were collected in the United States during the 2021 International Coastal Cleanup,” lan Tiseo of Statista.com said. 

Ocean plastic started to rise in the 1960s when plastic became mass produced. 

“In the past, before 1972 communities around the world used the ocean for waste disposal. Including disposal of chemical and industrial wastes, radioactive wastes, trash, munitions, sewage sludge, and contaminated dredged material,” the EPA said.  

“In the early 2000s, the amount of plastic waste we generated rose more in a single decade than it had in the previous 40 years,” according to a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report.

With all that trash in the ocean a lot of it is bound to end up on the beaches. It also enters the food chain at all levels.

Since 2018 plastic pollution kills up to a million seabirds a year. The plastic takes up room in their stomach and puts chemicals in them that will kill them.

There are two types of beach trash: Litter which beach goers leave and ocean debris. 

When people come to the beach they might accidentally drop a food wrapper or have it blown out of their hands, whatever the case, people who come to the beach often leave behind trash.

It can be very windy on the coast and we often forget that our trash might blow out of a garbage can or fall out of our pockets. All of this can eventually make it to the beach. 

“Trash can blow away or go down storm drains and make it to the beach that way,” Pollard said.

The other type of beach trash is the kind that travels from places other than the beach. 

Ocean debris can come from multiple things, since it is legal to dump trash from a boat when you are three or more miles out, a lot of our beach trash comes from that.

Some of it comes to shore on our beaches or in our waters from other places too.  

Surfriders Help Clean-up

Humans cause beach trash so it is our responsibility to make sure it doesn’t get worse.

The Surfrider association works as a volunteer organization around the world, chapters in many states. We have one chapter in Coos Bay that is helping to clean up our beaches. 

“We do two different types of clean ups: Scheduled clean ups where we schedule a date on the calendar. Right now we’re doing four a year.” Pollard said.

“We have  done as many as 12 a year; it depends on how many volunteers we have.” 

The Surfrider association also does a rapid response where, if you ever see a problem or a lot of trash on the beach, you can call their chapter’s number and they will contact their volunteers to get as much help as possible.

“One of the other things that Surfriders does other than deal with garbage is to make sure that everyone gets to go to all the beaches. We think all the beaches belong to humans in general,” Pollard said. 

The Surfriders deal with troubles of beach access such as things like the beach belongs to the community, not certain people. 

There have been recent cases of this, for instance there was just a case about Lighthouse Beach. 

To prevent beach trash in the future people can put more trash cans on sidewalks and around beaches. 

If people put their trash in trash cans and not on the ground there would be less garbage on beaches. Also less animals would be affected.

“Put your trash where it belongs. If we made sure to put our trash where it belonged, we could be helping a great deal.” Pollard said.

The Surfriders are a good part of our community. You can get in touch with them at Chapter Events & Meetings: First Saturday at 7 Devils Pub 3-4:30.

If interested in volunteering, you can also sign up for email communication, and check out the event calendar at Coos Bay Surfrider Foundation.

Photo credit drpavloff through a Creative Commons License